Bright Glare Flashing and False Motion Alerts

[Target_Acquired]

I opened a thread on this last year, but didn't have time to pursue it.

I have the original base station and 10 cameras, all set up outdoors. 

My base station:

*  Hardware version VMB3010r2 and firmware 1.9.4.0_15548

Cameras are all:

* Hardware version H7 and firmware 1.2.16720

During the day, I get 40+ false events.  That can be 40+ from a single camera.  And it's not always the same camera and it's not always "only one" camera. 

The video always starts out with a bright flash and then no evidence of movement by animals, people, or plants. I've attached a sample video, which I've shortened from it's original length.  Depending on your player, you may need to wind the video all the way to the very beginning to see the bright flash. But you can see plainly that there's the flash, and then NO MOTION.

I have even been looking out the window when a false alarm has occurred, and from the window, I saw nothing.  Are my cameras seeing ghosts?

Decreasing the motion sensitivity on a camera by camera basis within the mode configuration only seems to reduce the ability of the cameras to capture REAL, BONAFIDE movement.  Some cameras have been set to 40% sensitivity.  They still get a lot of false alarm flashes, but now I can sometimes walk right past them and they won't trigger. 

I switched to rechargable batteries about a year ago, so at least the problem stopped costing me money.  But it's still a problem, and although the cameras work well at night and indoors, I strongly de-recommend them for any and all outdoor use during daytime. Vocally.  And repeatedly.  I've probably stopped a dozen Arlo sales in my city from various conversations.  Yes, it's THAT BAD.  Not the bright flashing, mind you.  The sheer wave of false alarms is intolerable.  When I bought this system, it wasn't this bad.  Not nearly!  Something changed about 2 years ago, and it changed for the worse.

So has anybody come up with a solution for this problem?  I do want to fix this.  If I can't, I'll install a real wired camera system outside and will put the Arlo system either on night duty only or just inside my house.  But if it can't be fixed, then I won't be buying any new Arlo cameras or base units.

Thanks in advance for any ideas or help you can give.  If we can fix it, I'll recommend Arlo again.

[Target_Acquired]

Sample Video.

[brh]

Wow, that was a bright flash and I have not seen anything like that on my cameras. Out of curiosity, do you think the flash is coming from the camera?

Do all the cameras that are acting up have that flash at the start of the videos?

Starting with this particular camera, have you tried swapping it with another camera to see if whatever is triggering it follows it around?

Is this motion at random times, or around the same time every day?

Does this happen at night when the IR is activated?

Very interesting...

Brian

[TomMac]

Flash as it appears seems , IMO, to be the iris reacting to the day time light as a wash out and then closing down the iris so it appears normal.

So I don't think the 'flash' is the trigger event... it just the result of the camera waking up .  This is why there is nothing to see.  No, I don't see this alot , but have seen it.  None of my outdoor Arlo's do this ( even when running up to 12 on an original base )

Easy way to test is bring one of the troubled cameras inside a normal lit room and triggering it by motion to see if the 'flash' is still there.

In the camera shot you gave, I would lower it a bit so the roadway is gone and a bit more to the left ( door?) so motion is more across the FOV and there is no traffic to reflect to trigger the cam.  See if this adjustment lowers the number of false trigger events. ( I never try to cover more than about 15-18ft as the PIR only works for people out to 20ft.)

be interesting to see if the angle change and test inside home makes a diff.

[steve_t]

Agree with Tom. The flash is something I see and it's just the iris opening and then closing to adjust to the bright light. It's most prevalent for the first recording in daylight after there's been a recording at night. Since the motion detection is via PIR, it isn't the flash that's triggering the camera.
One of the biggest problems with these Arlo HD cameras is the delay between sensing motion and the recording starting. I used to have this problem with my camera pointing out to the road. Now I have Arlo Pro cameras in the same spot, I often catch the tail end of a very large truck going past. Only very large trucks trigger the camera, not normal cars, as I suspect their IR signature is large enough to be detected from so far away. 
As far as motion sensitivity goes, I wouldn't be concerned if the setting was 40 as long as there weren't a lot of unwanted recordings while ensuring the wanted ones were occurring. It can take a while to fine tune the sensitivity for the location. With sunlight creating more IR reflection, I run 2 different modes on a schedule where the night mode is the same as the day mode except the sensitivities are set much higher

[brh]

I went back and found his posts from a year ago and at that time I believe that he only had 4 cameras doing this. 

My question is, if the flash is the iris but not triggering the motion detection, what is? He is getting a lot of false notifications and videos.He says that he has stood by the window and seen it happen and there was no motion near the cameras. In the original posts, others were complaining of the same thing. It definately could be the sunlight/reflections. I was wondering if the glare of a passing car or van would trigger the flash and due to the delay we were only seeing what appears to be a flash.

I do think repositioning the camera would make a difference. 

Brian

[Target_Acquired]

Hello folks, and thank you for the interest!

No, it's much more than 4 cameras.  Every outdoor camera has done this, regardless of where they've been placed.

The camera in the sample (and two others) is located under a porch overhang, and this one faces toward the street.  Sometimes I can see a car driving by, but that's not always the case.  My home office faces in that direction so I can see what the camera sees, and many times I hear the Arlo app notification while I'm looking out the window.  Sometimes there's a car or big heat source such as a UPS truck or garbange truck, so those are legitimate motion events.  But often I don't see a car (or anything else that could be construed as "motion"). 

