I have a motion activated flood light (mounted about 7 feet high) facing south on side of my house. Dogs are inside fence about 30 feet to the right of flood light. Dogs often activate the flood light. I want to install a ring camera about 10 feet away from flood light. The camera will be between the flood light and dogs but facing the flood light and not facing the dogs. Question: When dogs move around in fence (out of view of camera) and activate the flood light (In view of camera) will the motion activated ring camera be activated by the flood light coming on?
@sabehouse wrote:
I have a motion activated flood light (mounted about 7 feet high) facing south on side of my house. Dogs are inside fence about 30 feet to the right of flood light. Dogs often activate the flood light. I want to install a ring camera about 10 feet away from flood light. The camera will be between the flood light and dogs but facing the flood light and not facing the dogs. Question: When dogs move around in fence (out of view of camera) and activate the flood light (In view of camera) will the motion activated ring camera be activated by the flood light coming on?
Hello @sabehouse ,
Yes and maybe. Sorry for being a little ‘wishy-washy’ on my answer. Let me explain why.
It is very likely that the other flood light turning on (triggered by your dogs) will activate a Ring Camera next to the flood light. If the sudden illumination from the flood light itself, or the flood light illuminates an area that is in the Ring camera’s Field-Of-View (FOV) and/or Motion Zone, it is possible this will activate the Ring camera to record. I don’t know it that is what you want the Ring camera to do, or not to do.
Ring uses two different types of motion detection systems in its doorbell and security camera products. While both are very effective at what they do, they both work on different principles and are optimized for different purposes. Ring’s “Advance Motion Detection” system, comprised of two types of motion detection systems:
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**Infrared Motion Detection: ** This system runs using Passive Infrared (PIR) sensors and is featured in all of Ring’s products. It is optimized for low-power operations to save on battery power in battery-based devices. Ring’s PIR system allows for significant customization.
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**Camera-based Motion Detection: ** This system uses a camera for motion detection rather than the heat signatures used by the PIR sensors. It’s featured in all of Ring’s products and is optimized for a fuller feature set and allows a greater degree of customization.
It is this Camera-based Motion detection, using what the camera “Sees” as a lighting change (or something that may not be motion) that probably will activate your Ring camera. This is why sometimes car headlights or moving shadows can trigger a ‘motion-event’. Also, if the flood light itself is in the PIR activated zone sensor’s FOV, the heat from the flood light itself may also activate your Ring camera.
- During the day, your powered Ring device uses Camera-based Advanced Motion Detection to actively look for objects within the defined Motion Zones you set.
- During the night, the object that the motion is looking for might be hard to see because of the lighting conditions. Due to this, the powered Ring device also has a Passive Infrared (PIR) Sensor to help it. The powered Ring device will see the object, then verify the object is really a motion by checking the PIR Sensor to verify it is real.
https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360022461232-Motion-Detection-in-Powered-Ring-Devices
Other useful motion detection information:
When the other flood lights are triggered on by the dogs, I do not know if you DO want the Ring camera to activate/record, or prefer the Ring camera NOT activate/record, so therefore:
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If you DON’T want the Ring Camera to be activated by the other flood light:
- Try to point the Ring camera so that the flood light itself is definitely not in the camera’s FOV.
- Try to point the Ring camera so that the area illuminated by the other flood light is avoided if possible.
- Set up your “Motion Zones” to Exclude the flood light and areas that it illuminates.
- Reduce your Motion Sensitivity.
- Choose a location to mount your Ring camera to avoid the flood light.
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But if you DO want the Ring Camera to be activated by the other light:
- Try to point the Ring camera so that the flood light itself can be ‘seen’ in the video FOV. It is best to just barely have the flood light on the Ring’s FOV screen edge so that it won’t blind the entire screen with glare, while still being in the PIR sensor’s FOV.
- Try to point the Ring camera so that the area illuminated by the other flood light is definitely in the Ring’s FOV.
- Set up your “Motion Zones” to Include the flood light and areas that it illuminates.
- Maximize your Motion Sensitivity.
- Choose a location to mount your Ring camera to help the flood light activating it.
Also the “People Only Mode” (available if you have a Ring Protect Plan subscription) may help or hinder your Ring camera in distinguishing between the sudden flood light’s bright illumination (interpreted as motion). The Ring camera might still activate a recording due to the change in the FOV lighting, but you shouldn’t receive a text-type Notification and/or App Alert Tone on your smart-phone with the “People Only Mode” enabled. Although Ring states that, “_Occasionally when in People Only Mode, _light reflection, as from an outside window, can activate motion detection”, I personally feel that sometimes light reflections, or sudden change in bright lights, and moving shadows are better hindered using “People Only Mode”. Also, in “People Only Mode” you won’t have control of the “Motion Sensitivity” settings. So there isn’t a ‘hard and fast’ advice about using the “People Only Mode” other than it will reduce undesired Notifications, but at the trade-off of not being able to manually setting your sensitivity. So you’ll have to experiment a little with “People Only Mode” to see which settings can better refine your desired outcome for “Do, or Do Not” activating your camera.
Well, there is why I initially gave you the wishy-washy answer of ‘yes and maybe.’ It depends on how where you point the FOV, and your camera settings, and the mounting location too. I hope you find this information helpful. 