[OBSOLETE] Arlo Assitant - Arlo Enhanced management from smartthings

Due to the recent actions from Arlo and Smartthings ArloPilot has been permanently broken. This has left a huge management gap for Arlo devices. I wanted to make this avaliable to the community as this is something i am working on to fill the gap left with the exit of ArloPilot.

Arlo Assistant as it stands now will allow you to effectively create rules in Smartthings for your Arlo cameras. The features are completely based on what Arlo Pilot could do and what you could do setting up modes in the Arlo Cloud. The feature set will be evolving over time as improvments are made and features are added.

Please feel free to download the new application from Github at:
Owner: Mavrrick
Repository: ArloAssistant
Branch: master

So what does Arlo Assistant allow you to do:

  1. You can use Smartthings Mode, Smart Home Monitor, Smartthings ADT Alarm state, or virtual switches as controllers to dictate if a Arlo Assistant Mode is active. This effectively Allows you to define the modes that Arlo Pilot would trigger off of.
  2. Because this functions from within Smartthings you can use it’s devices as triggers for the define actions. Those triggers are currently based on Motion, Audio, Contact, a Button, Accelleration, Switch and Moisture. When an event occurs on these devices, the app will validate if the appropriate mode conditions exist and then will process the action.
  3. The actions have been setup to mimic what the Arlo cloud manages. and they are as follows:
    a. You can trigger a recording for the alro cameras for up to 120 seconds.
    b. You can trigger light activity. This is there for to represent the ability to manage Arlo Security light, but has the added benifit of potentially managing any lights connected to smartthings.
    c. You can send out notifications from smartthings via Push or SMS Text.

If you find anything missing please let me know and i will work on getting it added.

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Trying to understand how to configure when I only want to arm/disarm based on SHM mode?

Before I give an answer I need one question answered. When you say armed/disarmed do you mean different actions based on alarm state or the camera is off vs on based on alarm state?

So the previous Arlo Pilot would set the mode in Arlo app to Armed or Disarmed based on the SHM mode. How do I use this app to do the same?

@pmjoen Arlo Assistant is really about mimicking what the modes in Arlo cloud do in Smartthings and not about the Arlo Modes in the Arlo Cloud.

Arlo mode control of the Arlo Cloud is not likely to happen. It isn’t possible with Arlo official integrations. What we can do though is define the arlo mode in smartthings with Arlo Assistant. Then arlo assistant can use Smartthings events and actions to create the same outcome. That is why it is important to know what you mean by Arm/Disarm.

When you go to the Arlo Cloud in a browser or open the Arlo app on a phone, disarm is noted as meaning that Arlo no longer detects motion or audio and no action is taken. The cameras are still functional though in that case. To replicate that condition I see two possible options.

First option: Leave camera active for use, but no action

  1. Set your cameras in the arlo cloud with a mode that is set to allow all cameras with no actions and no notifications Set the cameras as you want them with all of the extra settings.
  2. Don’t set anything in Arlo Assistant as no action would be needed. Arlo Assistant will only trigger actions when the mode you create is matched. Disarmed in this case means the lacking of a matching mode in Arlo Assistant

Second option: Actively turn off cameras like a switch to prevent anything from using them for motion or audio

  1. Set your cameras in the arlo cloud with a mode that is set to allow all cameras with no actions and no notifications Set the cameras as you want them with all of the extra settings.
  2. Set your cameras to off. This would be basically setting the cameras switch state to off. I haven’t created the child app for this function yet. This is a different app then what is already there because this action would be triggered by the acting of changing the alarm state and not by matching to what the alarm state is.

Now for the Armed modes there are two seperate ones. Simply put when setting up your Arlo Assistant Mode for them make sure you flip the switch to use SHM/Location Alarm mode as the option to determine the mode is active. Then click on the space to select the “Security system mode to use” and a new screen will load. you will need to enter the correct value to indicated Stay or away and then click on Next. if you scroll down you will see a section for what is the trigger. Select the appropriate triggers for what you want to trigger the mode and then action. ie motion. Then scroll down further and setup the action. Right now the only options available are record a clip or send a notification.

Does this meet your need or do you still see a gap with this method?

I need some help. I only have Arlo Q and Arlo Pro 2 cameras. I know that the original Arlo wire free and Arlo Pro cameras are integrated in Smartthings. I also know that the Arlo Doorbell and Chime are not integrated. Can someone clarify for me if the Arlo outdoor lights are integrated. I am also curious about anything else anyone knows for arlo. I need to make sure I am accounting for all of the needed functions.

I just realized one of my beliefs about how this would be setup has been wrong. So i am now thinking about how to shift from that.

