anon2828 Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 Experience and Integrations with Ring Video Doorbell: What works, what doesn't? How is video quality? What are some of the best integrations / tricks you guys have come up with? Good alternative to DS2? Looking at the Ring Pro or Ring Elite... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sonic30101 Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 As far as functionality it is far below the DS2 though good enough especially for the price for most. That being said I like the ring doorbell, biggest drawback is that since it is cloud based there is no video displayed on c4 touch panels/on screen/or in the app. Motion and button presses can be programmed and work great but do rely on internet access. Only way to get it on a TV is with a firetv and alexa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adidaswood Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 i guess it works ok. I find it to be very slow to load on my phone in the ring app. I don't love it personally. This is outside of control4 integration but a big use case for me rarely works. When my 14 year old daughter is home and my wife and I are out for date night we will sometimes order her dinner to the house. When I see the notification come through I like to watch to make sure she is OK. but when i click on the notification the app will fire up and switch to the camera view, but the video never loads. if i wait a minute and go to the saved videos I can view it no problem, but by then it is usually too late. Its disappointing. When I look at my wifi stats, it is connected to the closest wap about 30 ft away and has a really strong signal. I'm honestly thinking of changing to another solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 The Ring Doorbell does not integrate with the T3 touchscreen for video or intercom functionality. It does however provide motion and doorbell events either by utilising the Blackwire Ring Events Driver or our IFTTT Maker driver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 I use/have used the Ring a lot even at my own home, and it works great for the price. Difficult to retrofit the DS2 without having wifi support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanchow Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 7 hours ago, thecodeman said: I use/have used the Ring a lot even at my own home, and it works great for the price. Difficult to retrofit the DS2 without having wifi support. Yeah i am using ring as well. The motion sensing and doorbell events are quite handy. Doorbell events trigger a doorbell announcement wav file which triggers in all zones in my home. Motion triggers the front porch light. Pretty much as soon as i get a notification on my phone of doorbell ring or motion sense the programming fires in Control4. thecodeman and c44me 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted March 19, 2019 Share Posted March 19, 2019 I have the Elite and would not want a wireless one. The video quality is unite good. The C4 Ring events work quite well though I wish I could have gotten local events working. The Ring ap itself is hit or miss (nothing to do with C4). From a C4 standpoint the DS2 would win hands down but I just couldn’t justify the price. Im glad I have the Ring, but it’s kind of expensive if you are just looking at it as a C4 doorbell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mod220 Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 I'm embarassed to admit this but I put a Doorbird in 4 years ago when I planned on going C4. I ended up ditching C4 and did a SmartThings setup, so I threw the doorbird away (I know, I know) and bought a Ring. The idea was we would use our Alex Shows and Firesticks, but I've yet to figure it out, and am now looking at C4 again, LOL. Since Ring works with Firesticks, can Control4 somehow relay the Ring camera to a Fire TV when the bell rings, or a Fire Tablet, or is C4 totally out of the equation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 it woudl just be all Alexa and Amazon family for you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemik Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 I was trying to be happy with ring pro. But it was so buggy (while answering call person at door is unable to hear you, connectivity issues, etc) - plus no live preview outside RingApp without any reason - I dont see why not make it available as rtsp stream on local network. Long story short - I switched to Dahua door station (PoE, 150$) - was little bit tricky to setup - but finally it works. Integrated with blueiris for local recording + created new driver for control4 (door bell driver - so it receives notification if somebody press button and can display live camera feed on tv or t3) - tried to look into SIP implementation - but it was too complicated. As for now - when somebody press doorbell - I do receive push notification from c4 with image (my driver ) and show live feed on turned on tv's. Also I receive call on 'native' dahua app if I'm away Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fgains Posted October 5, 2020 Share Posted October 5, 2020 For everyone experiencing poor performance with Ring (which in my experience as a dealer is everyone), download the Rapid Ring app from Ring. It’s super fast. Not sure why they can’t just optimize but, that’ll make your life better if you can’t get the DS2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DGeorge Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 I want to add Ring Doorbell Pros to both of my doors. Currently I have plain doorbell buttons that are wired to my Control4 system via CAT5 that announce a wav file that sounds through the speakers of all of my zones that their is someone at a specific door. I want to retain this feature with my Ring Doorbell Pros. I have purchased a 24VAC / 40VA plug in transformer to power the Ring Pros being I do not have a conventional doorbell chime or a transformer for one. My idea is to use two 24VAC / 10 amp relays from one terminal of each of the Ring Pros to energize the relay coil on the primary side of each relay. When the Ring Pro button is pushed, the circuit would momentarily close the contacts on the secondary side of the relay. My current wiring from my existing doorbell buttons leading to my Control4 system would be connected to the secondary side of the relay. This would, or should, replicate my current doorbell button press and cause the Control4 wav file to announce that someone is at the specific door that the Ring Pro was pressed. Does anyone see anything wrong with this setup, something I should do different, or if you see that it will or will not work and why? Thank you for any input Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 Uhm. Just get the ring doorbell driver, use the wires to power the Ring units and call it a day. The driver is purely to allow playing annoucnements (or whatever else you want to program) on doorbell press or motion - video/audio is NOT