Base Station Orientation Part 2 - How & Where Locate Base for Maximum Range

[gmcjetpilot]

This is a continuation of a closed Thread "Base Station Orientation".

https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo/Base-Station-Orientation/td-p/1068482

I have some input. The highlight from the thread above was someone looked inside the base and found the two antennas in the upper corners of the base station. They sound like Dipoles or bowtie antennas, copper traces on circuit boards. These are somewhat directional. The thread did not say what the orientation of the antennas were, but in general the unit should be "OMNI" direction. However there are going to be "lobes", directions from base station where signal is slightly stronger, both reception and transmission..... So I did the following to test the theory moving the station around (direction of front facing N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW....). My most distant camera is about 100' away. The base station is first floor back of house. The camera is on second floor front of house, with a two walls, door and window between. Of the 3 signal bars I get 2 bars on this camera. This camera takes the longest to start streaming live when I manually select it.... over 10 seconds sometimes, where the other cameras that are closer take less time. Also after I turn camera off to charge battery, and try to reconnect it struggles. Once connected it seems to be OK.

1) Trying different orientations, with front of base station (logo and lights) facing relative to most distant camera I found some orientations seemed to help. I made a request for live stream and timed it. Some orientations would  increase time 2x to respond and start streaming. The signal strength always showed 2 bars. That did not change. Having only 3 bars it is not enough resolution to determine best signal. Using this timing method I found to be best orientation for my application (see last Par). There seemed to be a correlation to base station direction or orientation to speed the camera responded.  I never had an issue with the camera working except after battery charging and putting it back on-line. It would struggle to reconnect with base station when located in front of house over driveway. Some times I would just bring it down stairs and connect close to base station and then bring it back to 2nd floor to mount it outside the bedroom window over garage and driveway.

Other things to improve range I found seemed to help

2) I raised the base off the corner end table on a box and cleared or moved items away from base station. I did not do a before and after, and the above test #1 were done with base unit higher up. In general the higher the better with less things to block the signal. 

3) WiFi extender to move Arlo Base Station to a central location in the house. I did not do this, but I do have two of these WiFi extenders that plug into the wall and have ethernet connection. I use them for DVR's so they can get the TV schedule and stream from internet. They work well. In my case my Base Station is located perfectly for 4 of my 5 cameras. The 5th one on the front of the house is most distant and works fine with that one exception. Step 1 and 2  helped have good response time when accessing the camera, similar to the time the other closer cameras take. It also seems to reconnect without hanging up. 

Bottom Line my camera is due West of the base station. By having face of base station pointing SW, 45 degrees to the camera, it seemed to improve the signal. I did not check but NW would likely have worked as well since each corner of the base station has an antenna. I don't know how the antennas are positioned inside. I found with the Arlo front of Base Station facing directly at camera signal and response time was not as good. It still got 2 out of 3 bars. I put the base station 90 degrees to the camera, face of base station facing North or South. I found it to be not as good... "Your mileage may vary" or best orientation will depend. Just play with it and see if it makes a difference in the time it takes camera to respond to commands for you situation. My camera is higher up. These antenna lobes work both in the horizontal and vertical plane. Some people mentioned a Cell Phone App that measures WiFi signal strength.... that may be another option.