Ring Video Doorbell

AndyCr15

You can hard wire the 'normal' one and tbh if I know it would make it work, I would do it.

I'm in the states next week, I guess I could look to buy a Pro.  Do they sell them in BestBuy?  Mind you, over there maybe there's a better option?

westham

Yes I had the normal Doorbell hard wired and running off a standard Friedland doorbell Chime. It worked brilliantly but I am a sucker for an upgrade and when the Pro came out that was it - I was in the States in June and got one then from BestBuy! There is a 12v transformer talked about here that you can get cheaply and it works fine - only issue is that the transformer is not the nicest thing to have on display (hence I have hidden it in the Friedland case!).

AndyCr15

Thanks. So when you had yours hard wired, it worked fine, motion detection, doorbell and chime rang instantly?

I'm wondering if I can test it with power, before going the hole hog.  I guess if I just run some wire around the door frame and across the front of the door, I can tuck it in through the back of the Ring.  (Old doorbell was on the right, no room for Ring there, so Ring is in the middle of the door.)

I'm not good with electrics, is doorbell wire just like speaker wire? It looked pretty thin?

batfinkus

Yeah it's just like speaker wire,if it made it easier you could pop it off the door and wire it up inside the house to test? Though that's going to change things if it's maybe a wifi issue (which it doesn't seem to be)

Bal

I might be barking up the wrong tree but could it be that the motion detection is still initialising by the time the doorbell is pressed....how long is it from when motion is activated and when someone rings the doorbell. I'll try and imitate that tomorrow by standing around porch and activating the motion alert and then pressing the bell as soon as possible.

AndyCr15

A video from today, the first thing that is recorded is the couriers finger on the button, but no button press is recorded (not notified, nothing in history).

Testing inside the house is a good idea.  I fly tomorrow morning, when I get back I might try that.

youngsyp

I have regular issues with mine 'falling off' the network. The symptoms are that after a week or so, when you press the button or motion is detected, the doorbell fails to 'reconnect' to my network. I raised it with Ring CS and got the usual bull that my broadband rates were the cause. They're not as they have nothing to do with how well the device connects to the network or not, just how fast it can upload the video it takes. My view is that it just fails to reconnect after coming out of 'sleep' mode. They assure me it 'checks in' every now and again when not active but I don't believe that. My broadband gateway shows what devices are connected to the LAN and WLAN. As soon as the doorbell stops ringing, it disappears from he connected devices. So there's obviously an issue with the doorbell's NIC or NIC software that prevents it reconnecting when activated, after a while of not being connected.
One interesting thing is that they stated they could see 'bandwidth interference coming through' when they connected to the device via their diagnostic tool. That's great but what does it actually mean? i suspect you'd never get an answer as they're not networking experts but they should employ someone to fill that role.

This has just given me an idea so will report back if I get to any conclusions.

Re AndyCr15's issue, have you done the usual checks for WiFi quality at the doorbell? You issue sounds like it could be latency related and if you have poor WiFi quality at the doorbell, that would explain it. Having to press the button twice to get a ring is a fault though. It should ring the internal bell and the Chime first time, everytime.

Paul

AndyCr15

It's only about 3 meters from the access point so I doubt it's WiFi related.  I forgot I have this video of it not working -

                               
It's also odd that if I turn motion detection off, it works fine (well, there can be a 5-10 second delay to the chime ringing).  Surely that would eliminate WiFi issue and suggest a firmware issue with motion detection interfering with the doorbell?

**EDIT** Oh, and I just had a reply from Ring saying once motion has been answered, the doorbell can't be rang...  and at no point have I said that's the problem. I even sent the above video for them.

youngsyp

The 5-10 second delay points to a WiFi issue. It should ring almost instantly. I wonder if changing your WiFi channel could help. If your current channel is congested, that will cause all sorts of issues, including high latency. Are you familiar with InSIDDer (for Windows) or WiFi Analyzer (sic) (for Android)? Both of those can survey your airspace for WiFi congestion and assist you selecting the least congested channel.

I wonder if when you have motion detection activated, your activating the doorbell being in it's presence so to speak. That would explain why you need to press the button twice.

A little test  - activate motion detection (and alert) and go for a 2 minute walk. come back and stand in front of the doorbell waiting for the notification. If you don't get one, press the doorbell and see what happens.
If you do get one, wait for it to 'sleep' again and press the button without activating the motion detector. If the doorbell isn't faulty, it should ring as normal.

Paul

AndyCr15

Thanks, but I don't understand your point here?  Why would it explain pressing twice?  It would explain a design fault more likely, no?