I am new to joining this forum. I am looking for an outdoor camera that works or integrates with Smarthings. I currently have two Arlo camera’s which work ok. But I’m looking for a camera that provides 24/7 recording with cloud storage, Ir for night vision, preferably wireless and that I can set up with my current SM automation. Any information would be helpful.
I would also like something without a monthly fee for the recording feature if possible.
Ruled out options
I looked about but couldn’t find anything that suited my requirements quite right. In the end I went for a standalone wired (PoE) CCTV system which was considerably cheaper than the things I were looking at to integrate with SmartThings. The system has a mobile app and the cameras can be viewed remotely, so I’ve managed to get SmartThings to show a live feed from all four cameras. I now want to try and reverse engineer how to tap in to the motion detection events so that I can integrate SmartThings notifications etc
If you’re looking for 24/7 recording you can rule out true wireless. That would kill your batteries. However, you can set your Arlo cams up to do this if you wanted through ST.
@leedjones you can try setting up a motion sensor outside. I have 4 Arlos outside and I set up a motion sensor along with one of them because I needed wider motion sensing in that area
@leedjones I think a Poe camera would work but I’m not sure what options there are that have some integration with Smarthings. I wanted the camera outside to record 24/7 and be view-able from a phone and have cloud capability. Any options that could work outdoors. Most cameras I found that are poe are indoor units or can’t be viewed with Smarthings.
How is the response time with using a stand alone motion sensor with the Arlo. The other reason I’m looking for another outdoor camera is because the delay we with Arlo’s own motion sensor keeps missing parts of video captures from my porch. Its no use if I keep getting someone walking away. Or a car has already pulled when it starts recording. A 24/7 camera that I can get alerts when motion I think would work best for me here. Although I’m not sure what system works best with Smarthings single camera system here only.
Also can you recommend and motion sensors. To pair with my current Arlo’s?
I do not think ST has a true outdoor camera. I would love if they did. I am also looking in doing this as we have had some issues in my community as of late with car break-ins, a car theft and packages being stolen…the latter really around the holidays. I am looking to put a camera out front and out back in my yard in case we have issues with people allowing their dog to use my yard as their personal toilet and not picking up after them.
Are the Arlo cameras and motion sensors good for indoor use better than outdoor?
I have a Zooz multi outside under the protection of a porch. It’s been there for about 2 weeks. I only got one false positive so far.
I had it set up to trigger the Arlo on my garage to record. But I also had the Arlo setup to record. This didn’t work. If the Arlo gets two record commands, it will fail to store the video. The second acts as a cancel.
The recording delay wouldn’t have been much better anyway. The time it takes for the event to get sent to Arlo is still too long. You need to see what happens 5 seconds before the motion trigger, not 1 or 3 or more after. You can’t do this with Arlo. (And you can’t set it up to record until the action is done. Hence, it’s not useful for security.)
I now have the Arlo on my front porch. The stairs take a while to climb. . .
The Arlo base station crashes nightly. I have to manually reactivate the camera. . . . I’m starting to hate it. I think it’s going back as defective. It also causes wifi interference with my router.
I’ve been testing an HIKVision with Surveillance station. It’s far, far better. It integrates nicely with Swanny’s code. I have it on auto-take. 90% of the time, the images get stored in ST. That’s all I want anyway. I have SS for viewing the videos.
@asmuts is right. The recording delay isn’t really any better with a standalone motions sensor. I’ve never had my system fail though. For me I put my sensor farther from the door (it’s actually on a tree) and works great for my needs. Hopefully Arlo puts out an update will improve the motion capability of the camera. Having to add a motion sensor to an already motion activated camera is dumb, especially considering that it isn’t a cheap camera. I just used an Iris sensor from Lowes
I’m not sure that they can without dramatically reducing the battery life. The delay is the camera startup time. I don’t know what this involves, but it seems to be very slow. Just try to take a picture. Slooooow.
I’m sending mine back as soon as I get another camera in place. I ordered another poe camera and an rj46 crimper. . . .
Do you till have motion acted on arlo even though you have a motion sensor as a trigger. Wouldn’t this cancel out the recording if motion sense was activated on arlo as well.
Any recommendations for a single camera to monitor my front door 24/7.
Poe cameras can work but they need to be able to have cloud storage. The camera still needs to notify me when motion is there. If possible it would be nice to integrate with Smarthings.
I have my Arlo in Smartthings mode too. I ran into a problem when I had two different triggers to start recording. I had ST set to record both based on an external motion detector and motion in the camera. The external motion detector would trigger a recording and then the camera would too, cancelling out the first. I could have turned off the trigger that was using the camera’s motion detection. Instead, I just turned off the other. It wasn’t helping much.