I’m sure I’m missing something.
I’ve added your Repository and updated and published the Arlo Assistant, Image/Clip Refresh, Smartthings Mode, Triggered Record, and Triggered Repeat Recorder SamartApps. Everything looks OK from the IDE side.
When I go to the SmartThings App, I don’t see the Arlo Assistant listed with my other SmartApps under Automations. (I’ve got WebCoRE, SmartLighting, and SmartTiles installed and showing up there.)
What am I missing?

From Classic app.

Click on “+ Add a Smartapp” at bottom
Click on “+ My Apps”
It should be listed.

Once the Parent App “Arlo Assistant” is loaded you should be able to manage it from the new Smartthings app.

I have an Arlo light connected through the Arlo hub and I see it and can control it in Smartthings. I can trigger on motion and turn on and off the light. The only thing I can’t do it change the color or flash.

@Paul_DeFeo
Can you go into the IDE and show me arlo light device info under the Current States section. Basically I am trying to figure out it’s capabilities. Adding a option to trigger lights wouldn’t be hard to do.

You can PM it to me if you want to keep the info off of here. Also be sure to block any info that might be Personal identifying info.

PM sent…

That was it. I hadn’t done the “Classic app” items. Now it’s showing in the new app as well. Thanks

I just pushed a new version of the Arlo Assistant Mode Program.

This new version has several changes.

  1. I added the ability to trigger light activity. There are several features that needed to be added to enable this. This was needed to bring the program closer inline with the Arlo cloud when using their external lights. One by product of this is now all lights attached to the hub can be associated.
  2. I updated the method that triggers the recordings to validate the camera status first. Now if your camera is already recording it doesn’t try to submit a new recording. Eventually this will be used to try to validate if activity is still present and to then keep the camera recording. Right now the camera just has to be triggered again.
  3. I broke out the mode action from the mode validation module. This should make managing the program easier and should have no impact on functionality.

One thing I am struggling with a little bit is weather to create rule sets in the mode. The idea being that once you define what makes the mode you may be able to define different triggers and actions within the mode. Right now it is kind of linear. I would really like some feedback on that.

I also noticed a anomaly when having a camera in a mode and a general rule. It looks like any time a recording is triggered it is also making the camera generate a motion event. Is anyone else experiencing this.

A few things.

I update the parent app yesterday to have a better UI. It was a little cludgy and confusing. When i initially released it i was more focused on getting something out there for users since arlopilot was killed off so fast.

I have noticed a few anomaly’s in the setup between my two different Arlo Cameras. I have Arlo Pro 2’s and Arlo Q’s.

When you are setting up the generic mode in the Arlo Cloud you probably want to set them up as follows.

For the Arlo Q:

  1. Set the Smartthings Mode to use both the audio and Motion detection,
  2. Set the action to “Do Nothing”
  3. Set the notification to send an email. Remove your email and put a dummy one it it’s place.

For the Pro 2(and hopefully others that use base stations)

  1. Set the Smartthings mode to use both Audio and Motion for each camera.
  2. Set it to do nothing based on that trigger
  3. Leave both options in the notify section unchecked.

This should allow the cameras to be used for audio and motion detection.

We also need to be careful about using cameras to trigger other cameras. I have found that it looks like recordings triggered from within smartthings trigger a motion event on the camera when the recording starts. This just means that if that camera is a trigger for something else the other action will occur as well. It is just something to keep in mind when doing the setup.

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An FYI

I have noticed a few times now where a camera has stoped recording. This appears to be related to the ClipStatus of the device getting stuck in initiated. This can be resolved manually by simply opening the Arlo App and activating the camera and creating a short recording manually. I am researching why this is happening and a corrective action i can do programatically.

2 Likes

I just published a update to the Mode child app. Minor changes.

  1. Added the ability to use a siren as a action. This will allow similar use case to turning on the siren in the base station from a mode in the Arlo Cloud.
  2. Cleaned up some duplicate Logging that was not needed.

This update is purely optional unless you need the alarm triggered options.

It looks like a new new Event with arlo integration is occurring. I am not seeing any motion events on any devices from around 2:50pm today.

Looks like Arlo is having issues - see https://status.arlo.com/

"We are aware of a potential issue with notifications and video recordings that is impacting some customers. Our team is actively investigating this and will provide an update as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.

Thank you,

Arlo Team"

I have added a child app that will monitor the cameras in case they go into a bad state. If it occurs the child app will send notification with a message to correct the issue in the arlo cloud. I am still working trying to identify if it can be corrected with some action from Smartthings.

I have made further refinements to the arlo assistant smartthings mode child app. Some ui changes that should make defining what makes the mode valid a bit easier. I have also added some setup to define some time values. These time values will provide the validation for defining a mode to be active between certain times.

So now you can define a arlo assistant mode based on time.

Enjoy

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