I am wanting to set my alarm to Away when I leave, but I am concerned that my cat and large dog will set off the alarm with the motion sensors in the camera. Does anyone have any experience with this?
First, we'd just like to mention that the motion sensor in the SimpliCam cannot trigger an alarm. If you do have a motion sensor for a SimpliSafe Security System, however, nothing can beat actually testing out if your pets trigger the motion sensors in a real-life scenario.
For a quick test, you can put your SimpliSafe System into
Test Mode by going to the Keypad, pressing
Menu, entering your Master PIN, and then selecting
Test Mode from the Menu. While the system is in
Test Mode, any sensor that is triggered will alert the base station which will announce which sensor was triggered.
For a more in-depth test, you can set any sensor you like to
Secret Alert, and instead of triggering your alarm, would only post an event to your timeline as well as notify you if you have notifications set up under the Interactive Monitoring Plan. Testing it this way allows for you to actually leave your home and see if the motion sensors are triggered by your pets without having to worry about false alarms. Remember that if you do opt to test your sensors in this fashion, you'll want to remember to set the sensors back to
Alarm after testing.
I use my camera specifically to monitor my pet's activity and wellness when we're away, and it was useful for verifying that he was learning how to use a new pet door and whether it functioned properly. Without the motion sensor, of course, that wouldn't work for us. You will be able to get notified whenever pets, family or intruders trigger the camera, if you want, but that alone won't set off an alarm.
@ctatarian1 Our SimpliCam is unable to trigger alarms, but if you have our Smart Alarm Wireless Indoor Security Camera, it is capable of triggering alarms. To tell the difference between the two, the SimpliCam is black and the Smart Alarm is white.
The Smart Alarm comes equipped with smart person detection and pet rejection; but we would also recommend installing the camera on a flat surface, about 4 feet off the ground, with no tilt to the camera, just to ensure that your dog doesn't trigger any alarms.
@simplisafe_admin I have the black indoor cameras which you say above will NOT set off the alarm. However a few months ago we set the alarm to away. We have the camera sensitivity set to medium as we always have. Our dog is 70 lbs and has never set off the alarm from walking through the house before because our motion sensor it’s 5 feet off the ground and upside down as you recommend it be installed if you have pets. Well our dog walked into our living room and set off the house alarm. SimpliSafe called me and said that the CAMERA was what picked him up and set off the alarm - NOT the motion sensor. So the camera absolutely can detect motion and set off the alarm. The motion sensor wasn’t even in the room where the camera was that triggered the alarm. So now we have 2 cameras and can’t even use them because the SimpliSafe customer service person that called us said the only way to use those cameras is in home mode. But that makes no sense either. Any more thoughts so we haven’t wasted our money on cameras just sitting unplugged now?
@lab0801 we apologize, but it seems that you were given incorrect information. The Smart Alarm Indoor Camera (the white indoor camera) can trigger alarms when it detects motion, but the SimpliCam cannot.
If you had Video Verification enabled at the time, our monitoring agents could view footage captured by your SimpliCam at the time that the alarm was triggered. That could be how they knew your dog was in the room, but the camera itself should not have triggered the alarm.
If you remember the exact date of the alarm, we recommend taking a look at your account's Timeline and filter to that date. From there, it should say which device triggered that alarm.
Official Response
simplisafe_admin
Community Admin
•
981 Messages
4 years ago
First, we'd just like to mention that the motion sensor in the SimpliCam cannot trigger an alarm. If you do have a motion sensor for a SimpliSafe Security System, however, nothing can beat actually testing out if your pets trigger the motion sensors in a real-life scenario.
For a quick test, you can put your SimpliSafe System into Test Mode by going to the Keypad, pressing Menu, entering your Master PIN, and then selecting Test Mode from the Menu. While the system is in Test Mode, any sensor that is triggered will alert the base station which will announce which sensor was triggered.
For a more in-depth test, you can set any sensor you like to Secret Alert, and instead of triggering your alarm, would only post an event to your timeline as well as notify you if you have notifications set up under the Interactive Monitoring Plan. Testing it this way allows for you to actually leave your home and see if the motion sensors are triggered by your pets without having to worry about false alarms. Remember that if you do opt to test your sensors in this fashion, you'll want to remember to set the sensors back to Alarm after testing.
SimpliSafe Social Team
SimpliSafe Home Security
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dgitc
8 Messages
4 years ago
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ctatarian1
1 Message
3 months ago
I have a very large German Shepard will he cause an alarm
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