Ultra 2 Cross-trigger not recording

[Fletcharlo]

Have a two camera Ultra 2 kit with each camera facing the other across a circular driveway.  Set up a two rule custom mode where, if triggered, Camera 1 records and then triggers Camera 2 to record as one rule and the second rule the reciprocal of that where if triggered, Camera 2 records and then triggers Camera 1 to record.  Both cameras trigger independently OK and record.  However, it appears that while the trigger to the second camera is working, there is no recording.

Uploading three images for consideration.  First image shows the view from one camera.  The red circled area is the light on the second camera being triggered.  However, there is no recording.  The blue circled area is where there is sensor overlap between the cameras.  I note this because while there are cases where both cameras did record, it seems that it's when both were independently triggered.

Second image is a portion of the recorded list showing where either camera has recordings but rarely both.  This is just to illustrate what I'm seeing.  

Third image is one of the rules from the mode.  The other rule is identical other than the camera names being reversed.

Note that signal strength for both cameras is full 3 bars and both the cameras and hubs are at least 12 feet away from the router.   I do not believe that there is any wifi interference.

A few questions:

1.  Are these rules formatted correctly or should I do something different?  Should I split this iinto four rules?

2.  If the rules are correct, what should I do to get the cross-triggering to work as it should.  

3.  Simply...am I missing something fundamental?

[dcfox1]

We can't see you photo's till a mod approves them Monday but if you have activity zones active on the cross triggered camera and the movement is out side that zone the server will disregard that recording for that cam but you get the original cams recording.  If you have Activity zones try adjusting or deleting  them to test to see if that helps. There were threads earlier about this. 

[Fletcharlo]

@dcfox1 

On the other threads you mentioned, if you can point me to those I would appreciate it.  I did search before posting but searching on community forums like this can be challenging.  I did find other threads on cross-triggering but didn't see anything that seemed to answer my specific question.  Thanks.

[Fletcharlo]

@dcfox1 

So, once the moderator approves it, I've uploaded a diagram showing a crude representation of my setup.  One camera is mounted on a tree facing the house while the other camera is mounted on the house (in blue) facing the tree.  The activity detection zones for each camera have areas that are only seen by that camera and an area that is detected by both (shown in green).  The limitations as to what each camera detects are not so much the result of the detection zones but just the relatively short detection range of the cameras (~25 feet).

So, the car in the picture turns into the driveway (in gray) and is detected by the camera on the tree but not by the camera on the house.  Likewise, the camera on the house detects the man walking across the yard, but the camera on the tree does not.  What I want in both cases is for the camera triggered by the detecting camera to record even though it does not detect any movement itself.

From what you wrote in your first response it sounds like that as long as there are set activity zones, the triggered camera will only record if the movement detected by the triggering camera moves into the zone where there it is also detected by the triggered camera.  

If this is the case, is there any solution that will allow the use of activity zones and also reliably support cross-triggering recording?  Will having no activity zones for one or both of the cameras allow for the triggered camera to record regardless of detection?  Is there an option that would allow recording onto the Smarthub micro-SD even if not recording to the cloud?  

[dcfox1 · Accepted solution]

Here is a link to that thread were a mod ShayneS stated it was by design. Here is a link to it in the Pro3 forum in Aug. It is about cross triggering and no recordings on one cam. 

https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Ultra/Cross-triggering-will-activate-lights-amp-cameras-but-not-s...

Not sure if you have a different problem with you mode rules set up. 

[Fletcharlo]

@dcfox1 

Although my setup with only two cameras and no lights is much simpler than the OP on that other thread, the issue is the same...and I agree with that OP that it doesn't make sense that this is "by design."  Not arguing with you on this at all and I appreciate the response, but unless and until Arlo explains the reasoning behind why cross-triggering was designed like this, I'm going to continue to think it's a problem and certainly not a feature.  

Removing the activity zones will create more false activations and result in more cross-triggers and more recordings from both cameras.  I don't see how this is beneficial to either the consumer or Arlo.  Again, not arguing with you or even asking you to comment, just talking out loud.

I'm also curious as to why no moderator has commented on this thread.  I've uploaded images twice that they had to approve and yet they didn't see fit to respond to the posts.  I'm going to head over to that other thread and chime in there rather than persisting with this separate thread on the same issue. 

Note that I'm going to accept your response as the solution.  Thanks.

[Fletcharlo]

@ShaneS 

DId you ever get further resolution to your topic:

https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Ultra/Cross-triggering-will-activate-lights-amp-cameras-but-not-s...

I'm looking at the same issue.  Thanks.