Foresight

[Whohaa]

I have the Arlo Essential Wi-Fi Smart Video Doorbell, Battery Operated or Wired - AVD2001B-100NAS

Will the foresight work on this version if I have it wired instead of wireless? 

[jguerdat · Accepted solution]

I don't believe so since the power connection simply trickle-charges the doorbell battery. The transformer can't supply enough current to actually operate the doorbell but just keep the battery charged.

[Art-]

In case of Ultra 2, to enable the pre-roll feature it requires an external power to , which in fact does the same - recharges the battery. I hope, with Wi-Fi doorbell it works the same.

One caveat, which I found on the forum but could not confirm it anywhere in the documentation - Arlo Smart Hub is the the must have to enable the pre-roll. I'm waiting for the Ultra 2 to come to check that since my Pro 4 never got the Forsight even after hooking them up to a continuous power. That part must be clearly stated by Arlo team in their product descriptions. Pre-roll is a critical feature for certain scenarios. Its been advertised but customers don't know how to turn it on or to even confirm that it is turned on.

I hope to hear from Arlo support in regards to the Doorbell's Forsights

[StephenB]

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@Art- wrote:

One caveat, which I found on the forum but could not confirm it anywhere in the documentation - Arlo Smart Hub is the the must have to enable the pre-roll.

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I don't know where you saw that, but that is not correct.  Pre-roll is essentially a camera feature, so it doesn't depend on the smarthub.  In fact, some of Arlo cameras that support pre-roll can't be connected to a smarhub.  The list of cameras that have it are here:

• https://kb.arlo.com/000062053/How-does-the-Foresight-feature-work-on-my-Arlo-camera

AC power is required, because the camera always needs to be capturing and buffering video for it to work.  That takes too much power for battery operation.

[Art-]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@Art- wrote:

One caveat, which I found on the forum but could not confirm it anywhere in the documentation - Arlo Smart Hub is the the must have to enable the pre-roll.

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I don't know where you saw that, but that is not correct. 

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I have two AC-powered Pro 4 cameras. Neither of them has a pre-roll working, even though it says "Pro 3 (or newer)". There is no information in any manual on how to make it work. There should be a distinct toggle to enable or disable this feature. I find Arlo's instructions inconsistent and incomplete. Otherwise, I wouldn't spend time googling the solutions and ending up on this forum. I would happily spend this time on something else.

As for the Doorbell question - it does say that the "wired doorbell" has Foresight. To me, when connected to an external power source, the "wire-free" version of the doorbell should be no different from a wired version. The battery for some, like in my case, is not to have it running on battery but to have the battery as a backup for a few hours in case the power goes down. So if the wire-free doorbell is AC-powered, it must have the Foresight feature too.

Here is the thread where Pro 4 owners discuss that: https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Pro-4/Arlo-Pro-4-Foresight/td-p/1833878. I'm waiting for Ultra 2 with Smartuhb to arrive to check if that theory holds.

If you own a Pro 4 or a Doorbell and Foresight works for you, please share your experience of how you enabled it.

[StephenB]

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@Art- wrote:

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As for the Doorbell question - it does say that the "wired doorbell" has Foresight. To me, when connected to an external power source, the "wire-free" version of the doorbell should be no different from a wired version.

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I get that, but electrically it is different. The battery in the AVD2001 is trickle-charged from the transformer.  In any event, the AVD2001 doesn't have foresight.

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@Art- wrote:

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Here is the thread where Pro 4 owners discuss that: https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo-Pro-4/Arlo-Pro-4-Foresight/td-p/1833878. I'm waiting for Ultra 2 with Smartuhb to arrive to check if that theory holds.

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Thanks for posting that link.  My own Pro 4 (and doorbells) happen to be connected through a smarthub.

I'm tagging the mods ( @JamesC and @ShayneS ) so they can comment on whether a smarthub is required for foresight or not.  If it is required, the KB article should be updated to say that.  Though personally I think they should instead relax that restriction.

[Art-]

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@StephenB wrote:

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I get that, but electrically it is different. The battery in the AVD2001 is trickle-charged from the transformer.  In any event, the AVD2001 doesn't have foresight.

Well, that's a bummer. Even if the charging mechanism is different, they should still enable it for a connected wire-free model since that should address the increased power requirements for the pre-roll. Thank you for explaining