Motion detection outdoors from window sill to entrance area not as expected

[Retired_Member]

Hi community, 

I'm fairly new to Arlo camera monitoring (Arlo in use for a week) and hope you can give me some tips. I positioned the camera on the window sill to monitor the entrance area, and especially the house door / area before the house. Obviously this does not work as I expected, but I do not know whether the root cause is the camera itself, the distance, improper settings, the positioning / adjustment or the light conditions.

Please take a look at the following recording. The person who was recorded came out of the house and went to the transporter. Only in the very first second the movement is detected. The more important part, i.e. what happened at the front door and the porch roof remains completely unrecognized by the camera. The recording frame is zoomed, motion detection sensitivity was at 81. 

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AkqS_uZHqBVRwBCsbpluzugBQzx3

This way the camera makes no sense for me. I'd like to know what I could change to make it better (I fixed the cam quite well, so before moving I want to hear your opinion; the position right now is at the right end of the window sill; positioning it somewhere in the middle or so would not be optimal). I cannot imagine, for example, that the distance plays a role. Also I do not believe that the cam sensors are blocked somehow by that small part of the window sill that can be seen in the video.  

Thanks for providing your tips. 

Dan

Netgear Arlo VMC3030-100EUS

HW VersionH7

Firmware1.2.10342

[jguerdat]

First, is the camera inside or outside? I think it's outside but can't be sure. Inside would be a problem since the PID detector needs IR to trigger and glass blocks it.

Second, due to the system design, it takes a minimum of 2 seconds to start up. It's battery operated so can't be on all the time. Detection is achieved, the camera wakes up and connection to the server is established. I suspect the door opened which triggered the camera and you got the guy's foot due to the inherent lag. Lowering the camera, using an outdoor mount, could help so the position is more favorable. That would also enhance getting a face in the view.

What else is nearby that you could mount the camera on? Or is the truck parked on a roadway so there's nothing else to use?

[Retired_Member]

Hi jguerdat, 

the cam is placed outside on a window sill on the first floor, no window glass in between. I'm using this mount because I don't want to drill and especially not put it on the house's wall directly. I fixed the mount very tightly with special 3M tape. The mount is actually not that bad because it's very flexible. I also tried out a setting where the view's cam is not hampered partly by the sill (the grey thing on the left in the video is the window sill where the cam is placed on). But still I saw in tests that when a person comes straight on the way from the road to the house door, he's not recognized right away and especially when a person approaches the house door from the other side (not via the direct/straight way to the door) and is then directly under the porch roof and moves, the cam does not detect him. That makes me really suspicious about the value und functionality of the cam for my use case here. 

thx

[jguerdat]

It may be that the short distance will be an issue. Perhaps use of a Q camera would​ be a better choice since it's constantly streaming. It's for indoors only but works through glass due to the different detection method. Just be sure to turn off Night Vision since the glare off the window would blind the camera.

[Retired_Member]

Distance too short? Hmmm...if that's the root cause, there's no way to solve it. Or can it also play a role that I zoomed the video recording frame since I do not want to cover the street? Does recording when zoomed affect somehow something?

Interesting idea to use the Q through a window. I was always of the opinion that there is not at all a cam that can handle it. However, a cam facing out of the window covering a decent frame would, in my case, also cover the street and other houses. So, that's not an option (apart from the fact that it would mean another costly investment). 

Thanks

[TomMac]

I don't see anu mention of INCREASING the sense level.... 81 is near default and most of mine run closer to 90-92%.

[manfredz]

Don't know if this will help in your case but if you have a first cam watching the path set to trigger the recording of the cam at the door ( done in modes) you will be recording the door just before the subject gets there.

[jguerdat]

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DrBrixel wrote:

Distance too short? Hmmm...if that's the root cause, there's no way to solve it. Or can it also play a role that I zoomed the video recording frame since I do not want to cover the street? Does recording when zoomed affect somehow something?

Interesting idea to use the Q through a window. I was always of the opinion that there is not at all a cam that can handle it. However, a cam facing out of the window covering a decent frame would, in my case, also cover the street and other houses. So, that's not an option (apart from the fact that it would mean another costly investment). 

Thanks

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The distance I'm referring to is the short walkway.  Using the pan and zoom doesn't do anything than simply crop the image - the motion detection is not cropped in any way (two separate devices - the camera sensor and the PIR).

The Q camera, which uses pixel-based detection rather than a PIR, supports zones so you can easily crop the detection zone to what you need.  Also, since it's constantly streaming, you get a few seconds' pre-buffer at the beginning of the video that simply isn't possible with a battery-operated camera that has to wake up.  You can also get the CVR option so you can basically rewind to any point and see what happened outside of the actual recording period.

[Retired_Member]

Thanks for all your answers. However, I tried out different settings, adjusted position and motion detection sensitity with the outcome of dozens of false alarms. And when there were actually people it didn't work (others and myself - when I tested). 

[alm99]

Too me it looks like the camera and position is fine. The problem is the delay, you can't see anything other than the person getting back in the vehicle. The delay on the Arlo NON-pro version is atrocious and shameful. What you need is the Arlo PRO. The delay is greatly reduced. 

[manfredz]

don't know how much shorter the delay with the Arlo Pro cam is, but altho the delay with the Arlo is noticeable I would hardly call it attrocious.

A trick I use is to place a camera before the object you want to monitor and link it to the cam on the object.  Then an object passing in front of the first cam triggers recording the second as well.