Alarm Feature Request

FireMedic111,

I do this everyday on through my app and it echoes throughout the house as the base station says “Disarmed” and then each keypad repeats it a second later…

Do you have the volume turned down all the way or what?

Your contact sensor size is enormous as compared to wireless contact sensors for traditional systems.

Both parts of a normal wireless contact together are about than half the volume of the small half of your sensor.

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Kaadray,

Agreed! They are downright absurd! SimpliSafe’s sensors are tiny and I actually purchased a system over the Ring for the size of the sensors and realized that you don’t receive any remote capabilities if you don’t pay them $25/month. I took the SimpliSafe back and purchased a Ring.

Back to the sensors, the main reason they are so big is that they use a much larger battery than other systems…potentially meaning few battery replacements through the years on “heavy use” doors. Every time you open a door the sensor wakes up and sends its status back to the base station. I have heard complaints on the batteries that are provided, I am new to the system so I can not attest to their longevity.

Being a hardware engineer, I wonder why they need such big batteries…the new Z-Waze chips are designed to draw virtually nothing until there is an event in which they wake and send the command and then they go back to sleep. I have read many negative reviews that spoke of battery usage. Whether this is the battery or shotty programming, IDK…

Overall, I am very impressed with the system and its compatibility but there are some things that need ironing. Hopefully since they are Amazon owned now, they will have some decent engineers around to tweak the system, but that may be a pipedream…

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Yeah, I’d buy the battery argument expect a) even the non-battery side is 3 times the size of the non-battery side of the wireless sensors from traditional systems and b) the wireless sensors from my traditional system have been in place for 6+ years including on our most used doors w/o a battery swap and Ring is bragging about 3 years battery life with these.

First world problems right here. ?

I think the Ring system is useless unless it automatically arms at night and disarms in the morning

(responding two posts above, not directly above)

Excellent contribtion (is there where I put in the eye roll emoji?).

Having an personal alarm system with professional monitoring at all is entirely a first world discussion.

You might want to unsubscribe from a “please give us feedback and suggestions” thread if feedback and suggestions cause your eyes such woes.

I don’t think so. I press a button at night for home and press one in the morning to disarm. Then I press it again for away mode. Really simple stuff. I’d like it to just read my brain and know what I want, when I want.

I think that you could improve the Retrofit Alarm Kit. Currently it is just an adapter for wired contact sensors. It is to expensive and doesn’t have enough features to be considered a true retrofit kit. It is more of a wired contact sensor adapter kit.

It could be improved by adding the following features:

  1. An option to power motion and glass break sensors.

  2. Adding power (or at least a contact that could be used with external power) to drive existing external sireins.

  3. Utilizing an external transformer for power with a larger internal backup battery. More like a wired alarm system.

The Installation guide states that this is an “advanced DIY” project. That said I don’t believe that you need to be as constrained by size or ease of installation.

P.S. I recently installed the Ring dorbell pro and ring alarm kit and am very impressed with both. I just wish that I could still utilize the glass break and motion sensors along with the sireins from my existing wired alarm system.

Thanks,

Walt10

2 Likes

@Eagle328 wrote:
I don’t think so. I press a button at night for home and press one in the morning to disarm. Then I press it again for away mode. Really simple stuff. I’d like it to just read my brain and know what I want, when I want.

Or just tell Alexa, I’m leaving or Goodnight…

Ring is not for everyone for sure. But I wonder how many come in bashing the product just because.

@Walt10 wrote:

  1. An option to power motion and glass break sensors.

  2. Adding power (or at least a contact that could be used with external power) to drive existing external sireins.

  3. Utilizing an external transformer for power with a larger internal backup battery. More like a wired alarm system.

The Installation guide states that this is an “advanced DIY” project. That said I don’t believe that you need to be as constrained by size or ease of installation.

P.S. I recently installed the Ring dorbell pro and ring alarm kit and am very impressed with both. I just wish that I could still utilize the glass break and motion sensors along with the sireins from my existing wired alarm system.

Thanks,

Walt10

I guess it probably related to cost on the expansion kit. A motion sensor retails for $30. Most homes have no more than 2 or 3, so you’re better off with a 10 or 14 piece kit to start instead. This kit is best for those with 10+ contacts to cover (I think that’s the break even point, or if you want to use hidden contacts).

