Description

Plugin for controlling Arlo equipment such as cameras, base station and doorbells. It is possible to control the mode, the activation and deactivation of the cameras, view the live stream of the cameras, trigger video captures and recordings, trigger the siren …

All current models supported by the Arlo application (web or mobile) are supported by the plugin: Arlo, Arlo Pro (all versions), Ultra (all versions), Arlo Floodlight, Arlo Essential, Arlo Q, Arlo Go, Arlo Baby, Arlo security bridge & light, Arlo Doorbell and Video Doorbell…

Here is an overview of the possibilities of the plugin:

• select mode: Activated, Deactivated or schedule but also all custom modes;
• Enable / disable each camera independently of each other (regardless of the current mode);
• trigger the siren integrated to the base station (or Pro3 and Ultra camera) and know its status;
• get the status of each camera:
  • connected or not
  • general status (inactive, alert, …)
  • battery level (and if charging is in progress)
  • signal strength
  • if sound or motion detection is active
  • if sound or motion is detected
• take a snapshot (stored locally)
• record video (stored locally)
• view snapshots and videos
• start/stop recording stored in Arlo cloud
• view live streaming of your cameras
• control the light on compatible cameras
• control de siren on compatible cameras

Important

It is not recommended to use cameras and doorbells from the Essentials or Wire-free range (i.e. all cameras connected directly via wifi) if no base station is present in the system, unless they are permanently powered (from the mains or via a solar panel if there is sufficient sunlight), as their battery does not offer sufficient autonomy. If there is a base station, then no problem.

Supported versions

Component	Version
Debian	Bullseye(11) & Bookworm(12)
Jeedom	>= 4.4

Important

Compatibility with 32bit systems (Rasbian 32bit on pi3) will be removed in a future version.

Installation

In order to use the plugin, you must download, install and activate it like any Jeedom plugin. Then you need to install dependencies.

Configuration

Arlo does not allow simultaneous connections from one user to multiple interfaces: if you are logged into the app on one mobile, you will not be able to be on another mobile at the same time or on the web interface. If you connect to the web interface for example you will be automatically disconnected from the mobile app. The plugin connects to the Arlo system as a standard user and will therefore be subject to the same constraint.

It is therefore necessary to create a user dedicated to the plugin, otherwise it will not work properly.

2-step authentication

Arlo is gradually enforcing the use of 2-step authentication.

Before creating a new Arlo user, it is important to know the following information:

• The plugin manages this via email with IMAP support only, so you will need a mailbox with IMAP access (it is sometimes blocked or not free so check before) and only supports authentication by username /password ; no MFA on the mail!
• The plugin must have direct access to the Arlo user’s mailbox, indeed the code for the TFA is requested by Arlo at each login! So if the daemon has to restart it must be able to retrieve the code itself.
• the plugin will only read the mail coming from “do_not_reply@arlo.com”; so even though it is recommended to have a dedicated mailbox and not an alias of an existing mailbox, this shouldn’t be a problem; it will flag the emails as “read” in the box when done (and will no longer try to read them on the next start)
• the plugin will only search among the unread mails of the current day, in reverse chronological order (from the most recent to the oldest) and will skip all the mails sent before its last login.
• the language of the email is not important: the search for the TFA code will work regardless of the language of the email.

Tip

From now on, to be able to connect to a gmail (Google) mailbox, you must create an application password, which will not require MFA to connect, activating the “unsecured applications” option does not being permitted anymore. More details on the procedure here: https://community.jeedom.com/t/google-applications-moins-securisees-mot-de-passe-dapplication/85617 For Microsoft accounts (outlook, hotmail…) read this https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/how-to-get-and-use-app-passwords-5896ed9b-4263-e681-128a-a6f2979a7944

After creating an email box for the plugin, you can go to the next step.

Creating a Arlo user dedicated to the plugin

• For this, open https://my.arlo.com or open the mobile app;

• Click on "Settings" at the top right;

• Click on "Allow access" in the left menu and then on "Add" on the right.

• Enter the requested information including a new email address (a gmail alias by adding +jeedom before @gmail.com for example will work however for 2-step authentication I recommend to use a dedicated email address for the plugin);
• Select the Arlo devices that the plugin will access;
• Enable the option “Grant access rights” to be able to change modes, start recording, take snapshots etc from Jeedom.
• Click on “Send an invitation”
• You will receive a confirmation email to create your new Arlo account, simply follow the procedure.

Tip

Log out of "My Arlo", open a "private window" on your browser or use another browser to create your second Arlo account.

Plugin configuration

On the plugin configuration page:

• Enter your user (the new email address) and the associated Arlo password.
• If you have enabled 2-step authentication, enter the IMAP address of the mail server in the form imap.server.com as well as the username and password (or the application password in case of of a gmail account instead of your own password) of the associated mailbox (not necessary if TFA is not active on your Arlo account)
• Start the daemon (if it does not start on its own)

If the credentials are correct, the status should turn green and the plugin will start to synchronize devices that you shared on previous step.

