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".

[BandK]

Here’s how I undestand your problem:

You want the one front camera on 24/7 and the four back cameras on only from sunset to sunrise?

Here’s how to do that from your desktop (similar action from phone)

1. Click “Routines” from menu

2. Click on “+” inside the circle on upper right of screen to get “Add Schedule”

3. Click “Add an Action” on the next screen and

4. Put checkmark in “Change Mode” and click “Next” to get the next screen.

5. Under Change Mode check “Arm Home” and click “Next” to next screen.

6. Name the Custom Schedule (Day?) by editing and Save.

Repeat steps 1 through 6 to create “Night” schedule that starts at “Sunset” and switches the mode to “Arm Away”.

Afterwards go the “Arm Home” routine and delete all cameras except the one in front.

Then go to “Arm Away” and include all 5 cameras there.

This will arm only your front camera 24/7 at sunrise and switch all 5 cameras on at sunset.

[BandK]

forgot to include in step 2, Add Schedule, check all days and "sunrise" for start time. Modes will switch at sunrise and sunset between "Arm Home" and "Arm Away".

[StephenB]

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@BandK wrote:

Afterwards go the “Arm Home” routine and delete all cameras except the one in front.

Then go to “Arm Away” and include all 5 cameras there.

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@rchrugg:  The disadvantage here is that you need to manually disable the schedule routines if you leave home for a while and want the cameras armed 24x7.

Which is why I instead suggest to 

• leave "Arm Home" and "Arm Away" as they are (arming all cameras)
• and go into "Standby" and add a rule for the one camera that is normally armed 24x7

Then have the schedule switch between Arm Home and Standby.  Also have the automations only enabled in "Arm Home" and "Standby".

The disadvantage of my approach is that if you want to disarm the camera that is normally armed 24x7, you need to go into the camera settings and temporarily turn it off.  Sut that is simpler than disabling/reenabling the schedule automations.

[rchrugg]

@BandK - This confused me a bit.  Unfortunately the prior instructions didn't really help as the back 4 cameras are still on during the daytime.  I want to try your suggestion, but would like to ask for a few more instructions if you can?
Thanks!

[BandK]

Sure, there are other ways to handle it but I tried to make it as simple as possible.

The steps I gave you do this:

Create a custom schedule that starts at 'sunrise'  for Arm Home routine that you can name "day". In Arm Home only include the front camera. (If you wanted, you could include all cameras and turn-off all but the one in front.)

Create a second custom schedule for Arm Away that starts at 'sunset' and name it "night". (names are unimportant, you can call it whatever you like.) Place all five of your cameras in Arm Away.

So your camera system would work like this: At sunrise, Arm Home routine would run on 'day' schedule and only the front camera would be active. At sunset, Arm Away routine would run on a 'night' schedule and all five cameras active. So from sunrise to sunset you would flip back and forth between Arm Home and Arm Away which are running 'day' and 'night' schedules respectively, front camera 'day', all cameras 'night'.

There are only three routines available in the new app, Arm Home, Arm Away, and Standby. Custom modes are no longer possible but with custom automation (scheduling) you can customize to get the outcome you want.