Ring (Video Doorbell)
Discussion
Nickbrapp said:
https://instagram.com/p/BaEfs_QF_MR/
Not got one myself, but saw this on Instagram that made me laugh, there's another video of the same woman just nosing about outside the house
The Ring Twitter feed has some interesting vids. Including some wildlife that would worry goldilocks some.Not got one myself, but saw this on Instagram that made me laugh, there's another video of the same woman just nosing about outside the house
https://twitter.com/ring/media
Edited by jmorgan on Thursday 19th October 06:59
Harrumph!!
My experience so far is not especially great. First there was the failure to find my WiFi network, which turned out to be due to the device not supporting channels 12 and 13 - a bit poor for a modern device.
In testing the thing “on the bench”, I have several times managed to get the doorbell into a state where its spinning blue light is going round and round, and it doesn’t respond to anything at all. Taking the battery out was the only cure I found.
I also found that when my iPhone is locked, the alerts from the doorbell do not wake it up - the phone remains black and silent, although if I manually wake the phone up then the alert is there on my lock screen. That’s not much use, although the alerts do behave correctly when the iPhone is already unlocked. By contrast, the iPad works exactly as you would expect - the screen lights up and displays the alert box and you get the sound as well.
It took quite a bit of experimentation to find out that the alerts were being passed through to my Apple Watch (but only when the iPhone is locked). But again that’s of limited value because you can’t actually respond to the alert through the watch - you can merely dismiss it. Eventually I discovered that going into the Watch app on the iPhone and disabling mirroring of notifications just for the Ring app takes the watch out of the equation altogether, and now the iPhone does light up and sound the alert when locked. I’m not sure if this is intended behaviour, or whether it’s a bug in iOS, or a bug with the Ring stuff.
So for a product that’s marketed as being easy to set up, there are too many “gotchas” for my liking. I’ve only overcome some of the problems because I’m fairly tech savvy and know what I’m doing and what sort of things to experiment with.
And the final frustration is that my Chime Pro arrived this morning from Amazon, but it appears to be dead on arrival. Plug in and switch on, and precisely nothing happens - no lights, no temporary Ring WiFi network, nothing. I tried resetting it with a paper clip, and still nothing. I’ve called the helpline, and a bored sounding person asked me some really stupid questions and then told me to try the paper clip again. They’ve agreed to send a replacement, but it’ll take a week to arrive, which is frustrating.
So I still don’t know if I can actually get this working properly when installed on my front door. Ho-hum!
My experience so far is not especially great. First there was the failure to find my WiFi network, which turned out to be due to the device not supporting channels 12 and 13 - a bit poor for a modern device.
In testing the thing “on the bench”, I have several times managed to get the doorbell into a state where its spinning blue light is going round and round, and it doesn’t respond to anything at all. Taking the battery out was the only cure I found.
I also found that when my iPhone is locked, the alerts from the doorbell do not wake it up - the phone remains black and silent, although if I manually wake the phone up then the alert is there on my lock screen. That’s not much use, although the alerts do behave correctly when the iPhone is already unlocked. By contrast, the iPad works exactly as you would expect - the screen lights up and displays the alert box and you get the sound as well.
It took quite a bit of experimentation to find out that the alerts were being passed through to my Apple Watch (but only when the iPhone is locked). But again that’s of limited value because you can’t actually respond to the alert through the watch - you can merely dismiss it. Eventually I discovered that going into the Watch app on the iPhone and disabling mirroring of notifications just for the Ring app takes the watch out of the equation altogether, and now the iPhone does light up and sound the alert when locked. I’m not sure if this is intended behaviour, or whether it’s a bug in iOS, or a bug with the Ring stuff.
So for a product that’s marketed as being easy to set up, there are too many “gotchas” for my liking. I’ve only overcome some of the problems because I’m fairly tech savvy and know what I’m doing and what sort of things to experiment with.
And the final frustration is that my Chime Pro arrived this morning from Amazon, but it appears to be dead on arrival. Plug in and switch on, and precisely nothing happens - no lights, no temporary Ring WiFi network, nothing. I tried resetting it with a paper clip, and still nothing. I’ve called the helpline, and a bored sounding person asked me some really stupid questions and then told me to try the paper clip again. They’ve agreed to send a replacement, but it’ll take a week to arrive, which is frustrating.
So I still don’t know if I can actually get this working properly when installed on my front door. Ho-hum!
