Hardwired Flood Light Connection

[EastCoast]

We recently purchased the wired flood light cameras and hard wired them for power.   During initial setup, we were directed to connect them cameras to Alro via wifi.  Turns out that was a big mistake as while some of the time the cameras remain connected to Wifi, most of the time the cameras lose that connection.  We were told by Arlo support that the cameras should be connected to the Arlo base station. We hired an electrician to install and hard wire the cameras and now we are told that we have to have the electrician return $$$ to go up the ladder (installed 30 feet high on home)  and hit the reset button and connect the cameras the Arlo base station.  Does this sound right or has anyone experienced this before?  Thank you if you know anything different.    This sounds a bit outdated to have to do this.     Thank you.     

[StephenB]

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@EastCoast wrote:

We recently purchased the wired flood light cameras and hard wired them for power.   During initial setup, we were directed to connect them cameras to Alro via wifi.  Turns out that was a big mistake as while some of the time the cameras remain connected to Wifi, most of the time the cameras lose that connection.  We were told by Arlo support that the cameras should be connected to the Arlo base station.

FWIW, it's not clear that you'd get better performance with a base.  The wifi in the base has about the same range as a normal router - it is limited by the power limitations in your country.  So the advice from Arlo support is a bit dubious.

Another option would be to improve the range of your home wifi - for example, upgrading to a mesh system.

While I do have some cameras connected to smarthubs, my wired floodlight is connected to my home wifi.

[jguerdat]

And FWIW, 30 feet up is a problem unless you're manually turning the floodlights on and off manually. PIR sensors in the cameras will only detect to maybe 25 feet under best conditions. What are you trying to monitor?

[EastCoast]

Thank you.    It could be less than 30 feet as we were able to see activity.    The issue is every time they fall off the base station (which seems to happen a lot)  we can't reach the floodlight to reset.  We can't go that high on a ladder.       We took down the battery operated cameras as we had to charge every 60 days.   They had a very short life and climbing the ladder is now not an option.       We paid all this money for hard wired flood lights and now we find that we need help to reset them.   We are told we actually have to push a button on the light itself.  We have to physically go up on a laddere and hit a reset button.      Is this true or am I missing something?     Days and days and days on the phone with customer service and they seem to not be able to fix this.   

Thank you.        

[EastCoast]

Have you ever been told you need them connected to Wifi and base station?    That is what were are being told.     We have 3 flood lights and none of them work.    Thank you.   

[jguerdat]

First, have you tried using the circuit breaker that feeds the cameras? That would be easier than climbing a ladder to push a button.

You can't connect to both WiFi and a hub at the same time. The hub does use its own WiFi that's totally separate from your home WiFi.

[StephenB]

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@jguerdat wrote:

First, have you tried using the circuit breaker that feeds the cameras? That would be easier than climbing a ladder to push a button.

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@EastCoast - you can use the circuit breaker to restart the camera, but if you need to do a reset, then you need access to the pairing button on the top of the camera.