Modes, automations and scheduling, oh my!

[rchrugg]

After spending nearly and entire day talking to Arlo support and getting further confused, I am turning to people that probably know more than they do.  Thirty years in the software industry have not prepared me for the change that Arlo made recently to their software.  I have 5 ultra cameras on two hubs (Front has it's own hub and back has 4 connected.  I would like the front to be active 24 hours and the ones in the back I would only like to have on after sunset.  I have spoken to Arlo support more than several times about this.  When I wasn't disconnected / hung up on or spoken to someone with very little skill in English, I was given to people who had as little understanding of the issue as I did (one tech support person admitted she didn't know and was only reading the documentation while talking to me.  Prior to the change of software, The system worked flawlessly.  After the change, it hasn't worked a bit and I get hundreds of notifications a week, not to mention to the depletion of battery power.

This has to be the most counter-intuitive software change any company has ever made.  If anyone can assist me, it would be so greatly appreciated.  

Ironically, Today I got an email telling me that the Arlo service would be increasing in cost for next year.  I swear I am starting to hate this company

[StephenB]

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@rchrugg wrote:

  I have 5 ultra cameras on two hubs (Front has it's own hub and back has 4 connected.  I would like the front to be active 24 hours and the ones in the back I would only like to have on after sunset.  

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With "Feed", the number of smarthubs doesn't matter - the three modes control all your cameras, no matter how they are connected.

To do what you want, you first need to set up the modes:

• Set up "Arm Away" to arm all 9 cameras 
• Set up "Arm Home" to arm all 9 cameras
• Modify "Standby" to arm the four Front Cameras

Once you do this, the easiest way to manually disarm one of the front cameras is to go into the video settings and turn it off.  The other option is to go into the mode you are using, and temporarily edit the rule for the camera.

The basic principle here is to reserve use of "Arm Away" for when you are away from home.  When in that mode, all the cameras will remain armed until you change the mode to something else.

Your schedule automations should look like this:

These arm all cameras between sunset and sunrise, and arm only the front cameras between sunrise and sunset.  Pay particular attention to the "Enable lists" right below the automation names.  These two automations are only enabled when the system is in "Arm Home" or "Arm Away".

You can then add geofencing automations if you wish.  These will switch the system to "Arm Away" when you leave, and to "Standby" when you return. 

Note that the enable lists for these automations is NOT the same as the scheduling ones.

Unfortunately "arrive" needs to switch to a specific mode.  If you arrive home after sunset, you'd have to manually switch the system to "Arm Home" to arm all the cameras.  If you forget, the schedule automations will still trigger at sunrise (so all cameras will arm at sunset the next day). 

If you typically arrive home after sunset, you could change the "arrive" automation to switch to "Arm Home".  Then when you do return during the day, you'd need to manually change to "Standby" to disarm the rear cameras.  Again, if you forget those cameras will be disarmed the following sunrise.

Some folks are finding that geofencing isn't always triggered when it should be.  So if you use those automations, you should double-check that the modes are changing correctly for a while.

[rchrugg]

Thanks Stephen

To be clear, I am looking for assistance on an automated way to Keep the front camera alive and active 24 hours, while turning off the other 4 cameras at sunrise and reactivating them at Sunset.  Not sure I am following your instructions to do that

Thanks for the input

R

[jguerdat]

Any camera without a rule in a specific mode is Disarmed. Thus, the front camera should have a rule in any mode you use. Any other camera would NOT have a rule unless it's to be used in that mode.

Arm Away (or whatever mode you choose) - all cameras have a rule

Arm Home - front camera has a rule and maybe some others

Standby - front camera has a rule and maybe no other cameras

[rchrugg]

Thank you.  I think I understand this, but how can you create a schedule for the 4 cameras I want to turn on at Sunset and off at Sunrise?  The notifications are overwhelming when they are on during the daytime

[jguerdat]

Edit that mode that turns on at sunrise. Each camera rule has a section called Notifications - click on that and disable them. That way daytime cameras will detect and record but not notify. The sunset schedule may need this, too, depending on whether you want those notifications.

[StephenB]

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@rchrugg wrote:

To be clear, I am looking for assistance on an automated way to Keep the front camera alive and active 24 hours, while turning off the other 4 cameras at sunrise and reactivating them at Sunset. 

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Which is exactly what I gave you.

One thing I misunderstood - I was thinking you have 5 front and 4 rear cameras (9 total) and not 1 front and 4 rear cameras.

But the instructions for 5 cameras is exactly the same as what I gave you.

@rchrugg wrote:

Thank you.  I think I understand this, but how can you create a schedule for the 4 cameras I want to turn on at Sunset and off at Sunrise? 

You can't schedule cameras, you have to schedule modes.

Again, the idea here is to modify the Standby mode so that it arms your front camera.  As @jguerdat says, the rear cameras will be disarmed when the system is in that mode, because there are no rules for those cameras.

Then schedule the system to switch to "standby" at sunrise, and then to "home away".