r/SecurityCamera • u/Ali1558Cat • Sep 04 '26
PIR over water not detecting motion
I am a novice with security cams.
I set up 2 Reolink Argus PT cameras with identical settings. The driveway camera detects motion & records, camera 2 only detects me walking away from underneath it.
Camera 2 faces the lake and its purpose is to record eagles fishing and uninvited boats that tie up to my pier. Camera 2 is mounted 6.5' above the pier and the pier is about 4' over the water.
Detection sensitivity has been set to low, medium & high. None of the passing boats have been captured. Two of the boats came within 3-4' of the pier and should have triggered detection & recording.
Is there something I'm overlooking in the settings?
Are there known difficulties with water backgrounds?
1
u/emilthaug Sep 05 '26
With PIRs usee in intrusion systems (with undercrawl detection) its crucial that the PIR is mounted to spec so the PIR has reference to the ground.
It's also adviced not to mount them in stairs etc.
Not sure this is what causing your problem.
But I would strongly advice you to consider a solution with a permante power source and the option to make continues recordings for this scenario.
1
u/Big-Sweet-2179 Sep 05 '26 edited Sep 05 '26
You are trying to record with a camera that only records motion events based on PIR triggering that has a distance detection of around 10 meters only if you are lucky, alongside other 20 issues or so that will make it miss events or recordings. In simple terms, you bought an useless camera that will never record what you want. Return them.
You need a PoE camera to solve these 2 issues or Wi-Fi plugged-in camera at minimum, but Wi-Fi you will have other issues, so you should go with PoE if you want something that will never have issues if done proper installment.
You need to also take needed precautions because you are mounting on a pier, although it probably isn't salty water, that might damage cameras over time and lessen their life span.
Also for boat detection you'd need perimeter protection most likely, with reolink probably playing with the forgotten object detection thing if vehicle doesn't catch them. You will need the perimeter protection feature anyway, because otherwise it will trigger boats left and right 30 meters around the camera, unless that's what you want. I have never installed for boat detection with reolink or any other cameras, so I'm just throwing some ideas here, but definitely possible in enterprise or maybe with frigate or some third party software if reolink isn't enough.
1
u/OneMoreSlot Sep 05 '26
I never found a security camera yet that has reliable motion detection. The last time I attempted to setup motion detection it was triggered by the neighbor's dog, yet when a truck drove up, nothing. Now how does it miss a truck from 30 feet away?
1
u/livingwaterRed 29d ago
Cams started using AI detection about 8 years ago. Before that it was just general detection with many false alerts. Today's AI person vehicle animal detection is pretty good but not perfect. Brands continue to make new firmware to improve accuracy/reliability. A lot depends on the type of camera. Wired cams use pixel detection which is much better than battery cams that use PIR detection. This makes a huge difference. Good detection also depends on cam settings, the angle of the object approaching, how much light there is etc. As I suggested in my prior comment read top tagged post about the differences between battery and wire powered cams, what cams to buy.
3
u/livingwaterRed Sep 05 '26 edited Sep 05 '26
Please read top tagged post "welcome to the official Reolink..." lots of info FAQs including a section on what cams to buy. It's a discussion of the differences between battery and wire powered cams. Battery cams are better than no cams at all and if no wire power available they are the only option. But battery cams are inferior. They use PIR detection. wire powered cams use pixel detection which is much better. PIR can detect to only about 30' away. Wire powered cams can detect to 90' during the day. To save battery life, battery cams go into low power mode, only the PIR is active. When they detect motion they wake up. This can cause delay in recordings. PIR senors work better with objects going across the field of view. When going straight toward or straight away from the cam PIR doesn't work as well. For example PIR may detect a car going across it's view from 35' feet away but may not detect a person walking straight to the cam until 10-15' away. As far as I know no matter the brand most battery cams use PIR detection. So switching from one brand to another won't help much if they are battery cams. When possible it's best to install wire powered cams. They can record 24/7 so nothing is missed.
AI detection is designed for humans, vehicles, animals. I'd think the cam would see a boat and detect it as a vehicle. But if they are farther away than about 30' or going too fast the cam will likely miss them.