I recently purchased an S380 HomeBase and 2x S350 Wired Indoor Cameras to replace some Google equipment. The cameras are placed in two home offices, each of which we use five days per week for work. However, I primarily use these cameras to monitor my pets who frequent these rooms.
Both cameras are set to continuously record footage and events to the HomeBase. As I installed the equipment, I updated it to the latest firmware. The only events enabled are for pet detection. I’ve set up activity zones to only detect these events when my pets enter or exit certain areas. I have notifications for events disabled.
During business hours, I do not want these cameras to record. While they can remain on and accessible, I do not want the footage stored to protect my employer in the event that this system is ever compromised.
I’ve looked into the Mode and Automation tabs, but neither seem to function as expected or needed.
To experiment with Modes, I’ve set up a “Working” mode with Video Recording unticked for both cameras and scheduled it to activate during business hours using the “Schedule” mode. This disables event detection during those hours, but archived video is still available if you access each camera’s view and go to the Playback section, albeit without event markers.
Automations allow you to trigger Privacy Mode on the cameras. However, the camera you use as a Trigger cannot be used as an Action target. Even if it could, I haven’t found way to automatically disable Privacy Mode on a set schedule. And since both cameras are now in Privacy Mode, I can’t use them as a Trigger to disable Privacy Mode when I leave the area.
I want the cameras to continuously record, just not during specified hours.
Has anyone figured out if it’s possible to disable the archival of footage during a specified time or enable Privacy Mode on a schedule without manually triggering these things each morning and remembering to undo our changes after work each day?
If the only way to achieve what I’ve described is by disabling the continuous recording of footage and rely only on events, I’m not sure this product will work for my needs.