integrated. https://www.blackwiredesigns.com/store/c4z-ring-events/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 Why do you need relays? If you have the ring driver for C4 then ring motion or button pushes can trigger events. No reason for any wiring other than to provide power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DGeorge Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 23 minutes ago, Cyknight said: Uhm. Just get the ring doorbell driver, use the wires to power the Ring units and call it a day. The driver is purely to allow playing annoucnements (or whatever else you want to program) on doorbell press or motion - video/audio is NOT integrated. https://www.blackwiredesigns.com/store/c4z-ring-events/ Is this driver only available to dealers, to be installed by dealers? How is the 16 to 24 Volts of power provided to the Ring Doorbell Pro in this set up if I don't have a conventional doorbell and transformer? Thanks for your reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 Just now, DGeorge said: Is this driver only available to dealers, to be installed by dealers? How is the 16 to 24 Volts of power provided to the Ring Doorbell Pro in this set up if I don't have a conventional doorbell and transformer? Thanks for your reply. ANY driver is only available to dealers in general, and yes that dealer will need an account with Blackwire as well (not that that bar is high, as the primary if not only requirement is that you are a Control4 (or other automation they write drivers for) dealer. Note that we've been dealing with them for years before they started to sell drivers so I can't really speak for the sign-up procedure as such. As for power, you would use the existing wires going to the controller, and simply re-purpose them for power instead. simple connect the wires to the 24vac plug in you got, not really any different from if you had a regular old doorbell transformer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 "Free" drivers are available on the C4 driver web page that can be downloaded by anyone. Of course, you can't install them into your system unless you have Composer Pro, which is only availalble to dealers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DGeorge Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 42 minutes ago, Cyknight said: ANY driver is only available to dealers in general, and yes that dealer will need an account with Blackwire as well (not that that bar is high, as the primary if not only requirement is that you are a Control4 (or other automation they write drivers for) dealer. Note that we've been dealing with them for years before they started to sell drivers so I can't really speak for the sign-up procedure as such. As for power, you would use the existing wires going to the controller, and simply re-purpose them for power instead. simple connect the wires to the 24vac plug in you got, not really any different from if you had a regular old doorbell transformer. 1 hour ago, Cyknight said: Uhm. Just get the ring doorbell driver, use the wires to power the Ring units and call it a day. The driver is purely to allow playing annoucnements (or whatever else you want to program) on doorbell press or motion - video/audio is NOT integrated. https://www.blackwiredesigns.com/store/c4z-ring-events/ But the current doorbell wires go into the Control4 Controller, so if I connected those wires to the transformer, what would need to be done to get the Ring Doorbell press signal to the Control4 Controller to make the announcement? I have already bought the Ring Pro Doorbells because I got them on a deal for $169.99 plus a free Echo Show 5 with each one. I'm retired and on a fixed income, so I am trying to do what I can to get them to operate with the Control4 announcement, which is very helpful in my noisy shop or when I'm playing music loud and can't hear my phone notification from Ring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 If you haven’t bought the Rings yet consider the new C4 Chime video doorbell. Much better audio/video quality, faster response, one ap and free driver. I was a big Ring fan but the chime is a significantly better option for anyone with a C4 system. [Edit: I see you already have them. Personally, I’d try to sell them if you could. I’ve been testing Chime for a couple days and what an improvement.] To answer your other question with the Ring or the Chime run the wires from the secondary of the doorbell to an input on the controller, though that wouldn’t be needed with the Chime since you get a local signal on button press. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 As stated, the Ring Doorbell Event driver will allow sending out announcements. I get that you've got limited income, but the driver is about the same as one of the Rings you got - numerous online dealers here can easily add it to your system within a few minutes... no need to get a dealer site visit if you're handy enough to deal with the wiring Trying to mock up 2 or 4 relays, assuming this would even work and I'm not sure it would, let alone reliably, is not worth the limited cost of the driver plus install. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 Just noticed you already have a Cat cable to the doorbell. Get a Chime PoE version and use that cable to wire and power the doorbell. No transformer needed and more reliable connection. No transformers, no additional wiring, no license cost, no Ring ap, no dealer visit (probably), no hassle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 By default the ring doorbell announcement will go out by default on Alexa devices. So you will hear "Motion detected at front door" on your Echo Show 5. So you may not need a C4 announcement. I have both(C4 and Alexa announcements) going and they are out of sync so I get two announcements going with one of them one second behind the other. Time2Jet 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 16 minutes ago, zaphod said: By default the ring doorbell announcement will go out by default on Alexa devices. So you will hear "Motion detected at front door" on your Echo Show 5. So you may not need a C4 announcement. I have both(C4 and Alexa announcements) going and they are out of sync so I get two announcements going with one of them one second behind the other. I just use an announcement of a doorbell sound.. No words. There is a slight delay but far less confusing than with a spoken announcement. I actually stopped Alexa and use T3s and in ceiling speakers now. Neo1738 and msgreenf 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 I should probably do that as well, at least for rooms where I have C4 distributed audio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 21 minutes ago, jfh said: I just use an announcement of a doorbell sound.. No words. There is a slight delay but far less confusing than with a spoken announcement. I actually stopped Alexa and use T3s and in ceiling speakers now. same Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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