Activity Zone Being Ignored Randomly

[mpaquette70]

I have one activity zone set up and it randomly alerts me of motion when a car drives by.  This happens during the day and at night.  This worked for about a week after my initial installation and configuration but lately I am getting more alerts due to cars going by.  I have included a screenshot of my zone setup.  I also have Vehicles disabled in Smart Notifications for the doorbell.

What is going on?

[mpaquette70]

Here is a still from video showing a car driving by which is not in the zone I created.

[jguerdat]

I'll wager this only typically happens during the day when the sun's very strong IR reflects off the passing car. The zone can't determine that happens so it's seen as a trigger. Reducing the motion sensitivity can help - I happen to use 45 but YMMV.

[StephenB]

The doorbell will trigger whether motion is inside or outside the zone.  That's done with a passive infrared (PIR) sensor, and has nothing to do with the camera image itself.  Then the cloud determines whether the motion is in or out of zone.  If out of zone, it will supress the recording and notification.

Sometimes the cloud will misbehave when there is just slight motion in the field of view.  Just something to keep in mind.

Another possibility is that the cloud might be a bit confused on where the zone is.  So you might want to try removing and recreating it.  In your case, you might want to lower the upper boundary some.  The distance detection limit for people is about 20-25 feet, so there is no real benefit in including areas that are further away than that in the zone.

I also suggest using the motion detection test to determine the lowest threshold that reliably detects you when you approach the doorbell.  Then set the threshold to something closer to that value (not below it of course).

[mpaquette70]

Then the cloud determines whether the motion is in or out of zone.  If out of zone, it will supress the recording and notification.

Then I would say the cloud is not doing its job correctly in determining whether the motion is in or out of the zone, especially since the zone I created clearly does not include the street.

I deleted the zone yesterday and re-created it but still get recordings and notifications when a car drives by.  It does seem worse during the hours of 11:30am and 3pm.  I will try adjusting the sensitivity.

[StephenB]

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@mpaquette70 wrote:

Then I would say the cloud is not doing its job correctly in determining whether the motion is in or out of the zone, especially since the zone I created clearly does not include the street.

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I don't disagree with that.

Still I suggest adjusting the top edge of the zone downward (closer to the house).