Need to disable just one camera for part of the day

[mm75098]

Scenario - I have 5 cameras around the property.  

One camera covers the pool.  

My pets are out there all day and it seems to burn a lot of battery recording them all day while armed.  I changed the settings so I do not get alerted - but it still records.  

I have been arming the whole system and just turning the pool camera off.  But that is a pain.

Is there a better way?

BTW - I am a new customer.  Spent a lot of money to buy 5 cameras and so far like the system - but very unhappy with  battery life.  For two high mounted cameras I bought the solar add on.  I am nervous this was a lot of money and will not long term work well for me!

[StephenB]

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@mm75098 wrote:

One camera covers the pool.  

My pets are out there all day and it seems to burn a lot of battery recording them all day while armed.  I changed the settings so I do not get alerted - but it still records.  

I have been arming the whole system and just turning the pool camera off.  But that is a pain.

Is there a better way?

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The camera will stream video whenever it detects motion.  As you know, you can turn off or filter notifications, but that doesn't help battery life.  Activity zones are processed in the Arlo Cloud - they will supress out-of-zone recordings, but since the video is still streamed from the camera, that won't help battery life either.

Free options that are left:

1. You can try adjusting the field of view to try and take some of the ground (and pets) out of it.
2. You could try inverting the camera (and use the control to flip the image in the camera settings).  The camera is most sensitive to motion across the bottom of the field of view.  Flipping the camera shifts that to the top - which could reduce the pet detections.
3. You could try tweaking the motion sensitivity - finding a threshold where animals aren't detected as often, but people still are.  One challenge here is that the camera might not trigger on children. https://kb.arlo.com/41/How-do-I-change-the-motion-sensitivity-on-my-Arlo-camera
4. You can set a schedule up to automatically disarm the pool camera at the times when the pets are generally out.  You could add geofencing, to keep the camera armed when you aren't home (no matter what the schedule says).

 Other (not free) options are to 

1. supply AC power to the camera somehow
2. upgrade the camera to an XL (if it isn't already), as that has a much larger battery.  There is a kit for the Pro 3/4 and Ultra, but with the Essential you'd have to exchange it.