Outdoor Security Camera System

[MAGG]

I have the Arlo Pro2 system. 3 wireless on batteries and 1 in garage wireless but plugged in. The Pro2 series comes with Li-ion batteries. Each battery last approximately 2-4 months depending on usage. They are rechargeable.
1 camera on my front farmers porch- wide angle and motion activated. Night IR works perfect in this small area.
2 cameras in the yard. Night IR works ok. IR is only powerful enough to light up close areas.
Only thing i don't like about the Arlo system is they nickle and dime you to death on the accessories. External charger, spare battery, Camo cover, etc...

Favorite thing for me was i solved the issue with someone was putting dog poop in a plastic bag and putting it in my mailbox. My neighbor too! Just bunch a lazy people walking their dogs and didn't want to carry a bag of poop with them. I mounted a camera on a tree a good 50 feet from my house bout 8-9 feet up that covered my mailbox. It is covered with realtree camo cover and looks like part of the tree. Solved that issue quick.

and what did you say to the neighbor after you discovered this? Hopefully you fed them the dog shit

 

[Point37]

and what did you say to the neighbor after you discovered this? Hopefully you fed them the dog shit

I would have put all the dog shit in a bucket with a lid so it stayed “fresh” and once I found out who it was it would end up dumped on whatever doorstep they use to enter/exit the house or maybe right next to the drivers door of their car in their driveway...isn’t messing with mailboxes a federal offense?

 

[Larry Gentile]

I would have put all the dog shit in a bucket with a lid so it stayed “fresh” and once I found out who it was it would end up dumped on whatever doorstep they use to enter/exit the house or maybe right next to the drivers door of their car in their driveway...isn’t messing with mailboxes a federal offense?

Basically I placed a temporary sign on the mailbox that stated the "Your dog crap does not belong in my mailbox." I also informed them that my property is now monitor by video and any future deliveries would be "delivered" to their residence. Problem solved!

 

[babygorilla]

The goal isn't to make your home impossible, just difficult enough that your neighbor is a more attractive target.

Commercial alarm systems can often detect jamming. They always use "supervised" sensors for both wired and wireless, register when a sensor fails to "check in" on time and treat that as a fault.

Higher-end monitored systems also support "blind SMS", allowing the alarm to get an alert out even when local cellular communications are jammed and they can't actually do a full conversation with a cell tower.


Wireless cameras generally don't detect jamming or short-lived video outage, if only because WiFi is unreliable enough that the false-positives would be unacceptably common. I'd be interested to know if the battery-powered cameras will ever proactively report if a camera stops reporting.

If I bag one of your cameras out of a tree (with a copper-lined pouch so it can't phone home), you might never notice until you go to try to view the live feed?

I used to have my WIFI drop all the time. I would get told by blink that it was offline when this happened. I suppose if it was jammed this would also occur.

 

[JayMcB]

you're WAAAAAAY milder than my response would have been, esp. if I had video proof

 

[wilson911]

you're WAAAAAAY milder than my response would have been, esp. if I had video proof

Me too. Probably why I doubt the veracity of his claim.

 

[kiver]

I have the Arlo Pro and it would pick up any trucks driving in the street. I had to aim it at my door to stop all of the false triggers. There is also a lag in the time it detects motion and records it

 

[Kevin_NH]

I have the Arlo Pro and it would pick up any trucks driving in the street. I had to aim it at my door to stop all of the false triggers. There is also a lag in the time it detects motion and records it

There are tradeoffs with all motion detection mechanisms, especially in battery-operated cameras which need to conserve power. That's why Arlo Pro uses PIR instead of in-camera video analytics -- the (power hungry) video sensor sleeps until PIR sees something moving.

Unlike the battery-operated Arlo products, many hardwired surveillance systems can do 24x7 recording at a low frame rate while keeping a buffer of +20 seconds of full-resolution, full-frame rate video; if motion is detected, it doesn't just start recording at that moment (as the Arlo Pro does), but also saves the "pre-alarm" buffer, showing what happened leading up to the triggering event. Very useful for looking at what really caused a false positive alert.

Disk space is cheap, battery life is expensive.

 

[Larry Gentile]

Me too. Probably why I doubt the veracity of his claim.

If you are referring to my post! I never said and did not have video proof of anyone placing the dog poop in my mailbox. If i did it would have been a different story. I actually put up the camera and the note at the same time which solved the issue. I have a idea who did it but there are several different people that walk their dogs down my street. Should have just put the sign up and saved the money on the camera system.

Also just saw an ad for the new Arlo Pro Ultra cameras. 4k, color nightvision, built in spotlight, HDR.
Overall i am happy with my system. Plus everything is saved to the cloud for on week for free (no monthly fee).

