Alarm Feature Request

@davefrombostons wrote:
Yes! I would love a “protected by ring alarm” sign. I have the audio/video but that still didn’t deter the people who broke into our house a few months back. Want one that tells everyone our house is armed with a intelligent and high quality security system.

I wouldn’t put the stickers that come with an alarm system up. All it does is tell a everyone what exact security system you have. If anything I’d stick with some sort of generic non-brand specific sticker. Brand specific stickers/signs will likely deter a “smash and grab” kind of burglar. I did see though where more sophisticated criminals can see that “Brand ABC Security” sign in your yard or window, look on the FCC website to see which frequency that brand operates on, and they can use cheap electronics that work on the same frequency and use it to jam/block the signal of the devices from talking to the base station. If you use a generic non-brand specific sticker/sign, then the bad guys are left guessing.

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I’m just learning how poorly the integration is between the Ring cameras and thier own security system. For example, I would like to ONLY see motion alerts on the cams when the alarm is armed. The support person I just spoke to said they are two “totally separate systems”. He said tyhe only way they are linked is that the cameras can start to record when the alarm is triggered.

Constant motion notifications are annoying, especially when I’m home or I know people are there. We do not run on a set schedule, so that feature does us no good whatsoever. I cannot recommend anyone use Ring as a system until this is fixed.

You may find thenew ‘Modes’ function helpful for this. Using the Modes you can set some or all of the cameras to not alert during specific modes. For example, you can set the Home Mode to not have interior cameras alert (or even have Live View available if you want), but still have the outside cameras record. Basically, you can determine what cameras have alerts and live view based whether you choose DISARMED, HOME or AWAY. This has help us out a lot for unneeded alerts and recording of some cameras when we are home. You can find more info here and here. This may not hit everything you need, but I suspect it will take care of at least some of it. Hope this helps out!

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@TheCarsForever wrote:

You may find thenew ‘Modes’ function helpful for this. Using the Modes you can set some or all of the cameras to not alert during specific modes. For example, you can set the Home Mode to not have interior cameras alert (or even have Live View available if you want), but still have the outside cameras record. Basically, you can determine what cameras have alerts and live view based whether you choose DISARMED, HOME or AWAY. This has help us out a lot for unneeded alerts and recording of some cameras when we are home. You can find more info here and here. This may not hit everything you need, but I suspect it will take care of at least some of it. Hope this helps out!

Thank you for the reply. This is exactly what I’m looking for, unfortunately, the “sensors” that we can include or exclude do not include our outside cam motion sensors. It shows our indoor motion and door sensors only…

I think this is the feature you are looking for, and it’s due out this month.

https://community.ring.com/t5/News-and-Announcements/Introducing-Modes/m-p/2484/highlight/true#M83

If there is a contact sensor open, let keypad announce which sensor is open when arming. It currently just announces the option to bypass the sensor(s). I have 16 sensors, it is easier to tell me which sensor is open and I can close the door/window. Yes, I can open up the Ring app to see which sensor is open, but this defeats the purpose of the keypad. If I use the app to arm/disarm, the keypad is useless. In traditional alarm system, its keypad first shows sensors are not all closed and you can find out which sensor is open. Alexa does not have the ability to check the status all sensors and then report which sensor is open. It only reports one sensor at a time.

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I have a motion sensor in my bedroom because the room has an accessible window and Ring doesn’t offer window breaking sensors. At night when my room is pitch black and I shift in bed, the motion sensor flashes very brightly and it’s extremely annoying.

I would like an option in the settings of the app to turn off this flash.

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Is there a roadmap to having automated schedules for arm and disarm?

I have Xfinity Home right now and the only feature they have that is remotely useful is this one - set every night at 12am, disarm every day at 630am. This seems like a pretty easy ask. Is it on the roadmap? The current Ring app does not allow this.

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I see all the device linking features but one important one seem to be missing. If my Ring Alarm goes off I would like it to link to my Flood light Siren an make it go off too. I don’t see that option.

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I am new to the system so these may be features but here is a list of what I would like to see with the system.

  • Single PDF with documentation of EVERY alarm feature. I have found the website material and the simple owners manual to be too “dumbed” down to be helpful and have to resort to spending an extensive amount of time searching the site to see if a feature exists.

