Hi Everyone,
I’ve had the Ring Video Doorbell 2 for a week now so thought I’d write down my
impressions of the product.
Before that I had a Doorbell which I built around a Raspberry Pi machine
however the machine packed up so I had to get something quickly.
I looked for Raspberry Pi Doorbell projects to build and boy has the landscape
changed since I built mine back in 2013, if you go to Youtube and look for
Raspberry Pi Doorbell you’ll soon see what I mean so plenty for me to choose
from and to think about.
The Raspberry Pi I was using was of a considerable age and there have been
several generations of Raspberry Pi since, I think we’re now up to the Third
Generation? Anyway the newer Pi machines are far more powerful than the one I
was using and offer far more flexible connectivity options but one thing at a
time and back to the Ring Doorbell Video 2
The idea of the Ring Doorbell is to have the unit installed at a location while
you use your Smart Phone to interact with the doorbell. My Ring Doorbell is
installed at the front door.
If you have the old trusty electro mechanical type doorbell already installed
then you can choose to have it work in parallel with the Ring Doorbell.
In my case I needed a sparky to come and give me a hand with my installation
but if its just a case of sticking the Ring Doorbell on a wall then you should
be able to perform the whole installation job yourself.
Depending on the type of\The Ring Doorbell has several power options and the
one you choose will depend on your installation requirements. I already have a
mains supply installed for my doorbell requirements so the ring Doorbell can
take advantage of that.
If you’re just going to stick the doorbell on a wall then you can use the
supplied rechargeable battery which clips into the bottom of the Doorbell unit.
Connecting the Ring Doorbell to your network may take a little time and can be
a little tricky so be sure to follow the prompts in the Ring App and be sure to
create your account at http://www.ring.com <http://www.ring.com/> which I
suggest you do before you stat the setup process.
Its during the setup process that I started encountering disappointments with
the Ring product.
Firstly the Ring Doorbell Video 2 will only connect to 2.4GHZ networks and the
unit doesn’t have a LAN port which is odd given the Doorbell will be mounted
most likely in most homes in a fixed position.
The Setup procedure in the Ring App was quite easy to follow and I have
everything connected in around 10 minutes along with having completed tests to
ensure that the doorbell was functioning as required.
Ring sends you a couple of optional eMails containing tips and so on which are
worth reading.
The settings panels in the Ring App seem perfectly accessible.
So now to actually trying the Ring Doorbell out with my mobile phones and here
I started to get annoyed.
When the Ring Doorbell detects motion or the button is pushed to ring the
Doorbell a notification is sent to your phone.
In order to interact with the person at your door you have to interact with the
notification on your phone so that means that you not only have to unlock your
phone - if it is locked - but enter your Fingerprint or facial ID before you
can even interact then with the Ring Screen.
The Screen contains several buttons including an “Accept” button which you can
double-tap to start viewing video form your doorbell or speak to the person at
your front door.
And here’s another thing to be wary of, the orientation of your phone is
changed to landscape regardless of your orientation preference so you may need
to change your method when you try to navigate the Ring App screen whilst
interacting with the Doorbell.
The interactivity can be ended by double-tapping on the “End” button in the
Ring App.
There is an easier way with which to interact with the Ring Doorbell by the use
of an Echo Show or Echo Spot device and your voice.
You Suppose the Doorbell rings you can say to Echo Show, “Alexa View Front
Door” where upon the Doorbell will be activated and you can start interacting
with the person at your Front door.
The video is displayed on the Echo Show or Spot screen and you can talk to the
person at your front door using hands free on the Echo Show or Spot device.
Note that the Ring Doorbell Video 2 cannot work with an Echo or Echo dot device
which is a shame. Okay the Dot etc aren’t capable of receiving video but they
do receive audio and the quality of audio the Echo Dot 3rd Generation and Echo
put out is very reasonable.
As for the audio quality of the Ring Doorbell itself? Well I can describe it
best as very average but certainly not too bad. I would have liked to see a
control for volume of audio on the Doorbell itself. In most situations this
should be loud enough for the person at the front door to hear but certainly
not in reasonably noisy environments, say near a road with a lot of traffic
running up and down.
Extra chime and camera units can be installed and I intend to experiment with a
couple of extra chimes around the house.