 

[Point37]

Asked a question about blink beta activity zones...here is the answer...I think I’ll be picking up a system soon

 

[babygorilla]

Yep, they sent an email releasing them on Monday I think.

 

[garandman]

We have a four camera Arlo setup at our place in NH: three outside, and one inside to monitor temperature. We used internet from FairPoint, which was slow but only $30 per month. We didn’t use it for much else because there is a Verizon tower 1.6 miles away so we have 4-5 bars all the time.

FairPoint sold out to Consolidated in Maine, who just raised the price to $52 per month so I’m going to cancel next month.

Looking around, Arlo has a new Arlo Go camera, which includes audio, a card slot to save video, a rechargeable battery, and has its own data plan. Looks like the cost is about $15 / month / camera.

Arlo Go Mobile Security Camera | Verizon Wireless

 

[LuvDog]

What about adding a hotspot from Verizon to your account and just using your current setup and use the hotspot for WiFi?

Or add an old phone you have and leave it plugged in as a hotspot?

 

[garandman]

Can you buy a hotspot device? We’d need to plug the existing Arlo system into a port, it’s not wireless.

This it? Verizon SmartHub | Verizon Wireless

 

[Lip]

Mine are hard wired pan and tilt. Overkill for my trailerhood.

 

[HorizontalHunter]

Asked a question about blink beta activity zones...here is the answer...I think I’ll be picking up a system soon

That probably explains the price jump.

Bob

 

[mu2bdriver]

Asked a question about blink beta activity zones...here is the answer...I think I’ll be picking up a system soon

I bought an add on camera for my existing system and noticed it didn’t have the activity zone option. Called them up, spoke to a human in under a minute, asked a few questions and sent a software update to the camera. Had my activity zones in less than five minutes from phone call start to end.

 

[308rifleman]

I have the Arlo Pro and it would pick up any trucks driving in the street. I had to aim it at my door to stop all of the false triggers. There is also a lag in the time it detects motion and records it

Alexa does the same for us. Had to tune down the sensitivity. Did not want my much-needed beauty sleep to be interupped by a neighbor across the street coming home late at night!

 

[clampett]

Anyone care to update this thread? I'm looking for a outdoor system that would capture licence plates in the dark. It would have to have a range of 300'.
I don't mind running cable and power lines to accomplish this.

 

[bottle-cap]

300’ in the dark?
Do you want to be able to read license plates from a football field away in total darkness?
That’s a pretty tall order for home security cameras.
Check out “Dahua” cameras.

Dahuasecurity.com

 

[clampett]

300’ in the dark?
Do you want to be able to read license plates from a football field away in total darkness?
That’s a pretty tall order for home security cameras.
Check out “Dahua” cameras.

Dahuasecurity.com

No, sorry I wasn't very clear.
I want to have the cameras mounted 300' from my house.

 

[bottle-cap]

No, sorry I wasn't very clear.
I want to have the cameras mounted 300' from my house.

I have Dahua cameras. Most can run on cat5 cable. No need to run separate power lines. Buy cable in bulk, put your own ends on and save lots of money over buying pre cut patch cords. 500’ is under $50.
app on your cell phone lets you control everything.

 

[Wjhall]

A decent review,,,


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR5HnFS3bJE

 

[Kevin_NH]

I'm looking for a outdoor system that would capture licence plates in the dark.

Capturing license plates can be difficult, there are several online guides on where to mount cameras and how many pixels you need to have a fair chance of reading a plate. It's even more difficult at night, e.g. with oncoming headlights.

Here's a good paper on the topic (from one of the few camera vendors not doing design & production in China).

I want to have the cameras mounted 300' from my house.

I have Dahua cameras. Most can run on cat5 cable. No need to run separate power lines. Buy cable in bulk, put your own ends on and save lots of money over buying pre cut patch cords. 500’ is under $50.

300' is right about the maximum distance (100m) for Ethernet or regular PoE, and cheap cables (CCA) can drop out at around 60m. You can add an inline " PoE extender" however this increases the wattage draw from your switch or injector.

 

[Sniper (+)]

With all of these wireless systems, how easy would it be for a would-be intruder to jam or disrupt the systems so they can get in with less chance of being detected?

Any laptop running linux that has a wifi adapter that can be switched to monitor mode can do it in seconds.

 

[OLAK]

I have Eufy cam2 battery last for 6 months. no fee, face recognition very movement sensitive, each cam has 3 zones, can upload as wanted to your PC.

 

[JJ4]

Anyone using the Ubiquiti Unifi Protect lineup?

I already have a UDM Pro and a poe switch so I can just add cameras.