Arlo Ultra Poor Motion Detection

[Wire-Mark]

We have recently purchased an arlo ultra system and installed it. It was very poor at detecting motion. People constantly moving past the house but no detections. After multiple dealings with technical support they told me to swap the unit out. We have done so and again we are having little to no detections.

Attached is a rough view of the camera. It will give you an idea of distance I am trying to cover.

Ideally I want one camera to cover my blue bmw which is where I park it. I am getting nothing. At 4am I was woken by drunken teenagers the camera detected nothing. Also in the road it misses cars coming past also.

When we do the positioning test we have the grey shaded area at the top of the bushes in front of the house and we have detection set to 100 up from 80. Am I expecting too much from the system? At the cost of it I’d have hoped it would have worked.

[Wire-Mark]

This is also a picture of the location of the camera. You can see we have ours positioned to the right hand side of the house for better viewing angle from the tree. You can see the house on the right has a ring camera. Its range is far superior, at night as soon as I step out my front door it detects me. I walk down my drive to my car and I am undetected by the Arlo Ultra camera.

I am thinking of taking this back for a refund.

[dcfox1]

Arlo recommends about 7 foot height placement. Looks like yours is on the roof that may effect the distance of motion detection that Arlo says is best at 25 feet or less. I have detected farther now and then. 

[Wire-Mark]

I’m sure I read that above 7m was best. I may be wrong. It’s not detecting people around the black car on the drive. It needs to be higher to see over the bushes.

We have lots of people walking past on the path behind my blue car, I’ve not had 1 person detection. We are getting car detections going past but that’s it. Nothing pedestrian at all. 

The other camera we have tried detection tests down the hallway and at 8ft it won’t detect movements. I was doing jumping jacks and it didn’t detect me at all. Think I may be taking back and swapping for a 4K Swann system that’s wired which I didn’t really want.

[Wire-Mark]

Bit of a messy picture, here is the detections I am getting where I have highlighted green and it is cars only. The right hand side is intermittent. In front we get the cars where I have highlighted green. On my neighbours drive to the left as the camera looks he was hoovering his car no detections. The black scribble lines are the path I take to and from my car and that doesn’t even detect. 

the red areas we get nothing

[dcfox1]

The camera only detects motion in the bottom two thirds of the view. Your roof takes up a lot and may be why  it is not recording till you get farther out of view of roof. Perhaps try mounting it like you neighbors ring cam you posted. 

You can try the link below to explain better positioning, it is in the FAQ  at the top of this sub forum. 

https://kb.arlo.com/000062211/How-do-I-position-my-Arlo-Ultra-camera-to-detect-motion-in-specific-ar...

[Wire-Mark]

Hi it’s at the same level as the ring cam on my neighbours house. His is by his house alarm box I have moved mine at the same level but to the right of the house as you look at the house. If you look at the picture I have uploaded with the colours on that is the positioning picture from the app which has the grey shaded bit at the top third. All of that area below that virtually has no motion. I have just come back on my bike with my lights on and it’s not detected me again. I’ve come across the camera and then at it and it’s not got me.

[Wire-Mark]

Sorry this is the motion positioning test.

[ashlah]

In True Arlo fashion, no one will respond with anything helpful. I would recommend you go return it and buy a better product, i've never had any luck with Arlo support.

[pjama]

That distance does look a bit far to detect people however you could try the following:

Zoom in a little/lot by setting your Video Mode to Full (FOV 120).

Try and get less of that roof in view without getting too much horizon. Maybe mount the camera higher and closer by mounting it on the fascia under the gutter.

I find mine detect plenty at 60% at about 10m as long as people are walking across the frame. 6m if they're walking towards the camera.

[Sevakesmailian]

Please DM the ceo of Arlo!! Lets get our voices herd!! I did it and he responded back to me and had his engineering team & customer care executive team get back to me thru a tel call and zoom call... if more people DM him he will know theres a big issue. It seems all this tickets aren’t doing anything and all the stuff I complained about that we all experience he didn’t know it existed. I
Will put his twitter link below and twitter name
(DIRECT MESSAGE HIM)

https:/twitter.com/mbmcrae21

@mbmcrae

[ShayneS]

Hi @Wire-Mark

The angle and distance appears to be the reason you are not receiving and recordings from people/objects. You car appears to be out of ideal range and angle for motion to be detected. If possible, I would suggest moving the camera closer and adjusting the angle. I have provided an article with further information regarding positioning & installation. How do I position my Arlo wire-free camera?

• The best area for motion detection is 5 feet to 20 feet (1.5 to 6 meters) from the camera position.