Several criticisms of the doorbell:
- wifi dropouts
- configuration completion requires you to sometimes required either pressing something on the doorbell or motion sensing which isn't always possible if you want to reduce or increase sensitivity or activate live view remotely.
- it can pick up cars driving past but someone not capture the yodel driver leaving a parcel in the bin !
For all its faults it has enabled me to ask the postie to leave parcels and signed for letters at the front door if I have been at home and sat on the s
tter for example.
- wifi dropouts
- configuration completion requires you to sometimes required either pressing something on the doorbell or motion sensing which isn't always possible if you want to reduce or increase sensitivity or activate live view remotely.
- it can pick up cars driving past but someone not capture the yodel driver leaving a parcel in the bin !
For all its faults it has enabled me to ask the postie to leave parcels and signed for letters at the front door if I have been at home and sat on the s
tter for example.Dr Mike Oxgreen said:
My experience so far is not especially great. First there was the failure to find my WiFi network, which turned out to be due to the device not supporting channels 12 and 13 - a bit poor for a modern device.
Agreed, no 5G wifi. 5G has a harder time penetrating walls so there's some logical reasoning behind, but still...AdamC28 said:
It certainly surprises some delivery drivers when he starts talking to them asking them to leave the parcel in a safe place.
Assuming you don't get the kind of jobsworth who brought me a parcel last week. "Nope, not allowed to leave it." Well, I know what's in the parcel and you can just lob it over the locked gate, it'll be safe there and I'll be back in 5 minutes. "Still not allowed to." Leave it with a neighbour then. "Not allowed." FFS!Dr Mike Oxgreen said:
And the final frustration is that my Chime Pro arrived this morning from Amazon, but it appears to be dead on arrival.
I had this. A 10-minute chat session later and they'd agreed to send a new one, it took just under a week to arrive. The only issue was that they told me to bin the old one, which I did. Then they sent a confirmation of dispatch email a couple of hours later that said they wanted the old one back. 
All sorted in the end, though - I told them they weren't having it back because it was at the bottom of the bin! 
jmorgan said:
Re iPhone alerts, are they set up correctly on the notifications in the iPhone settings?
I think everything is correct, and with one small change noted below everything is on the default selections after I said “yes” to notifications for the Ring app.“Show Previews” is set to “Always”.
And for the Ring app itself, everything is turned on in the notification settings: sounds, badges, alerts (show on lock screen, show in history, show as banners). Show Previews is set to “Always (default)”.
I did try changing the banners to persistent.
The only thing that seems to work is disabling mirroring of notifications to the watch for the Ring app. Then I get no doorbell notifications on the watch, but I do get notifications on the phone when it’s locked. It would be nice to have both, but if I have to choose then I’ll have full notifications on the phone.
Dr Mike Oxgreen said:
jmorgan said:
Re iPhone alerts, are they set up correctly on the notifications in the iPhone settings?
I think everything is correct, and with one small change noted below everything is on the default selections after I said “yes” to notifications for the Ring app.“Show Previews” is set to “Always”.
And for the Ring app itself, everything is turned on in the notification settings: sounds, badges, alerts (show on lock screen, show in history, show as banners). Show Previews is set to “Always (default)”.
I did try changing the banners to persistent.
The only thing that seems to work is disabling mirroring of notifications to the watch for the Ring app. Then I get no doorbell notifications on the watch, but I do get notifications on the phone when it’s locked. It would be nice to have both, but if I have to choose then I’ll have full notifications on the phone.
Then in the preview it is set to always.
Location Services I have set to "While using app"
Ring can access Location, microphone, siri (though not sure why), notifications, mobile data.
Might be worth having a chat with ring. I followed my nose through their help system when my bell did not firmware update. It was a live chat and in a few ticks the issue was resolved, just needed to take it off the network and set it back on again.
I do not have the apple watch to compare that part of the puzzle. Maybe someone else does?
Edit. They seem proactive
https://twitter.com/ring/with_replies
Edit. My router has it all allowed as well.
Edited by jmorgan on Thursday 19th October 16:56
I am giving up on this terrible, terrible product.
Unless you have full-strength wi-fi outside your front door (which very few people will have), it simply doesn't work.
I've waited well over a week for a replacement chime/extender after the one delivered from Amazon was dead on arrival. At least the replacement responds when you plug it in, but it simply doesn't work. I've been through the setup process, and the extender voices the fact that it has connected to the doorbell, but the app on my iPad doesn't seem to know this and eventually times out and says that they couldn't connect. And the signal strength isn't improved in the slightest.
