What camera is triggering my base station alarm

[mhensley123]

I have several Arlo cameras configured to sound the alarm on the connected base station after hours. Following the Arlo update a few months ago, my base station intermittently sounds the alarm, with none of the cameras showing evidence of motion detected. The routine I use for after-hours is Arm Away. Each camera is set to record and trigger a siren if motion is detected. Most of the time, this works well. If a person or, mistakenly, an animal is detected, the cameras record. However, intermittently during the Arm Away routine, the base station sounds the siren, yet none of the cameras has a recording, leaving me unsure which camera is triggering the siren. When this happens, it typically occurs over the course of one night and is repeated several times. After that night of repeated sirens, the Arlo operates normally, only recording when motion is detected. Two or more weeks pass before it happens again. 

[StephenB]

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@mhensley123 wrote:

The understanding is that you create an activity zone, informing Arlo to disregard all motion outside the specified zone.

I get that, but it doesn't quite work that way.  The zones aren't always applied. 

Motion triggers (and recording ending if you use "until motion stops") is done by a PIR (passive infrared) sensor.  The PIR sensor that detects motion has no pixels, so the sensor itself has no idea where the motion is in the field of view.   The video analysis is done in the Arlo Cloud, not the camera.  While the Cloud does suppress recordings and notifications that are out-of-zone, it classifies the video (person, animal, etc) using the entire field of view.  So a recording with a vehicle in the field of view (but outside the zone) can still be classified as "vehicle".  

 I don't use the siren feature myself, so I'm not certain if the system sounds the siren immediately or not.  But I think it does sound immediately.  Waiting for the analysis to complete before sounding the siren would add some lag before the siren goes off.   I'm not saying this is the best tradeoff, I do understand that in a lot of situations it would be better if the siren did not sound when the motion was out of the zone.

This is easy for you to test - you can just walk around outside the zone (close enough to the camera to make sure it triggers), and see if the siren sounds or not.

[StephenB]

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@mhensley123 wrote:

However, intermittently during the Arm Away routine, the base station sounds the siren, yet none of the cameras has a recording, leaving me unsure which camera is triggering the siren. 

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Are you using activity zones on any cameras?

Are all the cameras set to record all motion?

[mhensley123]

Steven,

You are correct. Both activity zones and record video are enabled for all five cameras. 

[StephenB]

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@mhensley123 wrote:

Both activity zones and record video are enabled for all five cameras. 

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I believe the motion that triggers the Siren is out-of-zone - so the cloud is supressing the notification and recording.

[mhensley123]

That would be misleading as to what the activity zones would be set for. The understanding is that you create an activity zone, informing Arlo to disregard all motion outside the specified zone. You would think the developers would realize that. If that is the case, then why have activity zones that do not work with your routine configurations? Not intuitive. 

[StephenB]

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@mhensley123 wrote:

The understanding is that you create an activity zone, informing Arlo to disregard all motion outside the specified zone.

I get that, but it doesn't quite work that way.  The zones aren't always applied. 

Motion triggers (and recording ending if you use "until motion stops") is done by a PIR (passive infrared) sensor.  The PIR sensor that detects motion has no pixels, so the sensor itself has no idea where the motion is in the field of view.   The video analysis is done in the Arlo Cloud, not the camera.  While the Cloud does suppress recordings and notifications that are out-of-zone, it classifies the video (person, animal, etc) using the entire field of view.  So a recording with a vehicle in the field of view (but outside the zone) can still be classified as "vehicle".  

 I don't use the siren feature myself, so I'm not certain if the system sounds the siren immediately or not.  But I think it does sound immediately.  Waiting for the analysis to complete before sounding the siren would add some lag before the siren goes off.   I'm not saying this is the best tradeoff, I do understand that in a lot of situations it would be better if the siren did not sound when the motion was out of the zone.

This is easy for you to test - you can just walk around outside the zone (close enough to the camera to make sure it triggers), and see if the siren sounds or not.