I have a Ring Spotlight Cam Battery in the backyard synced to two Ring PAR38 Smart Lights through the Ring Bridge. Currently the cam is running on batteries but as soon as the solar panel gets here it will be ran with the solar panel.
I have a couple of problems that the camera is currently having. When you walk outside the camera will detect your motion and the camera and spotlight will come on. Then a couple of seconds later the PAR38 floodlights will come on. I have the PAR38 lights set to stay on for 5 minutes when tripped by motion but they turn off in less than a minute. I have tried everything to include uninstalling everything and re-installing and they still turn off in less than 1 minute. I have called tech support twice and they haven’t been able to figure it out.
The other problem; sometimes when I walk out the spotlight cam will come on but not turn on the floodlights then the spotlight will go off after a few seconds and the event will never show up as a detection on the app. All of my signals are strong and the unit has good connection to the WIFI and bridge, it is just being a pain and refuses to work properly.
Any help with figuring this out would be greatly appreciated.
Hi there, @DaleG! Thank you for providing these details, and for working with our support team on this. As you mentioned the PAR38 bulb only remaining on for 1 minute, despite you having it set for 5 minutes, please check this light duration for both the bulb and the Spotlight Camera, as both have the option to alter light auto shutoff times. If you have other Smart Lighting devices that can be linked to for motion, as a test try removing the link from the Spotlight Camera and instead linking a Smart Lighting motion activated device to see if the duration of light changes for the PAR38.
With there also being events missed in the Ring app, the best next step will be to power cycle your network. While wifi signal strength might be sufficient, it sounds like the Smart Lighting and Camera devices are having trouble communicating certain operations properly. Powering off your router for a few moments, then powering back on, can help to refresh network connection and could improve communication between the network, the Camera, the Bridge, and your Smart Lighting devices. If this concern persists, the best solution will come from continued troubleshooting with our support team. It looks like you’ve covered most steps that we would recommend here, and a more in-depth look from our advanced support team might be necessary.
If the above steps did not help to resolve this, please give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here. We’re taking additional steps to protect our team and help reduce the spread of COVID-19, so this has resulted in longer than normal wait times. If you are outside of the US, please read our response to COVID-19 here to see how to contact support.
I have tried all of that for the lights and it has done no good, still not working. I also took your advice and reset the wireless router and it has not helped.
For the lights this is what I have been told by the tech department. When you set the timer to 5 minutes for the smart lights that is for if the lights are controlled by a motion detector. If they are linked to a camera then the camera settings overrides the bulb settings. As of right now that is set for just a little less than a minute and is not adjustable. Their solution is to unlink the lights from the camera and let the bulbs’ motion detector run the lights then they will stay on for 5 minutes. Since my bulbs don’t have a motion detector I have ordered one for the front and back. We will see if that fixes the problem. Also, the reason why the lights stay on for less than a minute when they are tripped by the camera is because it is to aid the camera. It would be nice if they added an option in the camera linked items to adjust this time.
For the problem of the camera not recording all events I have found two solutions. The first is the signal strength for that camera was 65 to 68 in the Device Health page. I moved the WIFI mesh unit closer and got the signal to 45 which has helped a lot. I also found out the built in spotlight senses motion separate from the camera. Just because the spotlight comes on doesn’t mean the camera trips and turns on. If the spotlight comes on and only stays on for a few seconds and then turns off with no video recorded that means the camera did not sense movement and did not turn on. I just adjusted the camera angle and the zones so it did a better job sensing motion in the area I wanted recorded. Now it seems to work better.