Why is the cam missing everything???

[Gotcha]

This morning, the troublesome neighbor on my left side left their house. The detector caught the tail end of a car leaving but missed everything else - and the car pulling out would have been in view. Also, the same neighbor left with their dog and in a 60s recording it caught one frame of the dog but not even a GLIMPSE of the neighbor walking the dog! And they both walked right by the camera and (though somewhat hidden at the moment as I look for the perfect spot to mount it) it was aimed directly at them!

WTH????

[TomMac]

Aiming directly at them is less effective for motion sensing  as crossing the Field of View.

Think of the sensor as a checkerboard... it detects motion via IR/reflection IR as it changes from on box to another. Cutting across the board  (FOV) hits more squares quickly than directly into the board ( vertical plane ) where it may hit one or two .

Most IR passive sensors if you stand still will not detect movement as the IR stays in one spot... it has to see multiple hits.

The best thing to do is 1) location so the subject crosses the FOV 2) adjust the sensitivity ( this may take a few times , sort of trial and error ) for best results without a lot of false hits. 3) increase record time if you think the subject will travel back the same way in the time limit. 4) If really a problem then use ( as mentioned in a few threads ) 2 cameras but make cam A start record on B and the opposite.

If you absolutely have to capture than maybe a wired 24/7 camera may be in order as Arlo wasn't designed to do this.

[Gotcha]

We moved it. And while we love that its wireless (completely! so nice!) and HD (hello crisp video!) I think I hate the magnet. The vantage point from our area is very sharp (an L). We put it above our door but it literally missed every single thing. So we moved it to the corner of the L and had to pick a side. While its better, the cam is completely shifted over to one side as far as we thought it could go without completely dislodging it. Not thrilled with that. But now, we get a video every(!) time a LEAF skitters across the driveway. Its maddening. I just lessened the video amount from 80 to 50 - and the time (had it at 60s now its at 45s).

Thoughts?

[TomMac]

As I said, " adjust the sensitivity ( this may take a few times , sort of trial and error ) for best results without a lot of false hits "

It's not necessarily easy to get it right, it will take a few times , esp if the sun comes into play in the area you want to see... I'd lower down the sensitivity till I get almost no hits, and then bring up ( sort of work it opposite ).

As to the magnet, don't forget that any standard mount for a camera will work... or a trip to Home depot for a bolt and couple of nuts and mount on a bracket of choice.... its a easy to find thread pitch.. I think its 1/4-20

[EmbeddedEE]

I'm a large middle age man who isn't the fastest on his feet; however, even positioning this camera ~10 feet in the air, angled down with a wide unobstructed field of vision, I can run (more like a trot at my size) across this field and beat the recording (I might get a picture of part of a leg).  This has no chance against a younger intruder.

Ranging the sensitivity from %80 to %100 did not help (nor should it).  I've narrowed down on a decent % setting so the motion detection triggers at the edge of field just fine if the subject moves slowly, while not triggering with small wildlife.  I'm running with what I believe is current camera firmware at the time of authoring this post (1.2.2545).

This performance is likely to be okay for interior surveillance (although some hallway monitoring could easily be avoided / bypassed), but it renders this solution to limited exterior applications.

If the product could be brought down to less than a 3 second record after trigger delay, it would widen more opportunities (anywhere near 2 seconds being almost ideal for my situation).  Being an embedded engineer myself, this should be more than doable.  I’m not asking for instant on (not going to get it without sacrifice); however, there is room for improvement.

I really like this product and have been a Netgear supporter over the years where I can.  This and a couple of other issues I've written about are the only things I can find faulty with this system (the other minor issues can easily be fixed).  For my application, and the space I need to monitor, the current delay renders this product near useless for me (not unless I want to plunk down more cash for additional hardware).  I'm not looking to capture moving vehicles, but I would expect to capture a heavy set nerd like myself.

[Schorschi]

Your point has been made before by others and is well-known. One remedy is to install two cameras such that one is used as a motion sensor triggering the second camera to record. But, of course, this is only a crutch to a system that some consider flawed. If you're not willing to invest in doubling your camera count - I wouldn't blame you - then Arlo is not for you. Return the system to where you bought it, if you still can, and look into other solutions.

[RobertRosal]

I myself hope this can be improved in a firmware/software update.

