Issue with Arlo and SmartThings, how do I set recording options?

[Humpster]

Hi i have 3 of the above cameras and use smarthings to set modes,  i set them up a few months ago and had no problems at all. Recently the cameras have reported motion but no recording is made.. The main two models i use are away from home by  using our phones location and a over nightmode that switches on and off at at a set time, different cameras are set to record different  length depending on where they are

Going into any mode on the Arlo now  says no device

All your devices  are already in use in other rules..

Even i reset the arlo rules to record as soon as i go back into smarthing then back to arlo the recording option stops. I am guessing its  smarthings that is taking control, but there does not seem to be a way in smarthings to set recording options.. I can not recall how I set them up originally.

Greatfule for any help or advice

Thanks

J

[brh]

@Humpster

There have been some recent changes in the Smarthings/Arlo Smartthings Mode. Not sure if it was Arlo or Smartthings that made the change, but I suspect it was Smartthings. Smartthings is now controlling almost everything in the Smartthings Mode in Arlo, so whatever rules you set up in Arlo in the Smartthings Mode will automatically disappear as soon as you use Smartthings to activate the cameras.

If you are using the original Arlo Wire Free caeras, you definately want to conserve power to them as the batteries are not cheap. So, in Smartthings I leave the cameras in the disabled mode when I am home during the day and use the Goodbye Routine when I am leaving home and the Good Night Routine to activate the cameras, (place them in standby so to speak). and both the I'm Back or Good Morning Routines to put the cameras back into the Disabled state to conserve power.

I then use SHM Custom Rules to control the recordings, duration, notifications, turn on lights, etc.

If you don't understand what I am saying or need help, let me know.

Brian

[Humpster]

Thanks Brian,

That kind of mirrors my situation, expect i use the  Away mode on smart things using our phones  (2 of them), I will look at SHM (which if correct is similar to IFTTT?

Thanks for detailed response

Humpster

[brh]

@Humpster

I have found that using my and my wife's iPhones as presence sensors to be quite unreliable, often having a 30 minute or more delay. There have been several times that one of the phones would report as being present at home although both of us were away. I started using Life360 and the reliability improved to about 95% but still not perfect and it seemed to drain the phone's batteries rather quickly. Therefore, I would recommend arming/disarming the system manually using the Routines I mentioned before. The routines act as on/off switches for the cameras to either disable them or activate them.

Arming/disarming the system at set times seems to be more reliable if you are on a schedule that doesn't change.

You can even create more routines to arm/disarm 1, 2, 3 cameras to record at the same time or all of them and you can separate the outdoor cameras from the indoor cameras. For example: when I use the Goodbye Routine when I leave home I set all the cameras to Active. When I use the Good Night Routine at night I only activate the outdoor cameras. I have the Good Morning and I'm Back Routines set to disable all the cameras. I created a "Waiting For Delivery" routine which only activates the front porch Arlo to record when someone gets close to my front porch, (I have also placed a couple of motion sensors under the eaves of my house to trigger the cameras earlier than the camera normally would so that I don't miss any of the action). I also have a motion sensor directly above my front porch mailbox to notify me, start the camera to record in case the other sensors don't fire, and turn on an inside lamp in case I am sleeping. When these sensors/ccameras fire, I will wait until the time limit that I have the cameras set to record has expired before I run the routine to disable the cameras and turn off the lights.

Each camera and each sensor has at least one custom rule, (depending on the state of the routine that I have set), to record and notify me. For example: if the hallway sensor fires or the temperature rises above 80 degrees, my custom rules will start all the indoor cameras to start recording for 2 minutes.

Probably more info than you were looking for, but that is how my system is setup and it works great for me.

Brian

[Humpster]

Ok i admit defeat what is SHM? I see a lot of references to it but don't kniow whta it is after all.?

Thanks

H

[brh · Accepted solution]

@Humpster

SHM stands for Smart Home Monitor. On your Smartthings home page you see the buttons, Armed(Away), Armed(Stay) and Disarmed. These are the alarm states, (although they do allow you to arm/disarm your system by pressing on the butons). These buttons can not do anything else such as run routines, etc., therefore they will not activate or disarm the cameras. These states are controlled by the Security smart app which you access by tapping on the little gear at the top right of the page. The Security smart app is a visual representation of what devices you want to give you an intrusion alert when a sensor is triggered, either in the Armed(Away) or Armed(Stay) states. So, for example, if someone like the mailman steps onto your front porch, you do not want to trigger an intrusion alert so you would not include that camera in the Security smart app. But, if someone broke your window and climbed inside, you definitely would want the camera and/or any sensors associated with the camera to issue an intrusion alert. Other than that, once set up, you don't need to worry about that any more.

On the same page as the Security Smart app you should also see sections for Smoke, Leaks and Custom apps to set up Rules as to how you want to handle these devices. The Custom Rules is where I set up all my Custom Rules to handle the cameras and other sensors.

I am probably using the term incorrectly but when I say SHM, I am talking about all the above rules and Smart apps located on this page. This can be very confusing to understand as you also have Modes such as Away, Home, Night etc which are not the same things as the alarm states previously mentined. These Modes are important as they control when and how the sensors will operate.

Clear as mud?

Brian

[Humpster]

Hey sorry for  delayiin replying been so busy, that is an excccent answer and one i will put to good use, thank you so much for you advice.

Much appreciated

[Humpster]

Hey Brian so i set the SHM rules as suggested what mode do i need to put the Arlo app in please?

[brh]

@Humpster

Leave the Arlo Mode to Armed all the time.

Brian

[Humpster]

Thank you