Detection range Argus PT Ultra?

[StiNgray_736374312435858]

Hi,
I got a new Argus PT Ultra a few days ago and mounted it on my terrace roofing to cover my whole garden and also the terrace if I want to. This works great so far, the picture is clear in both daylight and nightvision. However the motion detection will not trigger if someone is at the garden gate which is about 10 m from the camera. I tested it while mowing my lawn and the camera will only detect motion at about 1-5 meters ditance.
I tried turning up the sensitivity and tried to define different sizes for person recognition but that didn't help much, only thing that changes is that the camera will dedect almost every moving leaf on my trees even tho I excluded them manually from the dedection area.
I haven't found any specs about detection range of the cam, does anybody know how far it can detect motion? Is there a solution to cover the entire garden?
Thank you!

edit: I just enabled Motion Mark to see if the Camera detects motion as such in the distant and YES it DOES. When Walking through the gate, the camera recognizes my motion and puts the mark around me as expected but it DOES NOT trigger the motion detection push notificatioon. I'm waiting for my SD card so I don't know yet if the camera records when a motion is detected or not. If not I think this is major problem because I'd expect the cam to do exactly this!?
Or maybe I'm getting / doing it wrong? All I want is, that the camera will detect if someone is walking through my gate and notify me and record a video of who or whatever it is.

[joseph_1979]

@stingray_736374312435858 Check this link https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/900000583003-What-is-PIR-Detection-Distance/

I have the Argus 3 Pro, Ultra and DUO 2 and they won't detect person if he/she is farther than 9m at max sensitivity. And of course PIRs are triggered if the object moves across and not approaching. Therefore positioning is quite important.

[StiNgray_736374312435858]

@stingray_736374312435858 Check this link https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/900000583003-What-is-PIR-Detection-Distance/

I have the Argus 3 Pro, Ultra and DUO 2 and they won't detect person if he/she is farther than 9m at max sensitivity. And of course PIRs are triggered if the object moves across and not approaching. Therefore positioning is quite important.

OK, or maybe not because this makes a security cam useless. I mean, 99% of the time you want to see/capture someone walking towards a spot not across. So even if I'd put the camera so it would detect a person walking across I would have the same issue because it would detect the person only if it's walking through my garden and not when entering the door. Pointing the camera any different than towards the door diagonal across the garden would not work because of trees.

Also will the sensor detect every moving leaf on my trees if I turn up the sensitivity even tho I painted an no detection area round all the trees/bushes but still it triggers every time the wind blows through the leafs. But it would not detect me walking trough the garden???

I don't understand why that's not working, every other motion detector I know will detect motion in any direction, for example my lights, they go on no matter how I approach them, the sensor has differnt sensitivitry settings but it detects everything within 180°.

What about sunlight? Could this be an issue? I was testing during daylight when the sun was shining on the camera (not directly but in it's direction). Could this be an issue?

[joseph_1979]

@stingray_736374312435858



Typical paths of a PIR. So to trigger it the object has to cross adjacent paths. The farther you are the wider the adjacent paths and so it won't trigger. And the ambient temperature can greatly affect its sensitivity. This limitation should be considered if you are looking at motion detection for outdoor. The more extreme temperatures of outdoors can have a significant impact on devices' effectiveness.

Motion tagging is done at the application level. I have asked Reolink to implement this at source as being done by the competitors.

[StiNgray_736374312435858]

@joseph_1979 OK well then this seems to be not the optimal technology to provide sufficient motion detection capabilities for a security system???
Also, I wonder why it triggers every time the leaves move, that's a bit contrary to how the system works according to your post, because leaves and branches don't move that much and should emit the same amount of IR as the rest of the area because they all have the same ambient temperature?

Oh thank you for mentioning the motion tagging, this explains why this works flawless. And YES it makes no sense to have this on application level instead of the source. The new reolink cams also claim to use AI to prevent false arlarms so why does it trigger when leaves are moving. I wonder if reolink will and can optimize this, I don't know if motion detection could be done on a "higher" level in the system without changing the hardware???

[joseph_1979]

@stingray_736374312435858 The best cams are based on pixels change detection which have longer range say 100ft and beyond. Of course such cams are dc powered either by an adapter or POE and are continuously capturing an image. If triggered by an object then the recorded video includes a pre-motion detection unlike the battery operated cams. In battery operated cams only the PIR circuit is functioning with the application being in cold state. So when the PIR detects an object it triggers the application to run and starts analysing the object and so on.

In my Argus 3 Ultra I set PIR sensitivity to 100 and the Person sensitivity to 60. I removed any motion in recording/push notification so as to avoid false alarms.

And if you wish to submit requests and ideas then you can do so on https://support.reolink.com/requests/

[StiNgray_736374312435858]

@joseph_1979 Yes of course a permanently powered / watching camera works different so I think it's not possible for a battery powered system to provide this level of motion detection and pre recording. However the Argus (and most other battery powered cams) are definitely capable of doing this as long as they have enough power. So I think it would be cool to have the option to enable such a feature if you have a power cord attached or you can manage the higher power consumption by using time plans and solar panels. I have my Argus Ultra powered with a solar panel and the battery never dropped below 80% so far. So if I could switch to an always on mode to provide better motion detection for the night it would be great.

I'll suggest that idea, thanks!

What do you mean by "you removed any motion in recording/push notification"?

[joseph_1979]

@stingray_736374312435858 Reolink battery operated cameras are not meant for 24x7 as otherwise you need bigger battery capacity and a big solar panel like the 4G cam. But again if there is no direct sunlight it will not charge and if triggered quite often it will turn off. It's essential that one checks his/her requirements against the specs of the item being purchased. I am an engineer and the first thing I do is to read the specs.

Some cams have 'others' other 'any motion'. In your Ultra you have Others.




So if you have a power socket in the vicinity of where you install the camera I recommend you for a powered (dc or POE) camera.

[StiNgray_736374312435858]

@joseph_1979 Unfortunately I'm not an engineer and not much into this kind of technology, at least I wasn't until an hour ago lol. However, when I purchased the cam I was looking for a cam that works mostly self-sufficient to have maximum flexibility. The product description does mention PIR but it's also promoting that the cam is capable of motion detection in a "security" context so I was expecting it to work. Some of the product images even show the exact same situation I have so yeaaah.

Oh ok now I understand, I do not have checkboxes for these in the iOS app, this is found in the "no detection zones" settings, I think I can just paint the whole "others" area to avoid the PIR to trigger when the leaves are moving. I just tried this and it looks like it works ... I'll test if this improves motion detection for persons now.

Thank you!

[joseph_1979]

@stingray_736374312435858 You're welcome. I am on Win and Android. Even PIR used for alarms behave like that. I have them in my home alarm system and if I place a cartoon in front of me and I walk very very slowly in the direction of the PIR....the PIR will not trigger.

Mind you I am a customer like you and have no information of the hw/code of the cameras.........I am a software developer too.

[user_716836976738468_716836976738468]

Thanks for the post and all the great responses. I was/am having the same issues but I think I understand why now a littler better.

[user_869137137234055_869137137234055]

@user_716836976738468_716836976738468 wish I read this before I bought my argus pt ultra. Only place I can install mine is 7 metres from drive and it's not detected a single car or movement on it. Despite daily movements.