And now I'm in a situation where the whole system no longer works at all, even when all the devices are sitting right next to each other and within a few feet of my router.
The setup process is flakey, the system requires unreasonably strong wi-fi, and there seems to be a quality control problem where some devices are dead in the box. Oh, and the tech support is diabolical - you're talking to somebody who knows a lot less than you do yourself, and is so bored and lacking in motivation that you're just wasting your time talking to them.
I have wasted enough of my life trying to get this pile of crap working. I am reasonably knowledgeable about wi-fi and I'm technically very competent, having worked as a software engineer of embedded systems for over 20 years. It should not be this difficult to get it working, and I don't believe the system will get enough signal strength anyway.
So I'm now pondering whether I can be bothered to send any of it back and get my money back (not helped by the fact that my wife appears to have thrown out the Argos receipt), or whether I'll literally take a lump hammer to it.
If your router is just inside your front door, and your door is paper-thin, then it might just about work. Otherwise, forget it. And for the love of god, don't bother with the "chime pro" extender thing.
One of the worst products I've bought in a very long time.
Unless you have full-strength wi-fi outside your front door (which very few people will have), it simply doesn't work.
I've waited well over a week for a replacement chime/extender after the one delivered from Amazon was dead on arrival. At least the replacement responds when you plug it in, but it simply doesn't work. I've been through the setup process, and the extender voices the fact that it has connected to the doorbell, but the app on my iPad doesn't seem to know this and eventually times out and says that they couldn't connect. And the signal strength isn't improved in the slightest.
And now I'm in a situation where the whole system no longer works at all, even when all the devices are sitting right next to each other and within a few feet of my router.
The setup process is flakey, the system requires unreasonably strong wi-fi, and there seems to be a quality control problem where some devices are dead in the box. Oh, and the tech support is diabolical - you're talking to somebody who knows a lot less than you do yourself, and is so bored and lacking in motivation that you're just wasting your time talking to them.
I have wasted enough of my life trying to get this pile of crap working. I am reasonably knowledgeable about wi-fi and I'm technically very competent, having worked as a software engineer of embedded systems for over 20 years. It should not be this difficult to get it working, and I don't believe the system will get enough signal strength anyway.
So I'm now pondering whether I can be bothered to send any of it back and get my money back (not helped by the fact that my wife appears to have thrown out the Argos receipt), or whether I'll literally take a lump hammer to it.
If your router is just inside your front door, and your door is paper-thin, then it might just about work. Otherwise, forget it. And for the love of god, don't bother with the "chime pro" extender thing.
One of the worst products I've bought in a very long time.
I have a ring spotlight out the back and that needed the ring chime extender. It did fail to connect to the extender on the first attempt but a reboot of the extender later and it connected no problem, and I have no issues with signal once I did this (but it was borderline before)
Sorry you’ve had issues, I wonder if your doorbell is actually faulty rather than anything else.
Sorry you’ve had issues, I wonder if your doorbell is actually faulty rather than anything else.
paul_y3k said:
Bought a Ring II and Chime/Exctender from Currys for 169 this morning.
Doorbell all set up and happy, but the extender is a pain in the prov and will not connect to my wi fi.... currently on the phone with ring support and they are baffled. (wi fi channel 8)
Sure you know this already but Ring stuff only works on 2.4Ghz and not 5Ghz.Doorbell all set up and happy, but the extender is a pain in the prov and will not connect to my wi fi.... currently on the phone with ring support and they are baffled. (wi fi channel 8)
Not sure about mine, wifi seems to be the main problem even though it about 6ft from the router.
Had to get a replacement battery(they are not east to deal with when problems arise) as it was draining after a few days even though hard wired but weirdly after thinking the new battery was draining quickly as well I've noticed it actually charging for the 1st time.
Had to get a replacement battery(they are not east to deal with when problems arise) as it was draining after a few days even though hard wired but weirdly after thinking the new battery was draining quickly as well I've noticed it actually charging for the 1st time.
I found Ring great when it worked - although plenty of occasions I couldnt connect, or the other person couldnt hear me talking. It had greater rate of success when I was on 4g vs wi-fi, although still only 80% I suspect. I was on virgin broadband at the time which had loads of dropouts - I expect the Ring didnt like this and threw a fit when the signal went so didnt work when it came back.
Is Nest Hello any better? That seems to also get slated online!
Is Nest Hello any better? That seems to also get slated online!
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