I'm plagued with false alerts from flying insects and rain.
Would it not be possible to tweak the software/firmware so that users could define a Minimum Length of Motion?

A flying insect presents an event that lasts less than a second. Raindrops even less. If users had the option to set their cameras so that they ignore such short-lived motion events, false alerts could be much reduced.

Living in a city, seeing wildlife in action is a rare treat.
Video captured on my RLC-1210A using Reolink's Pet Detection feature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9baTCAJBoQ

We really appreciate your feedback.
Please allow me to explain briefly how the camera detection works: the camera detects the motion based on the image changes (the background) in each frame. So when the object reaches a certain degree the camera will be triggered.
In order to reduce false alarms, it's advised to combine the methods of setting up the proper sensitivity and defining proper motion detection areas on Reolink Client software.
Intensive motion like rain/snowflakes, insects attracted by IR lights, may also cause frequent alarms which may not have a good solution to it.

Cynthia
Thank you for your input.
I have many years experience as a user of security cameras. I was also an engineer for 42 years so I understand the reluctance to accept that someone else might have a solution for a problem.

I would be very grateful if you at least forwarded the proposal to introduce a 'Length of Motion' feature.

In my experience, it was the single most effective solution for reducing false alerts caused by rain and insects.

It actually works very well and it is not hard to implement.




image_2021-05-13_102133.png

Setting up the camera using my iPhone was reasonably simple. The only slight difficulty was getting the camera to read the QR code on my phone but I managed to do it eventually. That was more likely to have been caused by my old, shaking hands than anything else. (I'm 67!)

The next difficulty was wi-fi configuration. Several attempts and resets later, I suspected that the camera was being confused by my universal wi-fi repeater (TP-Link TL-WA901ND). I turned the repeater off and the link to my router was made successfully. Perhaps users should be advised to disable any repeaters during the setup process.

I am very familiar with Reolink's user-friendly interface and it presented no difficulty.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a new (to me) option; separate detection zones for Person, Vehicle and Others. 

That is an excellent and very practical function however, if the PTZ function had a user-defined 'Home Position' to which it returns on command, the detection zones would be more easily maintained.

Regarding the hardware, the camera is solid. Its high quality construction is hard to criticise however, the power switch cover has no lanyard and can easily be lost if dropped. That is my only criticism of the hardware.

I have not deployed the camera outdoors in a real-world surveillance position yet. I will be doing that in as many situations as I can invent, so please watch this space.

@pdownes2001_384636162646205

Thank you Cynthia.
I hope they find a way to make it happen. It will be a game-changer for us and a great marketing ploy for yourselves.

False alerts are probably the most complained about things for all brands of security cameras. You could steal a march on the rest with this one.

Some local wildlife doing their morning exercises. That squirrel loves chasing blackbirds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DgzFXH6DR4

I'm glad I'm not alone on this. The now obsolete Ucam247 and Phylink cameras had those options and they were probably the most useful options for avoiding false alerts and ensuring a real event was properly saved.

Did anyone from Reolink add a comment?

I can't see it being a big problem to tweak the software and the benefits would be huge.

I really like this camera. So far, it has performed very well.
To be honest, it wouldn't have been my camera of choice but I am very pleased that I was given the chance to try it. Knowing what I know now, I would happily recommend it to anyone considering a purchase.

Here is a recent capture. One of our local squirrels has had a litter of kits and here are two of them chasing each other around the garden this morning. Cuteness overload.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwCjrLwTL-w

@reolink-fiona

@reolinkshayla

Brilliant. Thank you. Will this also be incorporated into a future version of the Windows Client? I sincerely hope so.

Given its age, I was pleasantly surprised to see a firmware update (v3.0.0.2356_23062000) was recently made available for the RLC-410.

Sadly, I have had to roll it back to the previous version, 3.0.0.136_20121100.

The reason is that when it used FTP to send its captured event video files to my NAS (WD 'My Cloud), the videos were only 1 second long when played back on my Windows 10 laptop. I tried a few different media players in case the fault was player based but they all did the same.

The problem went away when I rolled the firmware back.

Just letting you know.

@joseph_1979
That did the trick. Back to normal. Thanks.

Now, why didn't I think of that?

The latest (8.12.0) Client shows all of my cameras ok except the PoE Video Doorbell although it indicates that the doorbell is connected.
I rolled it back to v. 8.11.0 and the doorbell shows up with no problems.

Just to let you know. I'm sure you'll fix it.

The new firmware (v3.0.0.2033_23041302), released May7th 2023, made an immediate impact on false recordings.

My doorbell was falsely recording persons when none were present. I took all the usual measures to reduce them - sensitivity, detection zone, etc., to no avail.

Since I installed the firmware, no such events have happened.

Please pa*s my thanks to your tech team. Keep up the good work!

@pdownes2001_384636162646205

Living in a city, seeing wildlife in action is a rare treat.
Video captured on my RLC-1210A using Reolink's Pet Detection feature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9baTCAJBoQ

@reolink-fiona

Does the new video doorbell allow files to be stored on a NAS drive using FTP in the same way that your other IP cameras do?

@dpeters

Is their Pet Detection still labelled as 'Beta'?

It is on the 1210A.