I’m brainstorming on how to prevent accidentally setting of the alarm when in Armed Home mode. What I would like is to turn on a light or something visible if a certain motion sensor detects motion and the system is still armed. That would trigger me to remember to disarm before opening an exterior door. I haven’t found a way to do this yet. As far as I know, Alexa cannot create routines that read the status of the alarm…only trigger when Ring is armed or disarmed. I also have Smartthings in my home. I’ve considered using a virtual switch in Smartthings and change its status through Alexa when ring is armed in home mode. Then, if that virtual switch is on, turn a specific light on with motion. But, of course i’ve got to keep the virtual switch in sync and change the light back when the system disarms. All that seems complicated.
Does anyone have a more simple solution for “Hey fool, the alarm is still armed. Don’t open the door.” I’d like to have some doors set to alarm immediately because they are never used for entry. However, it’s possible I may go out that door when in Home mode. I would like to limit the potential for false alarms.
I beleive the Home mode has an exit delay of 30-180 seconds - it defaults to zero. When you set this to 30+sec then when you open the door the Alarm will chirp reminding you to disarm. You can also increase the exit delay for just home if you want to.
Thank you for the reply. I do plan to have an entry delay of 30 seconds or more in home mode. However, there are certain doors and perhaps even motion sensors that I want to alarm immediately (by setting them as secondary doors or room motion sensors). If I do that and forget to disarm before going out a door set this way, I will set off the alarm. These are doors and areas I would never enter the home from so an entry delay is away mode is not neccessary. The only time these doors would be used is to “walk the dog” or by a burgler.
No, I never did find a good solution for this. I do have push notifications for a motion sensor in the basement that leads to one of the doors that i was concerned about. As long as I have my phone on me that motion alert helps. The red glow of the keypad acts as a bit of a warning too.
I have another solution in place upstairs. I have Alexa and Smartthings in my home. I have an Alexa routine that gets triggered if I disarm my alarm (after 7AM only because I sometimes slip out for a morning run). When that routine runs it flips on some lights (and does some other stuff in Smartthings). If you have Alexa and any kind of light that is compatible i think you can make that work. So, basically if my lamps are on i know Ring is disarmed. If I had a color bulb i could make it red while armed.