Hi,
When my system is in Mode “Home” motion detection is turned off on my Spotlight Cam Wired. However, it still detects motion and turns on the light. Is this expected behavior? It’s counter intuitive to me.
I would expect that when I enable Motion-Activated lights and I have motion detection turned off, that also lights would not be activated.
Thanks,
Jeffry
Hi @jeffryvu. During this time, if you look at your History in the Ring app, are you seeing motion events related to your Lights coming on? The Spotlight Cams do have the capability for the Lights to come on independently from the the Camera, because the Motion Zone for the Lights is different from the Motion Zones for the Camera. If this is a concern, try setting up a Light Schedule.
Hi Tom, thanks for your response! No, I don’t see motion events in the history.
But you’re saying that even when motion detection is disabled, the lights might come on if it detects motion in the motion zones of the lights? Can that not be disabled?
For me, when I disable motion detection it means that I don’t want to turn on the camera or the lights. I’m basically disabling everything except live view.
I think I have a similar issue with a wired cam pro.
It is continually turning on the light but when i look at event history there is nothing to indicate why.
I can turn the light off and within a minute it turns back on.
I don’t know if I just have a faulty unit or what ?
Hi @jeffryvu. In the Ring app, you can look under the Light Settings menu for an “Motion-Activated Lights” option. If you toggle this off, the lights will not come on. You can also adjust the Motion Zone for your lights. Let me know if this helps.
Hi @leedb. It sounds like you also need to adjust your Light Settings. The link I shared above should have useful information.
Hi Tom,
Thanks again for your response.
I understand that I can toggle this off and then the lights won’t turn on. However, when motion detection is Enabled, the lights will then still not come on, right? It’s like the camera and the lights work independent from each other and you cannot link them. That doesn’t make sense to me.
When motion detection is enabled, I want my lights and my camera to turn on and send me a notification. When motion detection is disabled (e.g. when I’m home) I want neither my lights nor my camera to turn on.
It would be fine if in the Mode Settings I could control both camera and light settings, but the only option I have there is Motion detection which apparently only works for the camera, not the light.
Or am I missing something here?
Hi @jeffryvu. Let me try to clarify for you and offer a method that I use at my home. When the Camera detects motion (in darkness), by default, the Camera will record and the Lights will come on. You can toggle off the Motion Activated Lights so that when the Camera detects motion, it will record but no Lights will come on. Additionally, the Lights also have a Motion Detector with adjustable Motion Zones. The Motion Detection zone for the Lights can be greater than the area of detection for the settings, depending on how you have everything adjusted.
With this in mind, it is possible to have the Lights come on with Motion, but the Camera will not come on because it is out of the Motion Detection Zone for the Camera. So, first you need to make sure that your Camera is properly mounted, as this is crucial to accurately detecting motion. The Spotlight Cam needs to be around 9’ up from the ground and the bubble on the bottom needs to be parallel to the ground. Next, you’ll need to “play around” with your settings to make sure the your Lights and Camera are coming on when you want them to. The best way to do this is to walk into view of the camera, going from left to right, at different distances from the camera.
Now that we have that all covered, here is how I have my camera setup. I have it setup to detect motion and have the lights come on, all the time. I have a Light Schedule and Motion Schedule setup on the camera to have no motion detection and no lights, from 1am to 11pm. When I want this schedule to apply, I simply turn it on. When I want my camera to operate “normally” (lights and camera active), I turn the schedule off. This way, when I’m enjoying my evening on the patio, I can turn this schedule on and I won’t have my phone buzzing and the lights going on and off every time I move. I suggest giving this a try for a few days and letting me know how you like it.
Why would I want to turn off motion activated lights ? I want the lights to turn on if there is motion.
The issue is the lights are turning on when there is no motion and there is no motion alert or recording when they turn on.
I’ve been having the same issue for well over a year. It’s driving me and my neighbors insane. I went so far I even trimmed my large tree as they said that movement could be triggering the light.
Well, here it is dead winter with no leaves and the tree branches have been cut waaaayyyyy back and the one wired spotlight light keeps going on and off all freaking night with zero motion. I have three of them and this is the only one giving me problems. I give up and might have to try another brand.
Should we turn these into strobe lights? maybe I can pull out my old lava lamp too. I’m sure I still have it.
Hi Neighbors. The lights on your camera use PIR motion detection. The PIR motion zones are larger than the area for your cameras’ motion zones. So it’s possible to have your lights activate without your camera recording any motion. A great way to mitigate this would be to setup a Light Schedule. You can find more information about this here. If you are still having issues with this concern after trying the above mentioned steps, you can contact our support team. Please give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here. If you are outside of the US, please visit here to see how to contact support.