Arlo Camera Integration

I was originally going to get Wayze cameras but I ended up with Arlo cameras so now I am looking at a way to grab the motion sensors from them to use for triggers and be able to start video capture from HA. All of the good stuff like stringify and IFTTT are all getting abandoned because of "privacy issues". Just purchased my Hubitat hub hoping to bridge the home automation gaps that are happening with other systems. I am also willing to set up a PI solution to bridge the two (hubitiat and Arlo) if anyone has experience with this integration,
Thanks for your help in advance.

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@patrick I know you don't give ETA's on anything, but could we know if any kind of Arlo support is being planned?

Feel free to give an ETA, but I'm just asking to know if it will ever happen. :slight_smile:

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I want this too! ... as we had in Stringify! :cry:

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IFTTT is your best bet at this time I think. You have these triggers...

And these actions...

And we have an IFTTT connection with HE. So we have a solution, but just not local and with plenty of lag as always with IFTTT :sleepy:

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That might work with hubitat. When I tried to link my arlo cameras with Hue through IFTTT, I could not get it to work the way I wanted it to but I had a nice routine in stringify. I am hoping that Hubitat can be the link I couldn't get working.
I had,
If it was after sundown and my arlo camera detected motion, turn on my hue light for 15 min.

It was great because I used my camera that covered my back yard area to turn on the light for the area I take my dogs out and lazy me didn't have to turn on the light or remember to turn it off.

I am hoping to make a poor mans "ring" camera out of my front door camera and a z-wave closure on my existing door bell so it will start to record and also notify me of someone at the door.
I don;t mind if this is the break between hubitat and Arlo as I can use the arlo app to two-way communicate using the camera and app natively. I just want to be able to use the triggers, start/stop recording, and integrate with security (start recording if the alarm is tripped).

I currently use my EZVIZ Poe Camera's motion sensor to trigger IFTTT to turn on an outside light. However because there is a literal 2 minute delay (thanks cloud) I purchased a Hue Outdoor Motion Sensor in addition to this for more immediate detection, My POE's motion will trigger from something a block away, then if something comes closer the Hue will instantly turn it on.

Yeah, lag on IFTTT sucks. I have the same issue with Sensibo and various sensors. The delay can be shocking.

To be honest, I'd just invest in some motion sensors wherever you have your Arlo cameras. Arlo will never be a local integration (as even the most basic of commands have to go through Netgear's cloud) and thus you will never get the local speed that you would with a $15 motion sensor paired directly to HE.

Having said that, there is a Python library that I've used on and off over the past couple years that is pretty full featured when it comes to interacting with the Arlo cloud. The caveat is that one must know Python to make use of it to it's full extent. Inside of the Python library, there is a method to subscribe to motion detection on the camera, but one would need to write their own callback function and then use a HTTP GET to get that event to HE. While Python is probably the easiest of languages to learn, it's still something new to learn.

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So with a little searching from thoughts driven from this thread, I did come across that Home assistant looks to have some sort of Arlo integration and that Node red might be an easy way to integrate HA with HE? or does anyone know if Node red would just let me tie Arlo to HE without the HA setup?
I am not opposed to working on a solution, I write custom commercial building automation, I have a few PI kicking around, I am learning Python as needed.
I guess I would not be looking for much of a solution before stringify shut down. I only had maybe a few seconds lag between Arlo,stringify, and Hue so I didn't think it would be that hard to have HE be my "stringify"....

Yes @corerootedxb, a $15 motion sensor would call it a day, but I like the challenge of using what I have to integrate if possible before adding additional items. Obviously though in the end you have provided my bail out solution should I not be able to use the Arlo stuff.

So the light control is easy to do without arlo but to use my door bell to initiate arlo, any ideas there? I am planning on adding a zwave device to my doorbell to capture the action to start recording and to notify me of someone at the door.

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I'll preface with that all my Arlo equipment is sitting in a box and I've not used any of these methods, so YMMV.

Yup. You could easily go the NodeRed route and use this node: node-red-contrib-arlo (node) - Node-RED all without needing HA.

LOL, I like bail out plans. :smiley:

The easiest way I can think of is to have a triggered rule in Rule Manager on the Z-wave device (button perhaps?). From there, you can trigger a NodeRed flow from HE using a HTTP GET request via Rule Manager and then trigger a video recording from the Arlo node. The hard part here is the learning curve on NodeRed.

So my doorbell plan is one of these or something like it with the magnet taped to it and using the external connection to the doorbell (might have to put a relay in somewhere to make the dry contact)


this will give me the zwave trigger that the doorbell was pushed.

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Wow, so much trouble. Why not just use IFTTT to start the recording, with the action driven from HE?

Personally, I hate IFTTT. The lag is just too much for me. Plus, I try to keep everything as local as I can.

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Node red with Arlo will have to be Cloud anyway tho' right?

True and that leads me to my second complaint about IFTTT; It's a single IF THEN statement; There's zero logic and I gain much more control and infinitely more options with NodeRed.

If I want to do something like activate a device then send a notification then log to a few files, but only on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, I can't do that with IFTTT. That's why I stick with NodeRed. :smiley:

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Ok sure agree. But for complex routines you can drive IFTTT as part of a more complex sequence that does what you say, possibly accessing IFTTT multiple times if needed from an HE rule. I didn't mean just use IFTTT on its own - as you say it's pretty pathetic used that way! :slight_smile:

True, but the latency, especially on a high latency/low bandwidth connection would kill HE. If you have 3 calls to IFTTT and each call is ~500ms each, you're looking at ~1.5 seconds of latency for a single rule. For something like turning on a light or starting a video recording, that's way too much for me. I have had some IFTTT calls take upwards of 3 seconds just to return (depending on the service it was calling).

It all boils down to what you are comfortable with and what is acceptable in terms of response time. I'm one of those "DO IT NOW" types (hence why I try to run everything I can locally).

Yes I was very disappointed with IFTTT integrations that I have tried. Not very many options and they are limited to sort of a one shot deal and not really multiple rules such as motion detected and it is dark out.

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Absolutely agree. The IFTTT lag really sucks at times...

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So much trouble,,,Well my integration is a recreation of a "Ring" doorbell with the hardware I have and just adding in the sensor to accomplish the same thing without the $200 US pricetag.
Although Arlo just came out with a doorbell button you can add to the system for $75 but my sensor is less and allows me to trigger in HE.

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