Ultra Device Utilities Motion Detection

[rdilauro]

I go into each of my ARLO cameras on a regular basis to adjust activity zones, View mode (wide/normal),

Optimize for Battery, Video, etc.   One thing I do is also check the Motion Detection.  On those cameras that have a lot of traffic. (4 or 5 do), I want to drop the detection level from 80% down to 20%.  I know I do this, I can check time to time.

BUT,  since I flop between the desktop and IOS version of Arlo Secure, I've been noticing that the motion level jumps back to the default of 80%.  Once that happens, I can see the battery draining quicker.

Shouldn't once I set that detection level it sticks until I make a change.

[Dannybear]

Are you adjusting the motion sensitivity for the cameras within the camera’s settings menu? If so it’s a test utility that defaults to 80% each time it’s used.

Fixing the trigger sensitivity should be made in the camera rule for the mode that has been set active.

https://kb.arlo.com/42/What-are-modes-and-rules-and-how-does-Arlo-use-them

If you want to vary the sensitivity during a period of the day then create custom modes with different sensitivity settings in the rules and create a schedule to set the different modes active when required.

I’ve created about 10 custom modes to manage my requirements, eg. I have a custom mode for windy days where I have the camera rules with reduced motion sensitivity and audio trigger disabled.

One drawback is you only get one schedule mode to put them into.

[rdilauro]

I am so glad you mentioned to where I need to set the motion detection. I just finished this for all my cameras

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

[Dannybear]

If I have something to understand about arlo devices there is a handy search feature I use where I make some general detail about what I need into the search bar of a browser and add the “kb.arlo.com” reference at the end so it usually brings up all links to the knowledge base articles that reference the required details.

Unfortunately there is no direct link that I have found in arlo or this forum that takes you directly to all the articles.

[rdilauro]

I use the saved articles. Many times I have found what I was looking for.
But right now I am searching for how to extend battery llife. Steven told me about the XL Batteries for our Ultras. That has helped. Now I am looking for the best settings to optimize
1. Set motion detection to 20%
2. Set performance for best battery life
3. Recently change when recording to half of the default time.
4. Changed activity zones

Just not sure where I am getting the best. One camera I put in a fully charged Ultra battery (from ARLO). Now today it’s down to 32%. Granted it’s on a busy road. My activity zone is set not to watch the cars, but instead the boats in our marina. I am not sure how much changing activity zones have on overall performance. What I’d like to do is stop recording every couple of minutes. Our ARLO setup has grown from 5 cameras a half a year ago to now 22. I have 5 more on order to cover more areas. An that I go with Ultras correct. I just ordered a couple of Pro2 to see how they fare. I keep on trying to come up with the best settings. Just seems I may be missing something. Am I?

[Dannybear]

The two major causes for battery drain is the duration the camera’s triggered operation and poor signal quality.

The easiest way to check if the camera is suffering the later is to disable the camera motion detection in the mode rules and monitor the camera battery for a day.
If the camera battery still drains fast then you may be having signal quality issues such as with large boats moving about. Signal strength might be great but signal reflections distort quality.

If you have minimal battery drain then it is down to continual camera operation. The camera uses a PIR sensor on the camera front face to detect changing infrared levels. When triggered the camera starts up and begins recording to the cloud where activity zone filtering occurs and smart detection is applied. It would suggest that the camera is operating each time a car drives past the camera so the trick would be to minimise unwanted motion within 25ft of the cameras.
Having said that you may want the motion depending on your needs so you should consider externally powered options.

Other tricks are to invert the camera so the PIR sensor coverage is pointed mostly upward rather than downwards but invites water ingress issues.

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@rdilauro wrote:
 I am not sure how much changing activity zones have on overall performance. 

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Activity zones do not help battery life.  When motion is detected (in-zone or out-of-zone) the video is streamed to the Arlo cloud for analysis.  The cloud then supresses notifications and recordings that are out-of-zone.  The camera has no idea that this is being done, so the amount of power drain is identical whether zones are on or off.