Ultra 2 has poor motion detection for my cats.

[meowboss]

Devices and environment:

• One pro 4 used for years, two newly bought Ultra2 with a Base Station.
• High-speed Internet access up to 60Mbps, all the three cameras get 'Strong' Wi-Fi coverage in test. 
• Use for indoor pet surveillance, expect to have motion notification when cats walk/eat/meow, etc.
• Placed the Ultra2 on ceiling corner of living room, height about 2.3m, the furthest point of the room from the camera is about 6 meters.

Major settings:

• Smart notifications, all ON.
• Activity zone: not set.
• Mode: all Armed.
• Sensitivity: 100.
• Power management: best video.
• Video mode: wide.

Already tried:

1. Remove/re-add one of the Ultra2.
2. Reboot station.
3. Reposition both of the Ultra2, or swap their locaitons.
4. Motion test, a lot of time could get the amber blink, but I can't instruct my cat to move as desired, so maybe the results only applicable to human.

ISSUES:

A lot of the cats' motion can not be detected and recorded. Sometimes I even see my cats moving in live mode, and record it manually, but the camera has not triggerd any notification.

As you know cats are tiny and like to hide somewhere. I bought these devices in order to make sure they're in good condition, and to piece together all the records to get their track (e.g. record 1 showed he moved to bedroom, record 2 showed he came back to living room,  so even he hide in a nest where I can't see directly I could make sure he's in the living room).

But the Ultra2 suits obviouly can not do that, if the motion detection failed a lot of time,  I can't find the cats at all, not mention to the daily move track.

Is there something I'm not doing right, or is it just the way it should be?

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@meowboss wrote:

But the Ultra2 suits obviouly can not do that, if the motion detection failed a lot of time,  I can't find the cats at all, not mention to the daily move track.

Is there something I'm not doing right, or is it just the way it should be?

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Cats are of course much smaller than people, so not as likely to trigger the passive infrared (PIR) sensors.  The PIR sensor range is about 20 feet for people, which is about the distance to the furthest part of the room.

You could try moving the camera down, but that might not be enough.

Another option is to return the Ultras, and get Essential Indoor cameras instead.  They are only 1080p, and require power.  The benefit here is that they use pixel detection instead of PIR.

[meowboss]

Thanks for the reply, this community is much more professional and responsive.

After tons of experiments of the position, angle, height, and some research about the motion detection mechanism, I agree that it's a product defect indeed, actually the scenarios which PIR sensor could do a good surveillance  job is very limited. 

I have no problem with Arlo's product strategy, but at least they should have a clear statement to customers before purchasing about the limitations. I found lot of people complain about ultra2's animal motion detection defect.

Thanks for your suggestion, I may try another installation position later. But is there any possible that the Ultra serires get pixel based detection ability through firmare update in the future. I'm not concern about battery drains, Arlo should leave the option to customers whether they tend to ues PIR mode or frame comparison.