OT: Any Body Want A Ring Brick

Fool Community Help Desk Help with this STUPID computer!
1

I have two security cameras for the front of the house. They are from Xfinity (or Comcast or whatever they call themselves now-a-days). They work after a fashion. They record and let your know they recorded.

The boss buys a boatload of “stuff” from QVC. QVC had the Ring camera on sale and the boss mentioned it to me. I poo poo’d the idea at first but the next day at physical therapy the P/T showed me her camera output on her ipad. Man I was impressed. Later that day I asked the boss if the Ring camera was still on sale. It was and I suggested she buy it.

Here comes the fun part. I’ve been jacking around with this P.O.S. for the last 4 or 5 days and it’s impossible to get it to do what I want it to do. I want it to just sit there. If a person comes to the front door or get in the back yard I want it to record the activity and then go back to sleep. That’s all. Not asking much for a security camera.

But nooooo!!! The Ring system is way over my head. I’ve programmed it 40 ways from Sunday. I’ve had the ladies over at P/T program it. I’ve had my golfing buddies program it and it’s going no where. And all of these folks have Ring camera systems.

Here’s a brief description of my set up. The package comes with two cameras. The door bell camera and what I call a baby monitor. The door bell camera is battery operated and the baby monitor plugs into the wall outlet. Since I don’t want either camera stolen I have them installed behind glass windows. Rather than use the baby camera to monitor the inside of the house I use it to monitor the back yard (don’t want to record the boss and I running around half naked). The back yard monitor seems to work after a fashion. The Ring Camera at the front door is another animal. Grrrr!!!

Steps I have taken to get this thing going:

  • Deleted camera
  • Rebooted camera
  • Reconnected WiFi
  • Turned every switch on
  • Turned every switch off
  • Said 10 Hail Mary’s, 10 Our Fathers’ 10 Glory Be’s
  • Googled it every which way it can be Googled

Of course it’s the holidays so I don’t want to talk to someone in India so waiting till after New Years to call.

Any suggestions on how to get this thing running? I can go into live mode and it sees cars and trucks going by but if I get out of live mode it becomes a brink. It won’t record doodly.

Regards,

ImAGolfer (retired 2003)

3 Likes
2

If you’re trying to run it through glass, that won’t work (very well.) Glass interferes with the motion detector and the IR which can reflect and corrupt the video. Worse, it may be telling the camera that there’s motion “all the time”, which means the battery will last about a minute.

You can run the plug in through glass, although you’ll have the same problem with motion detection; sometimes it will work, sometimes it won’t. At least it won’t kill the battery.

Not sure if this is your problem but it an be an issue.

3 Likes
3

Hey Goofy. Thanks for the answer. Not what I wanted to hear but I guess I’ll have to live with it. The son, D-in-L and grand kids are coming in from Florida the day after Christmas and staying for a week. I’ll ask him if he can install it outside for me.

I don’t want it to replace my existing doorbell and I inspected the area where the existing doorbell is mounted and it’s slightly wider than an inch or so. I found an area close to the front door that might be suitable for mounting. It’s like the framing around the windows. I not smart enough to know if it’s wood or Hardy-Board. If it’s Hardy-Board I hope that doesn’t create an issue.

Isn’t it a shame in this day and age you have to worry about folks ripping you off. Oh, well, the added price of dope.

Thanks again for the insight.

2 Likes
4

There are anti-theft mounts both from Ring and from third parties which make stealing it really difficult; you’d have to crowbar the cage off the side of the house to get it - which I suspect no one would bother with because there are easier targets, not to mention that all of the motion would be captured and visible in the cloud.

Google search: “How do I thief proof my Ring camera”

4 Likes