Glass sensors are needed for sure. Would not surprise me if the existing Alexa Guard feature is a beta for a specific device. But echo dots as low as $25 (or even given away) it’s a good stop-gag solution for now. Only issue is this only works in Away mode at this time.

About an external backup, simply add your own UPS. Even a $50 will give it plenty of extra time.

Plus the 250’ range sucks.

Is should be at least 1,000’

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Would love the ability to control door sensor placement ( Main Door) by Mode. For example, if I have the alarm in Home mode (I am home right) and would like the exit delay on all or some door sensors. When the alarm is in away mode I want the alarm to sound as soon as the door opens. This would prevent false alarms as to when my wife forgets to disarm the system to let the dog out the back door and that sensor is set to secondary door. From what I have found If I change the sensor setting to “Main Door” to trigger the dealy that door has the delay no matter what mode the system is in. I don’t want all or certain doors to have a 30-sec delay when I am in away mode.

Thx

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Time of day control for an indoor lamp on a GE outlet (all devices really) and then off. I want to be able to turn on a lamp plugged into a GE outlet at night to make it look like I am home.

Other alarm systems allow me to control it based on alarm state as well: If the alarm is armed, then turn the outlet for the lamp on at sundown and turn it off at 11 PM .

This is a REALLY powerful idea to keep intruders away and should be really simple since Ring Alarm already has ‘time of day’ for some functions, and it has control of the GE outlet!

@BGorgas wrote:

Time of day control for an indoor lamp on a GE outlet (all devices really) and then off. I want to be able to turn on a lamp plugged into a GE outlet at night to make it look like I am home.

Other alarm systems allow me to control it based on alarm state as well: If the alarm is armed, then turn the outlet for the lamp on at sundown and turn it off at 11 PM .

This is a REALLY powerful idea to keep intruders away and should be really simple since Ring Alarm already has ‘time of day’ for some functions, and it has control of the GE outlet!

In general, those are features of the devices themselves and not the alarm system. You could create schedules with their individual apps or automation with Alexa, Google or HomeKit.

Now, one feature of Alexa Guard is that it can randomize lights on/off when the system is armed. Look at “Away Lightning”

Not all devices have dedicated apps, they all require a hub unless they are WiFi based. I have multiple devices that are paired directly with the Ring alarm. Yes, it is possible to set up routines, etc. through the Alexa app but you are still relying on an external service to provide these actions. It adds a point of failure that isn’t necessary. I came home and my lights weren’t on and later found out the scheduler I use for lighting was having “connectivity” issues to Ring.

It would be simple to expand Ring to include schedules, routines, actions based on events, etc. This would create a very powerful smart home hub since the unit has WiFi, Z-Wave, and ZigBee protocols built in. No need for extra hubs, bridges, apps, or services to fail.

I see that Ring has IFTTT integration; does IFTTT have access to Ring Alarm functions allowing it to control the GE outlets ? If not, again that seems to be a really simple feature to add since the ‘connection’ is already there between Ring and IFTTT.

I’d rather not add something like Alexa into the Ring Alarm process. There are a lot of security conversations/concerns around Alexa.

To the previous note: This is a security system. The less we can rely on YET ANOTHER internet based “thing” to do something, the better.

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Currently IFTTT doesn’t have any triggers other than for the doorbell. I use SimpleCommands for my light schedule and that gives access to most devices on the hub. However, I am still relying on an external service for my needs and has failed me once for a few days already. FWP, I had to actually had to use the light switch or app to turn on my lights.

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Thanks for the “simplecommands” note. I guess that SimpleCommands is no better or worse than IFTTT !

It’s funny that SimpleCommands has access to the Ring Alarm GE outlet devices and IFTTT (and probably other services) do not.

Do I need an Alexa account to work with SimpleCommands and Rin Alarm or can I just setup a SimpleCommands account and link to my Ring Alarm ?

Less is more on this stuff !

Simple commands routines can run autonomously. They can be triggered by ring sensors and/or used as “scenes” within an Alexa routine. I’m not sure that you would actually need an Alexa device to use the Alexa app - probably do, but Amazon devices are cheap (currently $25 for an Echo Dot), fun and useful