Hi all.
Just got my spotlight battery cam installed on front porch. I have an overhead porch light (about 40W or so) and the camera is in a corner away from the porchlight, but still sees some light from it. I have determined that even with “lights ON with motion at night setting”, the spotlights will NOT come on with motion. One reason I opted for the spotlight cam vs. doorbell was to have that spotlight come on with motion as an extra deterrent. I talked with Ring support and they say this is operating correctly. I can understand that perhaps the photosensor thinks it is still daytime and therefore no light needed, but since the camera knows what time of day it is, it would seem Ring would have taken into consideration people use porch lights near a camera and the fact the clock says it is night, should override any “artificial” light and come on. I’m surprised there is no “workaround” to forcing the light to come on under these conditions and can’t imagine there aren’t millions of people that want their spotlights or floodlights to come on with motion even if they have porch lights in the area. Hope someone can help or a moderator/admin tell me this will be made available soon!
Hi @CountryTime. As we value our neighbors’ feedback, we’ve created a Feature Request board. Feel free to add this and any future feature requests there. This will help us to organize and share your requests with our teams here, as well as allow other neighbors to comment and add interest, all in one place. Feel free to link that post you make in the Feature Request board here so other neighbors that come to this thread can easily find your feature!
Thank you Tom_Ring. Can you confirm whether this is proper operation of the spotlight battery cam - namely whether it is or is not supposed to have the spotlight come on at night with motion even with dim porch light on? If it is proper operation that the spotlight does not come on at night with porch light nearby, then I think this is a serious oversight. People like to have their porch lights on at night and it is unreasonable and even impractical to expect customers to have to place cameras away from all possible light sources at night. I can understand the photosensor may see the light from the porch light and think it is day time from sunlight, BUT since there is the time stamp, the camera also knows when night is and should therefore also know any porch or street light is “artificial” and therefore should turn on its spotlight with motion…
With feature request, what is likelihood something like this will actually be incorporated? I am new to Ring. Does it depend on how many “votes” the suggestion gets on the Feature forum?
Hey @CountryTime. You are correct with how the Spotlight Cam operates off of the ambient light. As mentioned before, having the Camera operate off of the timestamp is a great submission for our Feature Request Board. Many of the features currently implemented within Ring and the Ring app, have stemmed from Feature Request Board submissions. The amount of votes does help to show interest, but is not the only thing that is looked at. The Feature Request Board is reviewed regularly by teams here at Ring. I hope this information helps!