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Monday, August 20th, 2018 8:12 PM

Camera Motion detection (?)

I recently purchased a Simplisafe kit with a few extra add-ons and everything seems to be working so far except for an additional camera I purchased to monitor "motion" in the garage. I have this camera set to high sensitivity. What I have noticed is that the camera doesn't pick up, so called "motion" as it never detects the garage door opening and the car pulling into the garage. yes a car...Not once has it recorded that type of "motion".. Only when I am out of the car for a few seconds then does it detect "motion". Not to compare products but I have a ring door bell that gets set off by my flag or even the flags shadow on a windy day, so I was expecting this type of behavior as well from an actual security system motion detecting camera.

I called support and the answers varied on how this works and didn't leave the call with any better understanding on how it works. At first I was told the alarm had to go off or a 30 second count down timer or an entry sensor had to be tripped for it to record which i know is false and leads me to believe they didn't know either

Does any one have the knowledge on how these cameras are supposed to detect motion?

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278 Messages

6 years ago

I can provide some assistance here I believe.

First, the motion for cameras is set to detect motion of certain heat signature ranges. Humans of course give off body heat and the movement within a certain temperature range is what triggers the camera. Depending on the heat your vehicle is giving off, this may be too much or too little heat (or not quite enough movement side to side but rather front far to near).

The answer you received regarding activating the camera recording when an alarm triggers is still accurate. The default for the camera is to activate if there is an alarm triggered, regardless of whether the individual camera senses motion.

A good fail safe would be to add a "motion sensor" next to the garage door in case the sensor on the camera doesn't quite pick you up. You may want to set the motion sensor up and set it to "secret alert" for a bit while you work through testing in real time.

I hope this helps!

2 Messages

6 years ago

Thanks steve.lux89.. After reading your post I kept looking around for a doc. Closest I could find was the link below that goes over the heat signature triggering a little.

I think the product should be marketed that way instead of motion.. labeling it as motion is a tad misleading in my opinion. I am sure after time I'll get used to it and even appreciate it not going off when the garage opens.


https://simplisafe.com/blog/simplicam-feature-basics

278 Messages

6 years ago

I bet you will! There is also the sensitivity settings for the cameras as well in the phone app. If you have the interactive monitoring you can check the settings to make sure you have the highest sensitivity to test as well. Good luck!
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