Bridge Issues & Non-availability of Replacement Bridge

[KachinaShadow]

Have been working with L3 Support for a couple of months on security light issues...lights randomly not sensing motion (different light every couple of nights) unless bridge was restarted along with the lights sending push notifications when notifications are muted (both started the day the system wide lights not sensing motion issue, from earlier this year, was resolved).

After numerous things were tried such as...updating bridge with a custom firmware update loaded in by L3 Support and also a factory reset of bridge, it was determined that the bridge was bad and L3 Support was going to send a new one. Problem is that Arlo apparently NO LONGER MAKES OR HAS ANY BRIDGES. I find this to be unacceptable for a company to put all of these out in the field and then discontinue them 4 years later (I purchased the lights & bridge in 2020).

Last night my bridge finally died all together showing a flashing purple light which indicates that it's connected to Wi-Fi but not connected to the internet. I checked my router and confirmed that the bridge was actually connected and also verified that everything else in the network was connecting to the internet. I tried to do a factory reset of the bridge but that failed so I removed the bridge from my Arlo devices and tried to add it as a new device numerous times, but it now fails to even connect to my Wi-Fi. 

Strange thing is that, even with the bridge & three lights shown as offline, the two lights that are set up in "Away" mode to trigger corresponding cameras started triggering recordings from those cameras in "Home" mode even though those lights and cameras are not even included in the "Home" mode routines. How I know that the lights triggered those recordings is that I have those set up in the "Away" mode routines with different recording times when the light triggers a recording as opposed to the camera triggering the recording.

Fortunately, I found a new bridge on Ebay and am waiting for it to arrive, but it still Irks me that Arlo is no longer going to supply a component that may go bad and need replacement to be able to actually use the security lights.

[StephenB]

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@KachinaShadow wrote:

Problem is that Arlo apparently NO LONGER MAKES OR HAS ANY BRIDGES. I find this to be unacceptable for a company to put all of these out in the field and then discontinue them 4 years later (I purchased the lights & bridge in 2020).

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FWIW, production for these started and ended in July 2018.

• https://downloads.arlo.com/images/PDFs/EOL_Policy/Arlo-End-of-Life-Policy_06_01_2023_Final.pdf

So it looks like this was a one-time buy from another manufacturer.

Arlo never released a replacement product (which I think is a shame).  

[KachinaShadow]

It was actually purchased on Amazon with "the Arlo store" listed as the seller as I believe most if not all new Arlo products are sold on Amazon.

Regardless, it's beyond me that any company would release a product where part of the product or system sold relies on one crucial component to be part of that system and then not produce that particular part of the system for at least another 10 years...even the L3 support person thought that this was something that they had available to take care of issues such as this. If you can't get a replacement bridge then the security lights aren't good for much more than a doorstop. 

And even if I had seen the EOL list that you linked, it shows the EOL as being Jan 1, 2025 which in 2020, when I ordered this, would have been perfectly acceptable and since we are in 2024 then this product has not reached the EOL.

...end of rant 😠 😉

[StephenB]

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@KachinaShadow wrote:

It was actually purchased on Amazon with "the Arlo store" listed as the seller as I believe most if not all new Arlo products are sold on Amazon.

...

And even if I had seen the EOL list that you linked, it shows the EOL as being Jan 1, 2025 which in 2020, when I ordered this, would have been perfectly acceptable and since we are in 2024 then this product has not reached the EOL.

I wasn't intending to suggest otherwise.  

[KachinaShadow]

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@StephenB wrote:  I wasn't intending to suggest otherwise. 
 

I never thought that, but your info gave me a good start on a satisfying rant that pretty much got rid of my frustration...I'm all better now thank you 😁

Hey, I know this is off topic but while I have you here, have you ever tried to download a pic for your avatar?
Downloaded Avatar Blurry - Arlo Community

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[StephenB]

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@KachinaShadow  wrote:
Hey, I know this is off topic but while I have you here, have you ever tried to download a pic for your avatar?
Downloaded Avatar Blurry - Arlo Community

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I saw that post, and didn't get around to take a close look.

Looking at your profile page now, the photo there was rescaled down to 150x150 when you uploaded it. But the avatar in your posts is being rescaled again down to 40x40.  

40x40 is really small, so the browser is scaling it up again during rendering. (FWIW, it is also applying the circular mask). That is why it is so blurry. Even the stock avatars look really bad. Mine is only 40x23. No idea why the Lithium forum software is downscaling it twice. It could easily just use the 150x150 image as the avatar.

I'm tagging  @JamesC  - while perhaps not super important, it is something that might be easy for him to get fixed.

If you want to look yourself, you can right-click the image on your profile page and then use "Save image as". Then do the same with the avatar in the post.

[KachinaShadow]

@StephenB 

I see what you mean

Thanks