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pxcplanner1

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Sunday, December 22nd, 2024 12:41 AM

camera motion sensitivity 7 feet

I have two outdoor cameras mounted =<8 feet with a downward 30 degree angle. The connectivity on both cameras is good. There are no restricted activity zones.  Sensitivity is set for high.  One camera is mounted in middle over my garage door and the other in the middle over my front door.  Both live views show an area looking out 30 feet from the cameras.  Walking up the sidewalk towards the front door camera, the camera doesn't capture motion until I'm seven feet from the camera. Repeating the same for the garage camera the result was motion detected at 8 feet.  I called tech support twice with both reps telling me to take the cameras down, remove them my system, then add them back in and replace the cameras.  I did the steps for both cameras with the same poor results.  The second tech then suggested I need to use a power cord vs battery.  At this point my blood pressure increased drastically.  IF using a power cord solves this problem, SimpliSafe is telling me using batteries is useless.  I asked to speak to a supervisor and I was connected to a person to which I replayed my experience.  When I told her a tech support person recommended a power cord to solve the problem, she said WHAT?? The supervisor told me the cameras don't have good sensitivity walking in a direct line towards the camera.  I said what? She said moving side to side increases the camera's ability to detect motion.  I said, so I need to post a sign to tell home invaders to walk back and forth vs a straight line so motion will be detected.  She sort of laughed.  Anyway the outcome is I'm stuck with two cameras that will capture video from =< 7 feet from the cameras.  I shared this with friends who have outdoor cameras and they said they don't have that problem.  Bottom line is if you want a system with outdoor cameras capable of picking up motion greater than 7 feet, consider a different system. 

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6 months ago

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lance843

1.1K Messages

6 months ago

Well it is true as ALL wireless cameras do better at picking up motion from side to side and I mean ALL wireless cameras. I have had ring, arlo, and many other brands and they all do it. But I also have 6 wired poe (power over ethernet) cameras that records 24/7 and hooked up to a big tv so we can see live as well whike we are home, so if simplisafe cameras missed something or simplisafe cameras stopped recording for the short time they do then the wired poe cameras have caught all of it and we go to them.

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dlpsr

1.6K Messages

Well, it depends on what all means,😉.

I don't have any Ring nor Arlo or POE "yet". But might do some Reolink POE, Home Assistant compatible. Lol

If the OP means good connectivity meaning the SS connection checks shows all blue bars and around -40 Dbm to less than -50 Dbm, that's what I consider good.

Fiber or 1GB Internet speed doesn't equal or mean good connectivity strength thru the walls.

Signal strength is what matters. My wifi and many others here use Mesh.

No metal in or on the outside walls, like stucco with wire mesh etc. wifi barriers?

And how large a home? Cameras distance from base station? Base wakes up the cameras.

So both good Wi-Fi strength and base RF signals needed. That's my problem with all an brick home, weak base RF signals. I added a 2nd base but that has it's issues, even though it helped two cameras I put in it to test. Long story.

My 5 outdoor are setup similarly, hard down angles, mine are all 720p. Several are set to All motion, high sensitivity on several, some aren't, All motion, medium on 1 or 2 also.

When I had detection, self only now, it worked pretty good and about 30 feet detections, excluding random cars headlights, leaves, tree limbs, bushes, etc.

Still detects well enough, even with only self monitoring. Just no videos.

And I assume the cameras are mounted right side up, and I mean no disrespect, upside down would cut the detection distance in at least half. Probably.

I'm Android, so can't help iOS users much. But try toggling the motion toggles, change the settings and save. Delete the app and reinstall it. But, just taking a guess, it's base RF and/or WiFi signal strength since it's currently unknown.

What I do have is wireless, USB powered, no batteries cameras. About 15 of them.

Rather than PIR, they do Pixel comparison:

The camera continuously analyzes the pixels in each video frame and compares them to the previous frame, triggering a motion alert when a large cluster of pixels changes, and is adjustable for sensitivity.

Cheap too.😊 I wouldn't trade one of my $20 Wyze cams for 10 of these $200 models.😀😇

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6 months ago

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dlpsr

1.6K Messages

6 months ago

But, with only 15 tops 20 seconds SS recordings, where my cheapies beat that by a long shot and record to SD cards 24/7 (free).

And too many other design deficiencies to mention, but here's a few. Can't use the spot lights, it comes on late and turns off late, same for cameras sirens. All related to WiFi and RF, poor design, IMHO. 20/20 hindsight. Lol

These things do not do surveillance. In close and personal quick clips. Poor night vision, I turned it off and added extra light for color at night.

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