6 Messages
Outdoor cameras not integrated?!
Posting from my parents’ account…
So I had my parents order a beacon system with a couple of upgrades for me to install for them. It was going great and I was very happy with the product, service and support. The indoor camera bricked itself after installing a firmware update, and the tech was super-cool and promptly sent out a new one before we even returned the old one.
The problem is with the outdoor cameras, which I just installed and will probably lead to us returning the whole dang system.
1. This one is minor but it’s worth mentioning since I’m talking about the outdoor cameras. The mount that goes on top of the base plate doesn’t click on or screw on tightly. There’s no positive indent or lock. You just put it on the plate and turn it an eighth of a turn. Fiddling with the camera even a little causes it to fall off. I installed it with Loctite, so not a big deal, but a pretty poor design regardless. It’s the same on both cameras so it’s not just a bad one.
2. The big problem, and I confirmed this with a tech just now is that the outdoor cameras are not in any way, integrated with the system! Please tell me I’m wrong and this is simply user error or a setting that I’m missing. They’re retired, so they walk by the cameras all day long, whether walking out the front door to get the mail or out the back door to let the dog out.
After I installed it, we had over 20 motion notifications (between the 2 cameras) in one hour with family here…I figured I just hadn’t finished going through the settings. That’s gonna kill the batteries not to mention how annoying the constant notifications are. I assumed we would arm the system/cameras using the key fobs or keypad in either home mode at night or away mode when they leave. Is that seriously not an option?! Do they really need to dive into the settings on EACH camera every night before bed and every morning when they get up and when they go to the store just to turn the cameras on/off? How does arming and disarming the system not affect the security cameras on that system?
I spent hours planning and installing all the details of the system, and I’m gonna be so annoyed if I have to return it. Please tell me I’m missing something. I want to like the system so much but this is going to be a dealbreaker if there isn’t a workaround. 😖
richmar27
6 Messages
9 months ago
Thanks for the reply bud! I’m also annoyed with myself because I’m so detail-oriented in my research and missed this although who would have thought that they would just omit the cameras from the arming/disarming sequence?
And if you work a 9-5 job it could be fine to have them on all the time but if you’re retired but active like my folks or just work from home like so many people it’s almost incomprehensible that someone could make this work.
We’re considering keeping the system and just returning the cameras to replace with a couple of Arlos which I have. They’re so simple but even having 2 systems is more cumbersome than needed but ironically still LESS so than these cameras. Simple software update should just fix this but I’m sure it’ll take forever.
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richmar27
6 Messages
9 months ago
LOL….the grinch!
I’m definitely interested in hearing their reply. There’s literally no good justification for not having a simple way to arm and disarm the cameras. My Arlos are one touch plus a geofence so they know when I leave the house.
That wouldn’t apply here since it’s my mom and my dad and they don’t always leave together but still goes to show much smarter those cams are.
It’s so simple. Allow an adjustment so the cameras follow the arming/disarming scheme of the system. It’s such an obvious concept that I didn’t even even bother to see if it included it. I just assumed. Thanks again for your help!
(edited)
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richmar27
6 Messages
9 months ago
Bummed I haven’t heard from a SimpliSafe rep yet,,,
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richmar27
6 Messages
9 months ago
You have there user IDs?! You really are a thorn in their sides. LOL
Yeah we’re going to keep the system but probably going to have to return the cameras and go with ARLO. They’re unusable for our needs if they cannot be easily disarmed when home. One of them is down to 68% battery in one week!
We’re recording like 40 videos per day just on them and the dog going in and out. It’s unmanageable. If there is a SW update coming, we might keep them but if they’ve been talking about an update since 2021, I’m not optimistic. I honestly don’t know how people with a house with a backyard, etc who work from home ever use these.
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emily_s
Community Admin
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3.3K Messages
9 months ago
@richmar27 The Outdoor Camera was designed to be active at all times; this was an intentional feature so its always detecting motion and can help notify you to a potential intruder before they enter your home.
As Dlpsr mentioned, syncing the Outdoor Camera to the system's armed state has been submitted to our devs, and it is currently in development. When we hear more news from our devs, an update will be given in this thread.
In the meantime, we have the Snooze Notifications feature that allows you to pause receiving notifications when the Outdoor Camera detects motion for 30 minutes or an hour at a time. You can learn more about Snooze Notifications and how to enable them in this Help Center article.
It can also help to set up Activity Zones on the Outdoor Camera to block off certain areas where you don't want it to record. This can be done in the SimpliSafe mobile app by going to Cameras > tap the gear icon in the top right corner > select [your Outdoor Camera] > Motion Detection > Activity Zone. From there, you can select the boxes where you don't want the camera to record.
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