On this page, it is also possible to configure the retentions rules of snapshots and records, these rules allow the plugin to automatically delete the oldest medias (saved locally).

Usage

If the plugin is correctly configured (see previous step), you should see the list of Arlo devices that you shared when creating the plugin account.

It is not possible to manually create a device. The devices are automatically created or updated by the plugin during synchronization with the Arlo system. Synchronization will be done automatically at least once a day, if necessary it is possible to start a synchronization manually via the device management screen.

The plugin will never automatically delete a device; if you no longer have the device or if you have removed the access rights for the plugin, it is recommended to manually delete the corresponding device in Jeedom. If you add a new device or change the modes via the Arlo application, it is recommended to do a manual synchronization to update the plugin configuration immediately; otherwise, this will be done during the next automatic synchronization.

Tip

This obviously does not affect the values of the commands such as the selected mode or motion or sound detection which are updated in real time.

For most of the devices there is no specific configuration, the name of the device will be the one defined in Arlo platform, but remember to assign the parent object, the category and activate it.

For camera-type equipment, it is possible to configure an action/message command (many compatible plugins). If it is configured, the plugin will send a message, including the capture, as soon as a new capture is received.

Devices

Important

It is not recommended to use device on battery (unless regularly charged for example via solar panel if sufficient sunshine) and connected directly to wifi if no base is present in the system because their battery does not offer enough autonomy to trace the events in Jeedom. If a base exists then no problem even if some devices are connected to wifi directly.

It is possible that some specific commands to certain models are not (yet) available, in this case please contact me via the forum for more information.

Tip

If you add a device (hub, camera, doorbell, etc.), it is necessary to restart the daemon for proper operation on Jeedom.

Mode management

Depending on your installation and the configuration of your account on Arlo, you can choose the mode of operation of your device, which controls whether they will detect sound and/or movements or if they are deactivated.

It seems that for accounts created until the end of 2023, this is possible on each base/hub type of equipment, i.e.: bases, cameras or autonomous doorbells such as Arlo Go, Arlo Q, Arlo Q, Arlo Q, Arlo Baby, Essential… Each of these devices has an action command for each defined mode: activated, deactivated and each custom mode as well as an info command indicating the active mode.

Some users, presumably those who created their account from the end of 2023, will have additional “location” device that you also configured in your Arlo app. As for the above equipment, an action command by existing mode will be available. If you are in this case, there is no point in changing the modes on the equipment, only the mode of this device “location” is taken into account and it is therefore this that must be used.

Siren

Devices with an integrated siren (Hub, Essential, Essential, Pro, Ultra…) has the following commands to control it:

• Siren status: Indicates if the siren is active
• Siren On: To manually turn on the siren
• Siren Off: To turn off the siren

Light

Devices with integrated light (Essential, Pro, Floodlight, Ultra…) has the following commands to control the status of the light:

• Lamp status: Indicates whether the lamp is currently on or off
• Lamp On: To turn on the lamp manually (during the default delay set in the Arlo app)
• Lamp Off: To manually turn off the lamp

Cameras

The following commands are available on all model:

• Connection: true if the camera is actually connected
• Activity: description of current activity of the camera
• Active: indicates if the camera is currently active
• On: Enable the camera, it will be affected by the mode changes
• Off: Disable camera, it will not be affected by mode changes
• Battery: battery level in %
• Signal: signal strength (between 0 and 4) with base for Arlo pro, pro2 and ultra and mobile signal strength for ArloGo
• Charging: true if camera battery is charging
• Motion detection: Indicates if motion detection is active
• Sound detection: indicates if sound detection is active
• Motion detected: if motion is detected
• Sound detected: if sound is detected
• Last image: (local) path to the last image taken by the camera
• Last snapshot URL: (local) URL to the last image taken by the camera
• Take a snapshot: take a snapshot (saved locally) with the camera
• Send snapshot: allows you to send a snapshot (which will be saved locally) from a scenario by choosing the notification command to use
• Send record: allows you to send a video record (which will be saved locally) from a scenario by choosing the notification command to use
• Start record: to start recording video (saved locally)
• Stop record: to stop recording video
• Start cloud record: to start recording a video in Arlo cloud
• Stop cloud record: to stop recording video in Arlo cloud

The widget has some specificity. On the top from left of right you will see:

• the signal strength with the base station
• the level of the battery
• sound indicator, 3 states possible: detection deactivated, detection activated, sound detected.
• the motion indicator, again 3 possible states: detection deactivated, detection activated, motion detected.
• a button to open the library, in it you will be able to see the captures and videos saved locally.

Then the last snapshot taken by the camera is displayed, by clicking on it you will be able to see the live stream (with few seconds delay)

And below a button to take a snapshot and start (local) video record

Arlo Baby

The integration of the Arlo Baby is complete, it is possible to fully manage the camera and all of its functions from the plugin: the night light, the lullaby and retrieve information from the air quality sensors.

