Outdoor motion detection range

[TheeBullhead]

Let me start off by saying I love the idea behind Arlo and it's almost exactly what I'm looking for, but the outdoor motion detection range is, well, terrible.

The system seems to work great indoors, but I've spent the last day and a half trying different mounting locations outdoors and have yet to find the motion detection satisfactory.. I've scoured this board for ideas and have tried them all, different cameras, different locations, different heights, different angles, camera on its side, camera upside down, different sensitivity levels, and nothing seems to work. It seems the only motion I capture is when I am within 6-8 feet of the camera on my way to pick it up to try another location.

At this point I'm about an hour away from returning the system, but I so badly want to make it work that I'm reaching out to all of you in a last ditch effort. Please let me know if you have any other tips or suggestions.

Now I've seen quite a few responses saying the issues are due to people "not using the system as it was intended to be used" but I'm not buying that in my case. All I'm trying to do is mount my 4 cameras to cover my driveway, entry ways, and patio and have them detect motion at the distance of 15 feet as stated.

[Steph87]

I have the same issue! I tried to set them up outside but it's -20 outside and these cameras are rated to -10 which is pretty much making them useless unless I just want to check In and watch the live feed which defeats the purpose really. Useless

[jguerdat]

I'm guessing we're talking C, not F, here.  In any event, the cameras have been reported by myself and others to work fine down to 0F (-18C). I'm not sure why the specs list a more limited range other than to just cover lawyers' butts.

[TheeBullhead]

It's me again.  

After a while of just dealing with the issues, I decided to give it another try and I'm having the same issues with poor motion detection.  I tried mounting one of my cameras on the garage to get a good view of the driveway and cars.  Our driveway is straight, and maybe 80 feet long and I have the camera setup to cover the entire driveway at an angle.  I can walk up the driveway and not trigger the camera until I start onto my sidewalk, but a school bus can drive by out of the camera view (80+ feet away) and trigger the camera.  I'm at a complete loss with this system.  I know I'm beating a dead horse, but I so want this sytem to work.

I also have a camera mounted to my porch and it will capture a recording once I am in the center of the frame, but we had a neighbor's cat on the front porch walking around today and it never triggered the camera and sensitivity is 100%.

Seriously, what am I missing?

[JamesC]

TheeBullhead,

80 feet is beyond the cameras range. The best area for motion detection is 5-20 feet from the cameras position across the field of view. While the camera may pick up motion further than that, (IR reflecting off passing cars) it may be inconsistent.

Try angling the camera so that less of the street/driveway is in it's field of view. This should help reduce false triggers.

JamesC

[kng323]

I just got my 3 cameras kit setup.  I'm still figuring what's the best angle and coverage.  So far so good, fingers cross.

I would love to be able to monitor my car which is parked on the street as well.  However the distance is way beyond the range of the IR motion detector.  I hope NetGear can see my message here.  It would be nice if they come out with a new camera that can detect motion in 40-50 ft range.  And with that distance, a camera with PTZ to focus on specific area would be perfect.

[arloiftt]

pretty late to this thread.. but the thing about motion detection in the garage made me think of my door openers that have the trip-beam to detect motion to stop the door from coming down or turn on the light.

could that be an issue with an arlo in the garage?

[BRATHKI]

Hello arloiftt,

I gave up on the Arlo equipment long ago because the motion sensor components essentially do not work properly.

But to your question: The beam splitter device on your garage door will have no influence on the Arlo's function. They are totally separate technologies.

[dabblers2]

I have five cameras, four which are hard wired. Like you I am not impressed by the sensitivity issue at all. At least I turned the email notification off which means 400 email reminders of breaching or intrusion or motion. But the lights keep coming on when a bug flies across the camera. Getting sick of it of course but Swann tell me that is just the way it is. I would love my cameras to discriminate between humans and kangaroos, and a **bleep** cat or possum or smaller. Any thoughts please?

[jguerdat]

I don't get recordings when a bug flies across 99% of the time and my sensitivity is set to at least 95%.  Maybe screenshots of the camera views would be useful.

[dabblers2]

Hi Guru,

thanks for such a quick response. What I have done is gone and opened the Motion section of the software, cleared all of the red matrix, and selectively cued those areas for each of the four cameras like stairs, front of door and garage and carport etc so the camera views only those key areas.

That way I hope the cameras was not waste time looking for a cat on the ground (the boxes are up waste high in case someone approaches the front door), or comes down the steps to the front landing etc.

I will see how that goes and let you know. I also discovered that, accordng to the handbook, by setting the sensitivity to about 10, which is high, instead of 90 which means highly sensitive, I should get less motions detected. 

Now back to the handbook again.

Russ

[bethy65]

I have mine in a cut out black sock and hiding in a planter, pointing down the driveway for years..It gives me piece of mind. and schedule it everyday from midnight to 5am gives a beautiful night picture..dont give up..

[dabblers2]

Thanks for the reply. I have mine mounted to look at the car and caravan in our carport. However, I need to do something about the bar code thingy that it uses. At present I can hook it up inside using the ethernet cable, but when I place my phone in front of the camera, it won't recognise it. Got to keep trying though.

 Russ

[orlandotommy]

i had mine in a window and got no motion at all, the tech told me it did not pick up motion when behind glass! wtf?!  my nest and dvr cams always did, he told me the arlo needs to "sense heat" which made no sense at all to me...weird

[jguerdat]

PIR sensors detect IR which glass blocks. The Q cameras use pixel-based detection which does work through glass.