Observations 01/12/2021

Products Video Doorbells
#1

For starters it looks like the ring app has been updated on my phone.
I say this because the tiles are not in the same position.
Today the version is 3.34.0

This morning the doorbell is virtually dead.
The router shows it offline.
I cannot ping the static ip.
I have taken it off the outside wall into the house.
It feels cool to the touch. Outside temp is probably 50 or so.
When I press the button on the doorbell it rings but the ring does not light up. The app sees nothing.
The two red lights do not light up either.

Pressed the orange button for setup and tried to change the network.
Phone finds the ring ssid but it cannot connect.
Battery is 88% by the way.
Removed the device. Added a new device.
Once again it does not want to connect to the ring ssid.
I had to reset to the point the doorbell says ‘welcome to ring’
It connected automatically to the ring ssid.

The doorbell setup is complete.

My router, extender, doorbell and phone are all in the same room at the moment.
My rssi is -46.
I saw live view work.
A couple minutes later my router tells me the doorbell is now offline.

The device is now ping-able but the router still says it is offline.
Live view works and now my router says the doorbell is online.
Now the doorbell is offline again.

So my ring doorbell most defiantly goes to sleep / hibernates / goes into some sort of power saving mode. The time it takes to come out of that state would appears to be random and I suspect could very well be the reason motion detection and invoking live view are so iffy.

I would like to know (from ring engineering) if this is expected/acceptable behavior or is my ring doorbell a lemon ?

#2

I called support earlier this morning. The call last nearly 2 hours. The guy was both friendly and extremely knowledgeable. We touched on so many different things but here is what I remember.

  • Yes there was a new ring app pushed out last night.
  • Yes my 2020 version of the original doorbell does go into a ‘coma-like’ state (my words) to preserve battery.
  • There really isn’t that much I can do about that. Even if I hardwire the doorbell, it will still be a battery powered doorbell.
  • The doorbell does not handle head on motion as well as you might expect. It is much better at detecting motion which goes across the field of vision for the camera.
  • My RSSI values (mid 50’s or so) are fine.
  • My range extender could be contributing to the delay in live video etc.
  • But at the same time, we setup a test where I approached my front door (at a 45 degree angle) from maybe 50 ft away and the motion was not detected at all. I don’t remember conclusion on that point. But he verified my settings and he saw it.
  • I should have bought a Ring Pro (but that doorbell is not available on at amazon mexico . In fact I don’t see it available on amazon us at the moment).
  • A ring chime really wouldn’t buy me all that much over my current range extender - but it would provide ring with more diagnostics.
  • I should consider a wifi mesh but I explained the only reason I have the range extender in place is for the ring doorbell.
  • Near the end of the call we accessed a website (fast.com) and he did not like the latency value. That is something I would have to address with my ISP.

At this moment that is all I remember. I hope I have been honest in my recollections. Apparently there really isn’t that much more I can do to improve things…

Edit

  • I have noticed in the past that sometimes segments of a motion recording seem to disappear quickly. He said the algorithm is to try and detect if the segment is within the ‘desired’ range and if not delete it. You are not supposed to see that happen and in my case the segment was in the configured range. That is an opportunity.
  • Never delete anything from the event history. It can be useful in diagnosing issues.
  • I was surprised that he seemed to have a history of the rssi readings for my doorbell…