Here is an overview of the available commands:

• IP: camera IP
• Brightness: brightness of the room
• Temperature: room temperature
• Humidity: in percent
• Air quality: in percent; less than 30% being “normal”, 30% to 65% being “abnormal” and more than 65% being “Very abnormal” (according to Arlo documentation)
• Nightlight: Indicates whether the nightlight lamp is currently on or off.
• Nightlight On and Nightlight Off: to switch the nightlight on and off
• Nightlight mode: the possible modes are: White, Color, Rainbow
• Nightlight brightness: info and action commands to change the nightlight brightness
• Nightlight color: info and action commands to change the nightlight color (in Color mode)
• Color temperature: info and action commands to change the color temperature (in White mode), value between 2500K and 9000K
• Nightlight timer: info and action commands to set the timer as well as to know the remaining time (in minute) before the automatic switch-off of the nightlight
• Playing: a binary command and a string command giving the reading status of the lullaby
• Play, Pause, Next: command to act on the playback status
• Track: gives the selected track and Playlist gives the list of available tracks
• Repeat: info and action commands to activate and deactivate repeat mode: continuous or single track playback
• Random: info and action commands to activate and deactivate random mode
• Volume: allows you to know and change the volume of the lullaby (in %)
• Lullaby timer: info and action commands to set the timer as well as to know the remaining time (in minute) before the automatic shutdown of the lullaby

Arlo Go

On the Arlo GO, the following commands are also available:

• Network Name: Gives the name of the mobile network
• IP: current IP address
• Active network: indicates the current active network (wifi or mobile)

Arlo security bridge & light

The “light” device has the following commands:

• Lamp status: Indicates whether the lamp is currently on or off
• Lamp On: To turn on the lamp manually (during the default delay set in the Arlo app)
• Lamp Off: To manually turn off the lamp
• Motion detection: Indicates if motion detection is active
• Motion detected: if motion is detected
• Connection: indicates if the connection is operational
• Battery: battery level in %
• Charging: true if device battery is charging

Arlo Doorbell and Video Doorbell

The doorbell has the following commands:

• Connection: indicates if the connection is operational
• Battery: battery level in %
• Signal: signal strength (between 0 and 4) with base station
• Motion detected: if motion is detected
• Button: if the button has been pressed (it will remain active for 1 min after the last press)
• Silent mode: Indicates if silent mode is enabled
• Silent mode On: Enable silent mode
• Silent mode Off: Disable silent mode

Arlo Video Doorbell

In addition to the above commands, the Video Doorbell has some of the commands common to the cameras:

• Activity: description of current activity of the camera
• Charging: true if camera battery is charging
• Motion detected: if motion is detected
• Last image: URL (local) to the last image taken by the camera
• Take a snapshot: take a snapshot (saved locally) with the camera
• Start record: to start recording video (saved locally)
• Stop record: to stop recording video
• Start cloud record: to start recording a video in Arlo cloud
• Stop cloud record: to stop recording video in Arlo cloud

Viewing the video stream from the cameras - live streaming

By clicking on the thumbnail on the widget, you can start the streaming. The video will open in a new window and it is obviously possible to switch to full screen:

It is a continuous video stream, the camera and the stream will stop when the window will be closed.

The library

When a local video recording is made or when a capture is taken by the plugin or received from Arlo in the event of motion detection, these can be viewed via the library tools of each camera.

In this screen showing an overview of the captures and videos taken, you can directly and permanently delete the files if you wish, otherwise the plugin will take care of them automatically according to the rules defined in the configuration. You can also click on the captures to view them in a larger window or on the videos to start playback.

Jeedom Connect integration

It is possible to use the camera widget of Jeedom Connect to integrate Arlo cameras with this mobile application.

For this, I recommend the following configuration:

• the command Last capture URL of camera device (the one that returns a text info starting with http pointing to your Jeedom, not the one giving the Arlo image) for the Snapshot Url command config of the widget
• the commands Start recording, Stop recording and Recording for the Save, Stop recording and Recording info configs of the widget
• In the Records folder config, you must copy the path displayed in the Arlo camera configuration page as visible in this capture:

You can use the small “copy” button to the right of the path to copy it to the clipboard and you just have to paste the information in the configuration of the widget on Jeedom Connect

Currently, it is not possible to view the live video stream from Jeedom Connect application.

Changelog

See the changelog

Support

If you have a problem, start by reading the latest plugin-related topics on community.

If despite this you do not find an answer to your question, do not hesitate to create a new topic, with the tag of the plugin (plugin-arlo).

At a minimum, you will need to provide:

• a screenshot of the Jeedom health page
• a screenshot of the plugin’s configuration page
• all available plugin logs pasted into a Preformatted Text (button </> on community), no files!
• depending on the case, a screenshot of the error encountered, a screenshot of the configuration causing the problem…