  • Silent exit feature or temporary sensor bypass. If you step outside during the middle of the night you have to disarm, and rearm the system. This process is very verbal if you have the base station and keypad volumes loud enough to hear the entry/exit delay on a normal “leaving-for-work” exit. Some systems have buttons on the sensor that allows for temporary sensor bypass if you want to use a door or window without setting the alarm off.

  • Monitor mode or custom modes in App- this would allow you to have more options on which sensors are monitored, chirped, etc for different scenario’s of system being active. There should also be an option to disable professional monitoring in said custom mode.

  • Scheduling for arming modes or devices on the network. i.e. turning on lights, etc.

  • Custom device handlers for the z-wave, zigbee networks

I’m sure I’ll have more as I have only been using the system for 2 days now.

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So I have a question / feature wish. My old security company was set up to were when your alarm was triggered and the central monitoring station was notified, they could access your cameras to get a visual as to what was happening. So if say an intruder forced you to disarm the alarm, the central monitoring company could see this and report it to authorities. Does ring offer this or do they have plans to make it an available feature? I know a lot of people won’t like it cause fear of being watched. But I wouldn’t mind having it again. Also the scenario of a fire. They could see where/what was on fire and report it, as well as if there are people or pets trapped. I am away from home 12-16 hours a day and my biggest fear is a fire with my pets inside. It would be nice for them to see them and let the authorities know.

I just installed my Ring alarm system (have been using the doorbell for some time) and am quite happy with its ease of use and feature set in general, but I was hoping that its use of Z-Wave would mean that I coiuld integrate it with my existing Z-Wave home automation system. It doesn’t currently appear that I can add another Z-Wave controller (Hubitat, in my case, though I have ISY as well) as a secondary. This is a very common Z-Wave feature and is a glaring omission.

Simple Commands seems useful, but (1) I can’t figure out what the business model is or whether they’ll be around in a year (and the Ring authentication dialog has me submitting to a non-Ring site, which implies that OATH may not be used), and (2) it requires an internet connection. My preferred solutions do not.

TLDR: Let me add another Z-Wave controller/hub as secondary, please? I’d prefer not to maintain two separate Z-Wave networks in my house.

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BackEMF,

I think the hub can be connected to an existing network, although it must not have anything paired to it before doing so. See this doc I found on this http://z-wave-assets.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/docs/706/B07D7Q6CHB_-_Ring_Base_Station_-_Manual.pdf?1532938148

Look under “Adding Base station to a Z-Wave Network”.

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Can you enable a setting that causes the floodlight camera’s siren to sound when the alarm goes off. It isnt particularly useful to only have an indoor alarm if someone trips a sensor.

thanks.

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@jPojo wrote:

BackEMF,

I think the hub can be connected to an existing network, although it must not have anything paired to it before doing so. See this doc I found on this http://z-wave-assets.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/docs/706/B07D7Q6CHB_-_Ring_Base_Station_-_Manual.pdf?1532938148

Look under “Adding Base station to a Z-Wave Network”.

That’s interesting. I’ll have to experiment. I wonder if I can add my Hubitat as a generic Z-Wave device and it will join as a secondary.

Thank you!

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I was hoping that if I engaged the panic mode or if the alarm was triggered, then the alarms on my linked devices (4 x spotlight cam wired) would also sound. I can only see the option to turn on the lights or to record video at the moment.

I figured you would then have both an indoor and outdoor siren which would be insanely good!

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@Andrew1990

That would be great! It would basically make dual use of your outside/exterior cameras to make them as outside/exterior alarms.

I can’t find any information about the latest update but it looks like keypads now do enable chirps when sensors are open. They have a noticeable delay for some events but no different than the arm/disarmed.

It would be useful to have enhancement requests listed and voted on instead of as a forum so they can be prioritized by demand and so that we can see delivered features.

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Yes, use Echo’s as axillary sirens, AND FLOODCAMS!!

It is just silly that these are not integrated fully yet

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Couldn’t agree more, if the alarm is triggered or panic mode engaged, all sirens in the system (spotlight cam/floodlight cam) should be activated.

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