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gregter's profile

Friday, September 17th, 2021 1:49 AM

Outdoor Camera Worthless

It detects cars on the street I have blocked out, but yet I drive my car up the driveway directly in front of the camera and nothing. Walk down the driveway to check the mail and back, jumped up and down, waving my arms in the air like a wildman,  nothing. Set to all motion on high sensitivity. Medium/people only makes no difference. WTF really?  Sending everything back.

64 Messages

3 years ago

Update: I walked down the driveway at night and the spotlight came on. Still no notification or anything on the timeline.

Captain

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6.2K Messages

3 years ago

@gregter Detection works fine and I get notifications on my outdoor cam, and purchased a 2nd.  Do you get notificatons on anything else? ie doorbell pro?  Are the notifications supposed to come on push notifications from the app, SMS texts or emails?

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

3 years ago

Hi gregter,

We do have a firmware update for the camera coming up that might help some of what you're talking about. That's on the way soon.

But in the meantime, have we already considered a simple replacement? Our Support team at 800-548-9508 would be happy to send one out. It's possible that this is an issue with your specific hardware, since the issue doesn't seem to be very widespread.

- Johnny M.
SimpliSafe Home Security

99 Messages

3 years ago

My blocked out zones are ignored also. I hope this firmware update improves things. My battery died after 36 hours; I guess due to all the activity it was sensing. I just got home after being out of town for 6 days. Will install fresh battery tomorrow and recheck things.

16 Messages

3 years ago

I agree with the outdoor camera being worthless. It's a turd, if you can tolerate my language and frustration. I am on my the 3rd replacement camera. It detects a car driving past my house, a distance of about 40 feet, but will not detect a person walking on my sidewalk or a person until they are about 10 feet from the camera! WORTHLESS!

I want my $160 back!!!!!!!!

Captain

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6.2K Messages

3 years ago

@taviking22 mine works fine so something is causing an issue. What did support say when you called to troubleshoot? Also, just return it under the 60 warranty and get your money back if necessary.

16 Messages

Glad you are satisfied with your camera. You must have gotten the pick of the litter!

Captain

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6.2K Messages

3 years ago

@ taviking22 don't know if it makes a difference, but mine is powered by the optional AC adapter. Again, what did support say when you called to troubleshoot?

1 Message

@captain11​ I can’t speak for him but for myself i have the exact same issues where I have certain areas blocked off and I still constantly get notifications about those areas. It detects cars really well but not so much with people. I’ve adjusted my sensitivity as well as changed my camera angle. When I call, they only offer to swap my camera out which I have done already. Still having the same issue and I have the latest camera as well as the older one.

Captain

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6.2K Messages

@anthny1288​ Thanks for the info. There has to be come common elements why you, and others, are having these issues and others do not.  I would think SS has them documented.  Davey D has posted development is aware of the issues and working to resolve them. Would be nice of them to share with us.

1 Message

2 years ago

The Low, Medium, High and people detection is useless. There’s no level between low and medium so if I set it on medium I get every bird, leaf, snowflake or whatever setting off my camera. If I put it on Low it doesn’t even pick up a vehicle pulling in the driveway. Then.. I can either  choose for it to detect people only or everything.   Why isn’t there an option for vehicles,  people or everything?  Roku is the cheapest generic cameras and they at leasthave the option to change sensitivity and to only detect certain things.  This is crazy. I get notifications all day for everything. 

1 Message

4 months ago

All of these issues are still relevant. I am experiencing the same as everyone in this thread. Just got my system a couple months ago. Have spent many hours across a number of weeks trying to troubleshoot, with and without help from tech support. 

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@NM97​ Sorry to hear about all of this trouble. If you could please let me know a little more about the exact issue you're experiencing and the troubleshooting steps you have already taken, I can help provide additional assistance or get you in touch with our specialist team.

1.4K Messages

4 months ago

Real hard down angle.

All motion

720p

Medium sensitivity on some and high on some with no car traffic. Learned the hard way.

Try to block anything like trees or traffic, headlights etc. out of the view by angling.

Snow and rain🤷 Experiment with settings.

You just want to see if someone is near or a car up close to the house.

Zones only help a little for me. But not completely useless.

They see what they're supposed to see out to about 30 feet in daytime. Night vision is worse, very grainy night vision beyond 10 feet. Almost useless.

So I don't use it, long story.

If you mounted them 15 or 20 feet high, you probably only have 10 or 12 feet of detection range left.

Mine I can reach some, some are max 10 - 12 feet high.

If you don't have mesh wifi, you probably need it and should consider it. Ask about Google mesh here, 1 admin uses it and other users successfully.

1.4K Messages

@dlpsr

I won't mention the many different issues I've had over the last several weeks, no one would read it anyhow and I can get long winded. 😁 PITA.

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