[EmbeddedEE]

Thank you Schorschi for your feedback. I recognize that I can plunk more money into the system and put together a workaround, and appreciate the suggestion. At the price of these units, that approach is not reasonable.

“then Arlo is not for you”

I certainly hope this is an opinion of someone not affiliated with Netgear.  I thank you for the suggestion (it is one I've been entertaining), although if customers do not attempt to keep the company focused on features which are critical to the offered solution, then said company has a tendency to go astray. As I wrote, I like Netgear and hope they have more integrity & intelligence than that.

If this request was for instant on recording, motion zone support, different alarm features, IFTT, etc. I would fully accept seeing a “look elsewhere” response; however, the dev team should be focused on making the recording delay as short as possible. Motion detection and recording is a critical feature to a system designed for security/automation. To say look elsewhere to an honest and realistic review/expectation, is to say “this product is a toy and not ready for production.” If that's the case, they should fold the division now... it's doomed to fail.  You are right though.  There are cheaper “toy” solutions to play with and there are other solutions which may not have the same collection of features of Arlo, but will at least execute critical features correctly.

So please, someone at Netgear listen to your customer base on this one and keep it a high priority issue to address/resolve.  This request is for your benifit, not mine.  As Schorschi stated, I have the option to go elsewhere.  Your option is to lose customers...

[Schorschi]

Believe me, I'm not affiliated with Netgear in any way. I'm a customer just like you. A former customer I might add.

I had a four-camera system a couple of months ago and decided to return it within the return period.

Although I was really impressed with the ease of installation and totally wirefree operation, the dependency on an Internet connection was the deal-breaker for me. I'm always thinking, what if the company goes out of business or otherwise decides to abandon the product and turns off the cloud functionality, which is the system's livelihood.

They have total control of keeping the product alive, even after the purchase.

So, I'm popping back onto the site every so often to see if there are any upgrades, local storage with independency of an Internet connection being the one feature that would have Netgear see me back as a customer.

Btw, I don't know how many cameras you had planned on setting up in your house, but consider buying a 4-camera system (or multiples thereof) and reselling the cameras (and/or base station(s)) you don't need. At $500, a four-camera-package comes down to about $120 a camera (assuming a $30 value for the base station). (The four-camera package also has an outdoor mount included, so there is an additional bit of extra value). If you resold the cameras you don't need for anywhere above $120, your end cost could be significantly lowered compared to buying the same number of cameras in exact camera-count package matches.

That might allow you to afford an extra camera and set up two cameras overlapping the same surveillance area in a criss-cross fashion as touched on by me above and desribed in more detail here.

[Jo]

I used the guy mowing the lawn to figure some of this out.  I found that the cameras sensors angle to the left and right and if placed above the action they also angle down so getting them just right was quite the challenge.  I eventually placed the camera about 2 foot off the ground and aimed at the problem area then pan and zoomed till it was set off before the lawn mower got to the problem area.  It’s working fantastic (even get birds) as soon as the whatever triggers that sensor it starts recording and the delay time seems to be in alerting me that there is motion.  I has taken a lot of time but I am extremely happy with this set up.  Once I figured out the angle thing I was able to get it to do exactly what I wanted it to do.

[Hula_Rock]

@EmbeddedEE

Well said sir !!!!!  I have documented and tested this system over and over and over again  (feel free to look at my tests), even used a FLIR 160 after Netgear told me that "as the outside ambient temperature gets closer to 98.6 degrees, motion detectiond decreases" (Myth busted).

[Uselesscamowner]

These cams are crap they work sporadically if at all had mine since this past October and I've gone through over 75 batteries
Arlo likes to make excuses but there just plain crap give me my 649 bucks back 4cam system would never recommend these
To Anyone

[JamesC]

Uselesscamowner,

Arlo wire-free camera battery life is dependent on the conditions in which you are using your cameras. The more the cameras are used (live-stream, motion detection) the more quickly batteries will drain. Some aspects of the location of the cameras may have an affect on battery life as well. For example, if the cameras are far from the base station and have low signal strength, this could caused increased battery drain as the cameras have a more difficult time maintaining a connection with the base station. Take a look at this article for more information: What is the battery life for NETGEAR Arlo wireless cameras and how can I extend their life?

JamesC

[LC1]

How do I have camera B start recording when Camera A sense motion?

How do you change the sensitivty of the motion detection?