Arlo|Smart Home Security|Wireless HD Security Cameras
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L-F-C
Tutor
Tutor

I just installed the cameras 3 days ago. Initial installation was: FD (front door) which covers entryway, and some front yard and a little of street, BY (back yard), and FT (fig tree) at a front window just behind the glass, inside the house, overlooking the front yard, near parallell with FD. Named it FT because there's a fig tree there, in case anyone's wondering 🙂

 

Day 1. plenty of triggers from BY due to dogs walking around. Only 1 trigger from FD. Did not sense the postman putting mail in the slot, about 13-15 feet away, but it did sense me leaving the house, albeit at about 20 ft away. Did not sense me coming back. Also, I discovered that FT doesn't register any triggers because it seems motion sensing can't see through glass (insert rolleyes emoticon here) 

 

Day 2.  It does sense people leaving (UPS guy, myself) but not coming in. A few false triggers but I figured wind or a really fast cat. After I came home, I repositioned FD a bit lower. Now it does not see the street at all. A few night triggers but nothing too crazy, again, fast cat theory. Set mode to have FD and FT record when FD senses motion. 30 seconds worth.

 

Day 3, today. FD going NUTS! Every few minutes it triggers a recording. NOTHING on video. No wind, no movement, no fast cats and most certainly no people. Set the sensitivity down, from 100-80-70-60-1. Yes, 1! Still triggering. And completely by chance, as I was watching a live feed from FT, which sees the street, a car zoomed by, and FD triggered! 

 

So, what gives? FD can't sense people walking towards it,  yet any cars passing by on the street it can't see trigger it! Again, sensitivity is 1. 

 

Attached are the fields of view of FD and FT. 

7 REPLIES 7
L-F-C
Tutor
Tutor

I've come to realize motion sensitivity is useless, doesn't work or is just a gimic. Just now when I returned home I walked slow towards the camera from my driveway and it sensed me when I was 4-5 feet away from the mail slot. I suppose I could say this is an improvement, since FD didn't sense anyone in its field of view walking towards it at 70-100 sensitivity, only when they were leaving. And now at 1, it sensed me walking towards it. 

Honestly, these are the kinds of result I'd expect from an Aliexpress or Taobao bought chinese product. Hell, even my motion sensor lights in the back yard can see me much better than this thing. 

steve_t
Master Master
Master

PIR motion sensors work by objects breaking "Beams" and thus sense much better across their FOV than they do objects moving towards or away from the camera.

When you see a recording of someone walking away, normally the camera has detected the motion but the original camera has a few seconds lag between motion detection and recording starting. 

Between the lag, poorer motion detection, expensive batteries, no USB backup on the base, and seeminly common issues with pink video with the Arlo HD camera system, I would recommend you consider getting the Arlo Pro system. Arlo Pro is a huge improvement over Arlo HD wirefree and Arlo Pro 2 is a lesser improvement over Arlo Pro

jguerdat
Guru Guru
Guru

If that's not an option, consider removing the camera from Settings, My Devices and resyncing it. If it still triggers wildly, consider swapping at the store (maybe for the Pro system) or open a case with support here.

Helpmeronda
Guide
Guide
The reason is cam is triggered by sideways motion at least that’s what I have found. So I have learned to place cams so person has to pass by cam even just on an Angle that triggers camera and helps a photograph them as they are walking away from your door
Helpmeronda
Guide
Guide
Ps. Don’t get mad, stop- chill- think. And by working with system you will find answers.
I find the range of base very limited so I installed 2nd base.
And after screwing around with placement of cams I got it near perfect. I have a heating system that vents out side of house. The vapor from the heating unit passed in front of camera causing trigger. Another case is it recorded leaves blowing across
L-F-C
Tutor
Tutor

Reviving my old thread...

 

I've discovered something interesting. If I set my own recording mode for example, FD trigger -> FD + FT record, the motion sensing goes crazy. I end up experiencing the same issues I posted before. Motion outside the field of view get recorded. Cars, bugs, birds, leaves, anything at all that moves gets recorded. 

Back to Arlo's "Armed" mode, motion sensing gets back to normal to sensing only what's moving within the field of view. 

steve_t
Master Master
Master

Can you tell us your custom mode's rules and the parameters of the rules?