Hi, Sieghard, I too had the Ring Doorbell and I got pretty frustrated with it. Sometimes it worked when someone rang my doorbell, and other times it did not. I was rather disappointed in it, so I had my handyman find a regular doorbell for me, and I have this now. It has a chime and I really like it. Apparently, there are other chimes that can be used, so I’m going to ask someone if they could read the instructions on how to change the rings from time to time. I love to tinker with things and I’m hoping I can accomplish this.
Anyway, thought I’d stick my 2 cents in! Have a wonderful day! Esther Levegnale Sent From Esther’s Amazing and Awesome iPhone 7+! > On Jan 6, 2019, at 12:10 PM, Sieghard Weitzel <siegh...@live.ca> wrote: > > Hi, > > I have had a Ring Pro Video Doorbell at the backdoor of my retail store for > many years. For all those years we had nothing but problems with it primarily > with reliability and the doorbell dropping off the WiFi. I should mention > that I also have one of the older Ring video doorbells at home, not sure if > it is the original one or the second generation, but it's the one with a > battery which despite the fact that it is hardwired we still have to charge > from time to time when it is quite cold outside for a few days. It stays > connected OK, but it's useless for answering an actual ring because when we > do that it sits there for about 30 seconds and all the app says is > "Activating device", by the time it actually connects and you can talk to > somebody whoever was there is usually long gone. > At my business I have tried all sorts of things since the building is of > course a bit larger although it is also not that big compared to some houses, > it is 80 feet long and 25 wide which means 2,000 square feet and it has two > floors for a total of 4,000 square feet of floor area. My router used to be > upstairs pretty much exactly in the middle of the long side, but all the way > to one side. This means it was about 40 feet from the back of the store, but > on the opposite side of the back door and a floor up, actual distance would > be about 50 feet and another issue was that the back of the store has metal > siding on the outside and the door is a fairly heavy-duty steel door so > definitely a problem for WiFi. We tried a WiFi extender which I put in my > office which is also at the back of the store and it was basically only about > 10 feet up and over just on the inside of the backwall and still no luck. We > then bought a Ring Chime Pro which according to Ring also acts as a WiFi > extender for the video doorbell and we connected it to the WiFi and put it > basically just on the inside above the door where the doorbell is, maybe 5 > feet away and still it would sometimes work and other times not. > Next I decided to make my WiFi more robust by investing in a new router and I > bought a Netgear Orbi Pro mesh router. This system consists of the main > router and a satellite and you can add more satellites to it if you wish, but > I installed it in the backroom downstairs very close to where our fiber > connection comes in from the outside and our ISP has installed their modem. > This is only 3 feet from the back wall and maybe a third in looking at the 25 > foot width of the building, distance to the doorbell is maybe 10 feet, but > it's downstairs and while it's mounted about 7 feet up this is only 3 feet > higher than the doorbell. The satellite is again upstairs and pretty much > exactly in the centre of the store both lengthways and with respect to the > width as well. On my iPhone I now get 3 out of 3 bars for WiFi anywhere in > the store as well as when I am standing outside by the backdoor next to the > doorbell and with the steel door closed. Still the Ring Pro acted up all the > time. > > During boxing week I bought a Nest Hello video doorbell from Best Buy Canada > for $299 which also came with a free Google Home Mini as a promo. We received > it the day before yesterday and my manager installed it. We already have 5 > indoor security cameras which used to be the Dropcam when we bought them but > Nest bought that company and they are now called Nest Cam so we already had > the Nest app for them. Installing the Nest Hello was super easy and fully > accessible. So far it's been working flawlessly without a single connection > issue and the nice thing is that if you subscribe to Nest Aware you can > assign names to faces the camera sees. My wife has done this for myself, > herself and one of our employees so far and I haven't checked if that is > accessible, but I assume you need sighted help since you have to of course > know which face you assign which name to. Now when I walk up to the backdoor > I get a notification that the video doorbell saw "Sieghard" and while it may > not work perfectly in all situations it is pretty neat. > I haven't had much time yet to see how easy it is to answer a ring, but will > do that on Monday. > > As for the Google Home Mini which came with the Nest Hello I set it up as > well. I downloaded the app and it was straight forward and I was able to > connect both the Nest Hello video doorbell and my Meross smart light > switches. If somebody rings the doorbell the Google Home announces that > somebody is at the backdoor, but I don't think you can tell it to answer that > ring, at least I haven't figured it out yet if it is possible. > Compared to the Echo speakers we have I think I like the Google Home better. > Connecting my Meross switches was easier. I have 3 of these wall switches > which control all the lights on the second floor at my store and I was easily > able to assign them to a room I called Upstairs and I can now simply say "Hey > Google, turn on the upstairs" and all the lights turn on. With the Echo I > have not been able to figure this out and I have to tell it to turn on each > switch individually. Considering that Amazon owns Ring one would think they > have a full-featured and easy to use skill for the Ring Video Doorbell and > while such a skill exists I have not installed it because you can't answer a > ring with it, either. > I also tested a few other things and the Google Home came out on top for all > of them: > 1. I asked for a phone number of a local business as follows "What is the > phone number for Home Hardware in Smithers". I asked Echo this and it said > that it was sorry, but it couldn't answer this, but it was working on adding > more local businesses. I asked the same question to the Google Home and it > instantly came back with the number. > 2. I asked the Google Home after it gave me the number to call it and I > didn't even say the name, just "Hey Google, call that number" and it did. The > quality of the phone call was way better than when I tried to use the Echo to > make calls to a phone number and in fact I never do any more because while I > can usually hear the other party just fine they often tell me the quality of > the call is really bad. > 3. I thought I see if the Google Home can play Podcasts. I said "Hey Google, > play the Today in iOS Podcast". It came back instantly with "Here is Today in > iOS… episode so and so" and it started playing it. I asked my Echo the exact > same thing and it said it couldn't find Today in iOS Podcast. > I now really look forward to when the Google Assistant is available on our > Sonos speakers since for many every-day questions it seems to do a better job > than the Echo. > > Best regards, > Sieghard > -- > The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or > moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: > mk...@ucla.edu. 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