RING video doorbells

Homes and Retreats
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diamond lil
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RING video doorbells

Post by diamond lil »

Husband interested in these video doorbells - how easy are they to work and do you need an Alexa? We'd just need the easiest setup, no Alexa and nothing fancy. Does the app cost money? I know nowt about all this stuff, so please answer in wee short words :mrgreen:
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peejay
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Re: RING video doorbells

Post by peejay »

They don't have a very good security track record at all, I'm very much into my smart home kit but wouldn't have one.

https://nordvpn.com/blog/ring-doorbell-hack/
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diamond lil
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Re: RING video doorbells

Post by diamond lil »

Wow, so complicated! I dono why he wants one anyway, this is a tiny wee house and the bog standard doorbell plays the Wm Tell overture very loudly.. impossible to miss! If we are out and parcels come any of the neighbours have and will take them in for us, or the couriers could leave them round at the back door. He just likes gadgets :mrgreen:
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peejay
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Re: RING video doorbells

Post by peejay »

I definitely have nothing against gadgets, I have a door sensor on the porch door with notes to delivery companies to leave parcels in the porch, and whenever the porch door is opened I get a notification & a snapshot from my CCTV within about 5 seconds - I even get it, with photo, to my watch :-)

I do have another wireless doorbell that I'm planning on hacking to make it smart & be able to do similar notifications (for times just the bell is rung rather than door opened) which will be handy when I'm messing with my veggies at the other end of the garden.
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korolev
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Re: RING video doorbells

Post by korolev »

I have one.
When we have work done to our house later this year I'm getting rid.
Pros:
  • You can use it as a security camera to check what's going on outside (here ? nothing. ever.)
  • You can speak to people when you're not at home, ask them to leave stuff in the porch etc.
Cons:
  • The wifi is utterly s..t. Mine is fixed to a UPVC porch. between it and the router is a wooden door and eight feet of air. It loses signal sometimes, especially if I'm larking about with the network. The Chime is next to the router and loses signal. If you have a power cut, and the router goes off, it might reconnect but it might not.
  • Sometimes it fails to pick up motion/people.
  • You have to take the battery out to charge it if you don't have power to it.
  • £2.50 a month to store recordings. You can use it without a sub but you cannot view history.
  • Doesn't work with a VPN.
  • Delivery drivers (apart from Royal Mail who are great) are too lazy/stupid to use it. It's an Amazon product FFS, yet they still mostly just put the parcel outside and f..k off.
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diamond lil
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Re: RING video doorbells

Post by diamond lil »

Ok, think this idea is a nonstarter then. TYVM!
tarmactatt
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Re: RING video doorbells

Post by tarmactatt »

peejay wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 10:10 pm I definitely have nothing against gadgets, I have a door sensor on the porch door with notes to delivery companies to leave parcels in the porch, and whenever the porch door is opened I get a notification & a snapshot from my CCTV within about 5 seconds - I even get it, with photo, to my watch :-)

I do have another wireless doorbell that I'm planning on hacking to make it smart & be able to do similar notifications (for times just the bell is rung rather than door opened) which will be handy when I'm messing with my veggies at the other end of the garden.
I'm actually looking at ring/video doorbells so this thread is very timely; peejay, what is the set-up that you use? I would really rather not use Amazon for anything, if I can help it.

Cheers!
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peejay
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Re: RING video doorbells

Post by peejay »

Admittedly mine is a bit technical but it's all local, nothing relying on cloud.
  • I have a Reolink camera aimed at the front porch (amongst other cameras) which is recording to a Synology NAS.
  • I have a Shelly DW2 Door/Window sensor on the porch door (and other doors/windows).
  • I run HomeAssistant (HA) on a Raspberry Pi 4 which is the heart of things.
  • I have Mosquito MQTT server installed within HA as well as Node-Red.
  • I have IOS integration with my iPhone (basically install the HA mobile app on the phone - the IOS version of it is apparently vastly superior to Android versions)
So, if there's activity near the porch then the motion sensor of the camera will switch itself from the constant low-res recording to temporary hi-res.
If the door is opened, the (wireless) DW2 sensor sends a "door open" message to the MQTT server which node-red is watching for and then requests a "snapshot" from the Reolink camera which it then links to a notification that pops up on my phone & watch & I can view the snapshot from either.

The only thing that needs tweaking right now is that the link to the snapshot assumes I'm connected to my local network - I want to tweak it so that it attaches rather than links it so I can see the image when I'm away from home.

As an aside, the same node-red "flow" also checks the current brightness level (from the same DW2 sensor) and if it's between dusk & dawn it'll switch on the porch light on a 30 second timer.

Takes a while to get your head around if starting from scratch, but if you're so inclined then it's pretty addictive to play with - I have a long list of other automatons I want to get through (such as, if it sees everyone is away from home but a window is left open then send me a notification - catches the daughter out if she takes the dog for a walk in the afternoon when the rest of us are out.
Bosworth
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Re: RING video doorbells

Post by Bosworth »

I’ve got a Ring. Love it. Great to chat to people from the top floor who ring the doorbell and to decide whether to walk down or not. Great to be able to communicate when out the home. And a bit of banter with the kids when they get yoke from school and trigger the motion sensors.

I don’t personally have any issues with Wi-Fi connectivity (although I do have a very robust and powerful mesh network at home!), battery charging needed every few weeks (but I have spare batteries so no downtime), and field of view is useful to give a head-height perspective that the cctv system doesn’t catch.

I think there is an annual charge for storing video events but it isn’t a lot.

I honestly don’t know if there are cheaper / better systems out there, but for me it was ideal. Buy. Fix to door. Connect to network. Use. Enjoy. Simples.