Ring security systems.

[Mercula]

Piggyback thread.
Anybody use the Ring systems and monitoring ?
We've had the Comcast system but are dropping it. Kinda between Ring or Simplysafe.
Leaning towards Ring at the moment.

[Gman]

Yep. Ring was cheaper at $100/yr. Easy to setup. They'll also get the alarm permit for you if it's required (was for DougCo). You still have to pay for it but they'll take care of the legwork. Since I'm also using their cameras, it was a no-brainer since the recording is also included for an unlimited number of cameras. I waited for Amazon to have a big sale which included their Ring products (not sure when their next sale is coming up).

ETA:

https://simplisafe.com/choose-monitoring12

https://shop.ring.com/pages/protect-plans

I haven't had any alarms trigger, so I can't speak to getting any calls from their monitoring center.

Also ETA: I understand why you're asking. I've been Googling "Ring vs. Simplisafe", and the reviews are garbage. Inaccuracies out the wazoo. A US News & World Report from a 'contributor' mentions the Ring sensors connecting with WiFi rather than Z-Wave. Ring uses Z-Wave.

[MarkCO]

Several police departments have unfettered access to the data if they are partners. Can be seen as a pro and a con. Helped catch a carjacker in Arvada with it last year. The porch pirate who took stuff off my porch in 2018 (I chased him down and got most of it back, but he eluded LE and the K9s, was eventually caught with a Ring.

https://www.latimes.com/business/tec...data-eff-finds

[Gman]

Several police departments have unfettered access to the data if they are partners. Can be seen as a pro and a con. Helped catch a carjacker in Arvada with it last year. The porch pirate who took stuff off my porch in 2018 (I chased him down and got most of it back, but he eluded LE and the K9s, was eventually caught with a Ring.

https://www.latimes.com/business/tec...data-eff-finds

Can't get to the article because it's paywalled, but law enforcement doesn't have "unfettered access to the data". Some took issue with a heat map that was provided to law enforcement to get an approximate idea of where there may be camera coverage, and it was removed in June of last year (if I remember the date correctly). Access to your video isn't provided without your permission. Either you have to share it in the 'Neighbors' portion of the app or a participating PD can request if anyone has video they're willing to share in an area where a crime occurred. Even the Neighbors info provides a vague location for the individual reporting and all users information is anonymous. I've also seen several notifications when new police departments are enrolled in the Neighbors app.

Partial screen shot from a recent event below:


Here's a notification regarding Littleton PD's involvement:

[SouthPaw]

I wanted to go the ring route but my doorbell doesn't face the right direction and relocating it really isn't an option. I ended up going with a Wireless/battery powered unit from amazon. Yesterday marks one month of having it and so far it's been great. The battery for me, lasted the whole month and still had 10% battery yesterday when I removed it to charge it. The more you check it, the faster the battery drains. It has a two way speaker, SD card slot, live feed, recording capability, cloud storage if you want to pay for it, multiple settings for alarms/motion detection, etc. The magnet ball mount works great and it really snaps into place. I previously had a wired unit setup in on the inside of the living room window but depending on the time of day, it would wash out the picture.
Meco Wireless Camera with magnet mount


It's pretty sensitive and does a pretty good job of filtering out false moving objects. Every now and then, the plants in front of the house will trigger it on a windy day but it's not often. Here are some recent captures of what it picks up
It's been really helpful when packages get delivered.



It's even picked up the neighborhood pussy cats, four legged and two legged....

[hurley842002]

Got mine all set up.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

[DFBrews]

I have 3 one door bell and 2 outdoor cameras. They do pretty good. My only real complaint is the length of the recording sometimes is not enough I wish I could bump it up to a minute plus

[ray1970]

Southpaw?s video footage could come in handy someday if you ever had to identify someone by the top of their head.

[SouthPaw]

Southpaw?s video footage could come in handy someday if you ever had to identify someone by the top of their head.

Bald, middle aged man with glasses won’t do me any good?


That is a really good point though. Thanks for the tip.

[ray1970]

Wasn't ragging on you, I promise.

I'm thinking about some cameras and making sure I can get a good look at people's faces is something I want to try and do.

I figure if something goes down having a good shot of the guys face could help identify him.

I think I'll do two cameras on the front door. One to catch them coming up and one to try and get another facial shot as they are leaving. Probably just do one camera on the back door and one on the driveway.