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pjanits's profile

Sunday, January 16th, 2022 2:48 PM

Outdoor camera miracle.

Friday morning 11:04 AM. Front door camera saw the mailman about 20 ft out on my sidewalk. This is a first, usually it range is 10 feet. Watched him come up the stairs and put package on the porch, then watched him walk all the way back to driveway and down towards the street.

For the record it was sunny and about 48 degrees, no wind.

My wife says it must be a fluke. Usually it sees my back going in the door only.

Captain

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6.1K Messages

3 years ago

Most likely the angle. Depending on the approach of the target, the camera range will vary. You can test this my emulating the approach (and manner) to your postal carrier as close as possible.  I have tried to replicate many issues raised in the forums over the years (glass break sensor range using a neighbor's old windows, drop cloth and a hammer), claim that an invisible fence was causing issues (moving my base and sensors to a neighbor's house to borrow his electric fence and dog) to garage door transmitters (buy several on Amazon to test and drafting famly and neighbors equipped with them to "break into" my home.  You can do the same.

Please post the outcome of your experiment(s) if you do it. Thanks!

29 Messages

3 years ago

It seems short people don't trigger until 10 ft.  Tall people trigger around 20 ft. Too bad there is no line to see where the camera looking.

Captain

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6.1K Messages

@pjanits​ Interesting observation.  There is a thread where the sysops Davey give information on the coverage area of the outdoor camera. Possibly he can report here.

29 Messages

Update, The wife and I were walking single file ( skinny sidwalk) and pretty close together. The camera triggerd about 25 ft out. The best yet, all the way out to the driveway. So it has to do with mass, no height.

I did raise the camera angle slightly but no difference for me alone, still triggers around 10 feet. I guess I will have to get fat.

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

There are actually two different steps to the outdoor camera's motion sensing.

 

First, there's a passive infrared. That is, the camera is looking out for sources of heat moving around in the scene. If you're generating more heat, or if you're moving from side to side, the infrared sensor is more likely to catch you (and this is true for most infrared-type motion sensors).

 

The infrared sensor then wakes up the camera lens, and the camera processes the image generated to determine if there is indeed a person-shaped object in the scene. If there is, that's when it decides to start recording, and/or sending the notification to you.

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