Arlo wireless motion questions

[Rgbart]

We recently purchased 3 wireless cameras and have been putting them through their paces. So far I have to say that I'm disappointed in the cameras. I did try wired Nest cameras and feel Arlo wireless is a better option. Quality and ease of use are good, no real complaints there. 

However...  The camera's seem to be lacking in motion detection. I read how the motion really needs to be across the camera to trigger. What I'm seeing is motion capture seems to lag the actual motions by several seconds, i.e. a car arriving in the driveway triggers the recording but it barely catches the rear of the car as it comes up the drive way. This is also true of humans moving.... I can trigger the camer and be almost past it before the video catches me.... Is this normal? I adjusted sensitivity of the cameras to 95% and didn't see any real improvement. Thoughts? 

This leads me to my 2nd question.... supposedly the Arlo Q is triggered by sound but the wireless Arlo is not. We set sensitivity high on a camera and it was going off constantly .... and then I noticed some kids out in the street (out of view) with loud talking. We had the same experience today when a pool man on the back side of another camera was working.... again, no way it was motion triggerred.... is the Q also sound triggered? There is no slider control to reset the sound sensivity? 

Unless I can get some better results with the motion detection these are probably going to be returned... (Cameras are outside in Texas so not that cold).... help! 

R

[TomMac]

First your sort of talking Apples to Oranges...

Arlo uses a PIR to detect IR or reflection of same... It is more sensitive to cross flow traffic then straight on ( the PIR seems more sensitive on the edges).

If you don't try to cover to large an area, aim the camera in a downward angle with cross traffic, the camera response is pretty good.  It does take trial an error adjusting the camera and sensitively.

The Q cam can be trigger by sound and motion. For sound, there is and adjustment for this under modes/edit; see pic

As to  motion, in the Q it is not triggered by a pir but uses a pixel base changed...basicly the cameras senses what it sees and if the view changes , that triggers record. This also adjustable and also allows you to set up 3 HOT zones to sense motion

The two camera are different but compliment each other with different strengths.

As  to better results, they both have to be adjusted for them to work properly...just in different ways for each

[Hula_Rock]

I am just going to come out and say it........ The Lag is normal, some will dispute, but its undeniable.  Arlo is battery powered.  It conserves battery consumption by putting the camera function to sleep. The only feature in operation is PIR based motion detection.  When Motion is detected, the Camera has to wake up, "handshake" with the basestation. then it starts recording, ala 2-3 second delay.

Howdy from San Antonio.

[Rgbart]

Thanks TomMac, appreciate your help. I still am not certain what the answer is on sound for the Arlo, I get that the Q has the sound control but it is not available in the Arlo, yet we appear to be getting triggers on sound with it.... so my question is whether there is a "hidden" sound detection in the Arlo that we just don't have documentation on (common in some hi tech products). Otherwise, I have no idea where the alerts are coming from. 

[Hula_Rock]

Sound detection on the Arlo system would be new to me.......

Test it, take that camera inside, point it at a wall 3 -5 feet away, and let it do its thing.  You sould have zero alerts at the end of the day. 

[TomMac]

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It's possible the sense on the Arlo is set to high and getting false triggers...and/or one of the rules/modes are messed up causing a dual record. I agree with testing a the Hrock says and see what happens.

The Arlo cams just don't have a mic to detect sound but I have seen external vibrations do funny things with electronics at times

[TexasSwede]

>When Motion is detected, the Camera has to wake up, "handshake" with

>the basestation. then it starts recording, ala 2-3 second delay.

I see much longer handshake than that, 10 seconds and more is not unisual. The signal indicator shows a strong signal with the base station. In the screenshot below you can see how long the driveway is, and still it usually only start record ing when a person walks out of the picture to the left...

[jguerdat]

That's usually caused by having motion being detected in the wrong area. It's trial and error but you want motion across the FOV and to occur at one of the edges. Many folks try to get the whole view of the scene but that just causes motion detection to be less than optimal.

[Hula_Rock]

I'd stick the Camera on the Garge or the tree oppisite the garage ....

[TomMac]

agree witt the tree, if signal is good....

One of the biggest errors I see with the Arlo cams is trying to cover too much area.  The PIR , IMO, for people is good to about 20ft .