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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2019
Before I start my revised review, let me state that there's been a lot of news lately about people hacking into Ring cameras, but this only happens when someone installs a new camera and doesn't update the default username and password (or has an extremely weak password which is easy for a hacker to guess). This is like leaving your front door open while on vacation. Your camera is sending and receiving signals over a wireless network. Anyone within range of the signal can potentially be a threat if you don't have good encryption (username and good password) set up on your camera. There's no logical reason for a Ring owner to not do this. Ring even stresses changing the default settings during the initial setup process. Bottom line, don't blame the car manufacturer if you leave the keys in your car and it gets stolen.
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Recently, I wrote a rather scathing 1 star review about the problems I was having with my new Ring Stick Up Wireless Battery Cam. I'm no stranger to wireless cams, having 10 hooked up and running seamlessly on another network as I write this, but I was totally frustrated with the connection reliability, not only with my two upper end cellphones, but also on my Galaxy Tab and Amazon Show. More times than not, the software wouldn't connect with the camera but when it did, the video was choppy. Notifications were also hit and miss. I have a great wireless mesh router system throughout the house, so after doing all the troubleshooting I could think of, I assumed it was due to faulty hardware or software. I gave up and started the return process through Amazon. It was a new product after all and new products sometimes are really buggy. Plus, I read other negative reviews which seemed to justify my thoughts and actions.
Then I got an email from a gentleman from Ring saying he read my review and asked if I'd be willing to let him help troubleshoot my issues with me. Although I had already started the return process, I was willing. It was refreshing to know Ring Customer Service was genuinely interested in troubleshooting possible defects in their newest product.
Together, we isolated the issue within about 20 minutes. It turned out it wasn't the camera or software after all.
Anyone having connection issues should do what he advised me to do. Open up the Ring app and click on the 3 little dots to the upper right of the camera screenshot, then select settings. From there go to Device Health and check the signal strength. Although I had a good mesh hub (inside) within 10 feet of my camera (mounted outside), my signal strength was RSSI -64. He stated that the signal was so weak it was on the cusp of what is needed for the camera to even minimally operate. This prompted me to reboot my wireless mesh system and reset/reconnect the camera. When it came back online, my signal strength went to -39, a vast improvement.
A quick check of all of my devices showed the camera and software working flawlessly. Hat's off to Ring.
Anyone who may be having connection or audio/video/notification difficulties, check your signal strength to the camera via the Ring software, even if your router is close by. You just might be surprised.
***UPDATE***
Camera (and software) is still working flawlessly on all devices.
Ring has now updated their Windows 10 desktop app (which previously didn't work with the new wireless battery cams) and it works flawlessly as well.
Observations.
Notifications on my phone, Tab and Amazon devices (Show, Echo, Dot) are almost instantaneous. Alexa says "Someone is at your front door." Very cool.
I bought an extra battery, but it looks like it'll be at least a few months before I need to swap it out, even with the intensive testing I've done on the Stick Up Cam. Battery life seems excellent.
I have one zone blocked out and that seems to work fine as well. I also have it mounted a couple of feet above and to the left of my front door, tilting downward at an angle. Even though residential traffic is visible in the field of view, I've not gotten one trigger due to street activity. The motion sensor is triggered by anything coming into the bottom half of it's field of view. From the time someone triggers the motion sensor until the time I'm aware of it is 1-2 seconds. That's about as close to real time as you can get. It's not given me a false alarm even once.
Telling my Amazon Show to "(Alexa), show front door cam" takes about 5 seconds to complete.
I can also watch triggered video clips and get a live feed while away from home without any extra setup to my network. It's totally automatic.
Because of the customer service I received from Ring and the fact the product is much better than I originally thought, I will be expanding my Ring family soon.
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Recently, I wrote a rather scathing 1 star review about the problems I was having with my new Ring Stick Up Wireless Battery Cam. I'm no stranger to wireless cams, having 10 hooked up and running seamlessly on another network as I write this, but I was totally frustrated with the connection reliability, not only with my two upper end cellphones, but also on my Galaxy Tab and Amazon Show. More times than not, the software wouldn't connect with the camera but when it did, the video was choppy. Notifications were also hit and miss. I have a great wireless mesh router system throughout the house, so after doing all the troubleshooting I could think of, I assumed it was due to faulty hardware or software. I gave up and started the return process through Amazon. It was a new product after all and new products sometimes are really buggy. Plus, I read other negative reviews which seemed to justify my thoughts and actions.
Then I got an email from a gentleman from Ring saying he read my review and asked if I'd be willing to let him help troubleshoot my issues with me. Although I had already started the return process, I was willing. It was refreshing to know Ring Customer Service was genuinely interested in troubleshooting possible defects in their newest product.
Together, we isolated the issue within about 20 minutes. It turned out it wasn't the camera or software after all.
Anyone having connection issues should do what he advised me to do. Open up the Ring app and click on the 3 little dots to the upper right of the camera screenshot, then select settings. From there go to Device Health and check the signal strength. Although I had a good mesh hub (inside) within 10 feet of my camera (mounted outside), my signal strength was RSSI -64. He stated that the signal was so weak it was on the cusp of what is needed for the camera to even minimally operate. This prompted me to reboot my wireless mesh system and reset/reconnect the camera. When it came back online, my signal strength went to -39, a vast improvement.
A quick check of all of my devices showed the camera and software working flawlessly. Hat's off to Ring.
Anyone who may be having connection or audio/video/notification difficulties, check your signal strength to the camera via the Ring software, even if your router is close by. You just might be surprised.
***UPDATE***
Camera (and software) is still working flawlessly on all devices.
Ring has now updated their Windows 10 desktop app (which previously didn't work with the new wireless battery cams) and it works flawlessly as well.
Observations.
Notifications on my phone, Tab and Amazon devices (Show, Echo, Dot) are almost instantaneous. Alexa says "Someone is at your front door." Very cool.
I bought an extra battery, but it looks like it'll be at least a few months before I need to swap it out, even with the intensive testing I've done on the Stick Up Cam. Battery life seems excellent.
I have one zone blocked out and that seems to work fine as well. I also have it mounted a couple of feet above and to the left of my front door, tilting downward at an angle. Even though residential traffic is visible in the field of view, I've not gotten one trigger due to street activity. The motion sensor is triggered by anything coming into the bottom half of it's field of view. From the time someone triggers the motion sensor until the time I'm aware of it is 1-2 seconds. That's about as close to real time as you can get. It's not given me a false alarm even once.
Telling my Amazon Show to "(Alexa), show front door cam" takes about 5 seconds to complete.
I can also watch triggered video clips and get a live feed while away from home without any extra setup to my network. It's totally automatic.
Because of the customer service I received from Ring and the fact the product is much better than I originally thought, I will be expanding my Ring family soon.
