ARLO starter

[stickyrice]

Has anyone done ARLO integration?  Was try to create a starter, when ARLO turns disarmed

starters:
  type: device.state.ArmDisarm
  state: isArmed
  is: false
  for: 1 min
  device: "ARLO base - Living Room"

Say for above, it does NOT, with or without the "for".

any feedback/advice would be appreciated.

stickyrice

[arm_dpe]

Thanks for sharing. Could you please provide the full automation script?

[stickyrice]

---

@arm_dpe wrote:

Thanks for sharing. Could you please provide the full automation script?

---

see below.  The only things I have changed are my email address, and the name for my ARLO device

metadata:
  name: Arm Home ARLO if STANDBY for 1 min
  description: check ARLO yellow as condition ok. check ARLO yellow as start NOT ok. check ARLO red as starter NOT ok.
automations:
  starters:
    type: device.state.ArmDisarm
    state: isArmed
    is: false
    #for: 1 min
    device: "ARLO - Living Room"
#condition:

actions:
  type: home.command.Notification # Send a notification to the specified home members using their email address.
  title: arlo switched green for 1
  body: arlo switches green for 1
  members: #

From above, you can see that the "for" within the starter has been commented out.  As said, both with and without this "for" find the starter failing anyhow.  Thanks for you help.

Regards,

stickyrice

[arm_dpe · Accepted solution]

The issue you are encountering, where the starter is NOT triggering, is very common for users trying to integrate Arlo with Google Home Automations. The reason this is failing is due to a limitation in the way Arlo devices report their state to Google Home.

Based on community reports and the way Arlo exposes its capabilities to Google Assistant:

• Google Home can COMMAND Arlo: Google Home can send an action to Arm or Disarm your Arlo base station/SmartHub (using device.command.ArmDisarm in an actions block).
• Google Home often CANNOT READ Arlo's State as a Starter: The state change event (e.g., Arlo changing from Armed to Disarmed) is often not exposed by Arlo to the Google Home platform in a way that the device.state.ArmDisarm starter can consistently catch and trigger an automation.

This means you can tell Arlo what to do, but you often can't reliably use what Arlo does as the start of a Google Home automation.

Recommended workaround.

Since you are using the Script Editor, you have an option to work around this limitation with Home presence.

If you are using a Google Home action or routine (like "I'm Home") to disarm Arlo, you should use that same action as the starter for your other automations.

• IF a person arrives (home.state.HomePresence),
• THEN Disarm Arlo,
• AND THEN Send the notification.

This means your automation should not wait for Arlo's state to change, but rather run its actions immediately after the command to disarm Arlo is issued.

Example.

YAML

metadata:
  name: Person Arrives - Disarm ARLO
  description: When the first person arrives (HomePresence is HOME), disarm ARLO and send a confirmation notification.

automations:
  - starters:
      # 1. THE STARTER: Trigger when the household presence mode changes to HOME
      - type: home.state.HomePresence
        state: homePresenceMode
        is: HOME
        
    actions:
      # 2. THE ACTION 1: Disarm the Arlo Base Station
      - type: device.command.ArmDisarm
        devices:
          - ARLO - Living Room # Use the exact name of your Arlo Base Station/Hub
        arm: false # false = Disarm/Standby
        
      # 3. THE ACTION 2: Send a confirmation notification
      - type: home.command.Notification
        title: Welcome Home!
        body: ARLO has been disarmed automatically.
        members: 
          # Add member emails or IDs here to receive the notification

[stickyrice]

@arm_dpe , do you have an SmartHub, or having cameras directly wifi-connected?

Wondering if it has anything to do with my VMB5000.

stickyrice