3 of my 10 cams are under porch overhangs.  They're always in the shade and so they can't possibly be suffering from glare from above.  The ones in the backyard are not under a porch or soffit, but they are aimed in different directions and each of them has also gotten false alarms.

Every camera (all 10) has done this on some days, though not necessarily all 10 on the same day.  Several cameras have been moved to other locations, but they still did it in the new location.  This is not a case of a faulty camera.  If that's the case, then all are faulty to one extent or another.

And this didn't used to happen when the system was new.  Again, I think there was a firmware change that started this behavior.

Thank you again.  I'm willing to try stuff.  Reducing false alerts by even 50% would be great.

[steve_t]

Here's a video of mine. You'll see the same "flash" at the start of the video

https://arlo.netgear.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/88CDAA93DF90CB88_201801

[brh]

@Target_Acquired,

I may not be able to solve this, but I am very fascinated by your problem. I have had one original camera on my covered back porch, (on three sides), for nearly two years. I could not position it without bright sunlight covering about 20% of the total image, and I never experienced this. I recently replaced it with a Pro model camera.

Have you ever actually seen the flash, or is it only the camera that is seeing it?

Would you be willing to take the camera that is the most offensive and take it indoors for a day or so and see if the problem follows?

Now, as far as positioning - when the thieves broke into my home and I had no security system at all - It took them several minutes to go through my front door, (not professional burglars), and the same if they had tried to go through my windows. So, I felt that with the camera pointing at the street, I would only get a few seconds of video with them in it. But, If I placed the camera perpindicular to the door at the corner of my house, I could see the whole front of the house, door and windows included, and would get plenty of videos of them while they were trying to get in. I placed the camera under the eave of my house. So, in my case at least, the lighting does not change much and although I can't see my driveway, I am in the process of purchasing an indoor camera that can look through a window.

Brian

[brh]

@steve_t,

It looks like the same kind of flash. Do you know what triggered the video?

Brian

[steve_t]

---

brh wrote:

@steve_t,

It looks like the same kind of flash. Do you know what triggered the video?

Brian

---

The wind blowing the hedge and moving it. Plants/trees have a fairly decent IR signature, so I've learnt. LOL

[jguerdat]

The flash is of no consequence. It's auto-exposure compensating for the existing light level. You may also see darkness until the auto-exposure brightens the view.

Since the view includes the street and we know that there's a minimum of two seconds' lag before recording after the camera is alerted to wake up, it's entirely possible that a car drove by, reflecting the sun's IR to trigger the recording and the car is out of sight by the time recording starts.

The best solution is to rotate the camera down to eliminate the street as suggested in almost every post and FAQ here.

[Lury]

Hello...I have one camera that no matter where I put it it still has the glare and the false alerts...I have even tried putting it in the front porch where there's no sunlight or passing vehicles..I don't know where else to place it...I have to turn the camera off so that the alerts don't disturb anyone at work ... But that defeats the whole purpose of getting surveillance in my home.. Where is my peace of mind?

[steve_t]

You could turn off the notifications so nobody is disturbed. Use that camera around the back of the house where there is far less traffic, far less likelihood of anyone being. It is extremely unlikely that the 'flash' is triggering recordings but if you're really worried about it. Look at getting the camera replaced under warranty if you're still within your warranty period

[Lury]

Yes but I'm afraid that if I turn off notifications I won't know if there's a real issue at home. I did remove the camera and synched it again. I'll see if that helps tomorrow because it always does that in the morning, no matter where I place it. Hopefully that helps.

[steve_t]

Ah right. You're getting recordings because of sunstrike? I think my Arlo HD had that too while the Pro and Pro 2 in the same location haven't

[Lury]

This is the front where I thought I would be able to fix those false readings.. Turn off notifications.. I think I will just return them all. I don't want to keep turning off the cameras...or the notifications. I don't want to continue troubleshooting a camera nobody has real answers to.

[steve_t]

I'd be 99% sure that if that's the street beyond your berm/verge, that a vehicle is passing by and triggering your camera but by the time the camera starts recording, the vehicle is long gone

[Lury]

The thing is that I had tried switching cameras but it's only one that has that problem. Is that camera defective?

[Lury]

The camera in the picture is the one in the lanai... I don't think cars passing by is the problem... Notice how many times it gave me false readings.

[brh]

@Lury

Could be bad if you switched it and the problem follows the camera. Have you contacted Support? The kink is at the bottom of this page. Is the system under Warranty?

Brian

[Lury]

No I haven't contacted support.. and I'm not sure if it has warranty because it was a gift.

[jguerdat]

Virtually everything has a warranty, gift or not. You may need to get a receipt from the gifter to prove purchase from an authorized seller.

[Lury]

Ok... sounds like a plan thank you so very much... have a nice day!

[cherlock]

I have 5 outdoor cameras and on overcast/rainy days and during nights the cameras work fine, but on bright sunny days I have to turn them off because of all the false positives. I'm not sure when this started but the problem was not there initially. I see the problem has existed for some time and there is a limit to how long I put up with this issue before I dump Netgear, after all if I have to turn off my cameras on bright sunny days the system becomes practically useles.