Ring Doorbell

[mde8965]

I know  I am resurrecting an older thread.

But I cannot being myself to buy this doorbell because it is so conspicuous.  If a bad person comes to my door they are going to know what this thing is from 50 feet away.  If it looked like a regular door bell and did not have a "ring" logo on it maybe.  Bad guy, if he's really bad is going to sneak up to this sideways and smash it off the wall?

Or am I just missing the point of this product altogether?  Why do I need a camera door bell for my relatives or close friends to ring?  I thought this was more about seeing a bad guy outside when you are not home and answering pretending you are there and busy or something.

[DParker]

I know  I am resurrecting an older thread.

But I cannot being myself to buy this doorbell because it is so conspicuous.  If a bad person comes to my door they are going to know what this thing is from 50 feet away.  If it looked like a regular door bell and did not have a "ring" logo on it maybe.  Bad guy, if he's really bad is going to sneak up to this sideways and smash it off the wall?

Or am I just missing the point of this product altogether?  Why do I need a camera door bell for my relatives or close friends to ring?  I thought this was more about seeing a bad guy outside when you are not home and answering pretending you are there and busy or something.

Salesmen and Jehovah's Witnesses?

But seriously...

I see your point.  On the other hand, you might be overestimating the intelligence and technical savvy of the average petty criminal just a little bit. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fKM6UyFecE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzA3v74y0cc

[ScottinPollock]

because it is so conspicuous.

I completely agree. The Ring looks exactly like what it is, and I would be surprised if it fools anybody. What I did years ago was to cannibalize an old call diverter, those that you see outside some apartment complexes, and just have a simple, intercom looking doorbell that rings my cell phone. I do have a camera located above my driveway so I can verify the dismissed party has actually left. The combination of the two has been effective without advertising the fact that I am answering the doorbell from my phone.

But I have been thinking about some way to tie my doorbell setup to my new digital barking dogs. Since this will require something like a ring voltage sensor to an Arduino or RPi for sending a command to my server, I'll probably replace the whole lot with something similar to this...

https://youtu.be/U09WDGR2jQo

[renegade600]

I know  I am resurrecting an older thread.

But I cannot being myself to buy this doorbell because it is so conspicuous.  If a bad person comes to my door they are going to know what this thing is from 50 feet away.  If it looked like a regular door bell and did not have a "ring" logo on it maybe.  Bad guy, if he's really bad is going to sneak up to this sideways and smash it off the wall?

Or am I just missing the point of this product altogether?  Why do I need a camera door bell for my relatives or close friends to ring?  I thought this was more about seeing a bad guy outside when you are not home and answering pretending you are there and busy or something.

It is usually easy to overlook the benefits of a product when you cannot see a personal use for it.  I did the same with the echo when it was first released.  It took me until a week before they started selling to the general public before I realized it could actually benefit me.  I was one of the last to order via invite. 

As far as someone coming from the side and doing something to it.  Yes it can happen but at the same time, the same can happen with most security cameras- depending on the location.    Most who get it, imo, would already have other security cameras.  I thought about getting the ring, but as expensive as it is, you would have to pay another 30 bucks if you want it to actually ring without using a device or computer.     

[mde8965]

LOL, yeah when I saw the Echo for the first 6 months to a year it was out I thought it was a sad gimmick that people were crazy to buy into.  Fast forward to today I have 2 Echos and a Dot on order.

I would like to see them design the smart door bell to install wirelessly, use a regular door bell (small rectangular box with a button in the middle) that has absolutely no size differences or colors or logos to give it away, put the microphone on the bottom of the box out of sight and put the camera where the peep hole is on the door (you replace the peep hole as part of the installation process).  Have it work on z-wave or Zigbee and capable of operating like a normal door bell as well as how the "Ring" doorbell works with the camera and microphone with text alerts or notification and the app that opens to view the camera (and opens the microphone connection) if you click on the text/notification alert.  Video/audio files captured in the cloud or saved on a local drive configured by the user.  For that I would pay the $200 as long as there were no recurring monthly charges unless you wanted lots of cloud storage capability.

But as much as I like my gadgets, I will pass on the "Ring"

[DParker]

I would like to see them design the smart door bell to install wirelessly

The Ring Doorbell has an internal rechargeable 5,200 mAh internal battery, so you can install it for completely wireless operation if you want to.

, use a regular door bell (small rectangular box with a button in the middle) that has absolutely no size differences or colors or logos to give it away, put the microphone on the bottom of the box out of sight and put the camera where the peep hole is on the door (you replace the peep hole as part of the installation process).  Have it work on z-wave or Zigbee and capable of operating like a normal door bell as well as how the "Ring" doorbell works with the camera and microphone with text alerts or notification and the app that opens to view the camera (and opens the microphone connection) if you click on the text/notification alert.

Manufacturers can certainly cram a lot of electronics functionality into some very small packaging these days, but putting all of that stuff into things as small as ordinary doorbell buttons and peepholes...plus the batteries required to power them...is asking a bit much.  As for normal doorbell functionality, there's an optional wireless "chime" for $30 that you can plug into the wall inside, and that the Ring will activate when someone presses the button.

Video/audio files captured in the cloud or saved on a local drive configured by the user.  For that I would pay the $200 as long as there were no recurring monthly charges unless you wanted lots of cloud storage capability.

I don't know about the other manufacturers, but you can get optional cloud storage for the Ring for $3/month or $30/year after a 30-day free trial.  Not quite free, but at ~8 cents/day it's close enough.

[celticfan1888]

Ring pro is now on pre order check the website no battery power only may have fixed some issues

[Erik Salomonsen]

It would more like the doorbell+camera+app

[rollind24]

I know  I am resurrecting an older thread.

But I cannot being myself to buy this doorbell because it is so conspicuous.  If a bad person comes to my door they are going to know what this thing is from 50 feet away.  If it looked like a regular door bell and did not have a "ring" logo on it maybe.  Bad guy, if he's really bad is going to sneak up to this sideways and smash it off the wall?

Or am I just missing the point of this product altogether?  Why do I need a camera door bell for my relatives or close friends to ring?  I thought this was more about seeing a bad guy outside when you are not home and answering pretending you are there and busy or something.

I bought the Ring Doorbell not as a security feature but because I can use it in conjunction with the Kevo Smartlock. I have family coming and going quite often and the ability to see who is at the door and then open the door for them from my phone comes in quite handy. If you plan on relying on one camera for coverage of your entire house then that would be a poor system in the first place.

I also had a nice couple of conversations with the roof repairman last week where he was able to show me a few cracked tiles and the lichen in real time

[celticfan1888]

Installed ring pro it works well no fals alerts

[Oclety]

Remember two things about Doorbell cameras. One is that there is a delay between the time the camera records and you get a notification and video. The “visitor” will probably be gone by the time you “see” him. Second, Large moving objects like trash trucks may trigger the camera. It’s not just the movement but light reflections that trigger the camera. If you can, mount the camera facing the front door but not the street.I use Unide Doorbell https://secretstorages.com/best-peephole-camera/ But like Nest and others, is probably 35% more than they should be. But they work and their tech seems well built as long as the unit is close to an access point. Often a repeater or Chime module is needed between the doorbell and the WiFi router location. The networked Ring security camera system is easy to navigate for multiple location and camera choices.

I suggest you look at Alibaba or EBay for Chinese clones for lower prices. It would depend having a network interface app as well.There are a lot of useful and interesting videos on this topic on Youtube, I will leave one here, I hope someone will help in choosing the future. Good luck!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK8rZOa_Q6U