Arlo Captures Critter

At least on video.

I bought the basic wires-free version of Arlo as an experiment in DIY home security and am trying it in parallel with our traditional system. The first task we gave Arlo was to identify the critter who ransacks Mary's vegetable garden. It's taken awhile but finally Arlo did it. I thought it was rabbits; Mary bet on groundhogs. See the video for the winner

When first installed, Arlo gave lots of false alarms. The alerts can be received on your computer and/or smartphone. Birds were the most frequent cause. So we pointed him at a mass of critter-snack on the ground. Two days later, voila!

Note that you only see the critter leaving. This is because there is a delay between when motion is first sensed and when recording begins. We may have missed the critter a few times because of this so I tried turning up the sensitivity from 80% to 99%. Too many false alarms so had to turn it back down. According to marketing material Arlo Pro (more expensive) responds to motion almost immediately. You can mix and match so I'll probably put a Pro on critter duty and use the old camera for slow people.

 

See also:

Arlo: DIY Home Security

Alexa: The End of a Great Relationship