Physical On/Off Switch Control of Lamps

For the Ring Floodlight-Cam "Quickly turning your lights on and off via a physical switch is actually a manual override of sorts and is found in any brand of floodlight, not just the Floodlight Cam, as a safety feature. To turn off your floodlights after a power cycle, use the manual “lights” control in your Ring app. " [SOURCE] While not as clear as it could be, I believe Ring is stating that a quick off-on toggle [i.e., “power cycle”] of the physical light switch will turn on the Floodlight-Cam lamps, and to turn off the lamps you can use the Ring app.

My initial testing of the Ring Smart Floodlight indicates this new product does not support this mechanism to manually turn on the lamps (quick Off-On toggle of a physical switch). Can others confirm this limitation?

1 Like

I have the Floodlight Cam 2 and have not seen any physical switch. I do have it wired to a physical switch in my home though as it is on a pole intended for flood lights. I have experience a few power brownouts and actual outages since the light has been installed and never experienced the lights staying on afterward. My experience has been that the lights revert to normal functionality after an outage.

@TheCarsForever wrote:

I have experience a few power brownouts and actual outages since the light has been installed and never experienced the lights staying on afterward. My experience has been that the lights revert to normal functionality after an outage.

I cannot imagine a power outage or flucuation would mimic the switch feature that Ring describes above for a Floodlight camera. My question is specifically regarding the smart floodlight also replicated this behavior (initital testing by me suggests if does not). I am assuming the Ring description on how their floodlight camera is designed to mimic a conventional motion activated floodlight behavior when connected to a switch is accurate.

Great question @BigFan . The Smart Lighting Floodlight will flash twice when power cycled and then will revert to whatever the settings were before power cycle. The default is for the motion sensor and light sensor to be on so the unit would not light up after these two flashes unless it was dark and sensing motion.

The Floodlight Camera is, of course, different in that it will activate lights following a power cycle and would have to be turned off manually in the app afterwards.

I was interested in purchasing the wired Floodlights.

I currently have wired floodlights that work off an indoor switch.

I was trying to find out from support if I can just switch the current floodlights to Ring smart wired floodlight and still use them with the switches they are wired to?

I would like to use them for regular lighting if i am sitting outside at night as well as motion sensor lighting if the need arises

2 Likes

Sorry @Marley_Ring, why does the Ring wired Floodlight behave differently than the Ring Floodlight Cam and from a conventional motion sensor based floodlight? I am not following the logic. You are essentially saying you do not support the use case of mimicing a conventional floodlight connected to an AC single-pole switch?

–Rob

As the Smart Lights are controlled via the Bridge, functionality will differ from conventional floodlights and the Floodlight Cam, which is not controlled via the Bridge. Just to clarify, on your Floodlight Wired, power cycling via switch will only do that - power cycle. Upon restoring power, the Smart Light will resume functioning per the settings in the app.

We will certainly share your feedback with the team. If you have any further questions or concerns, please let us know.

Yes I have that same problem with my ring floodlight cam. A typical floodlight will turn on and stay on with a double flick of the switch. Unfortunately my ring floodlight cam will not even turn the lights on nevermind to keep them on with the double flick on the switch that would normally use atypical floodlight. This becomes a huge pain in the butt as the light will not turn on due to a roof angle until we are well into the darkness. As it is now if I do not have my phone on me I cannot just double flick the switch on the wall to turn on the lights I have to go find my phone or take a dark Journey. Ring please help

3 Likes

I just ordered the Floodlight Cam, Floodlight Wired and bridge. I should have done more research and mistakenly assumed these would react to an On/Off switch like other motion lights. I may have to reconsider and may be returning the lights I ordered. Not sure I want to have to go into the app on my phone everytime I need to manually turn the lights on.

Hi @Scott22! While the devices you have can technically be controlled by a switch, a light switch would ultimately be removing power for a wired device when in the off state. Turning it on will likely result in the Floodlight Cam lights/ Floodlights turning on, but we do not advise using these devices this way. Although it is not a physical light switch, there are light toggles in the Ring app for on/off operation.

You might also find interest in our Smart Lighting Bulbs which can be toggled by a light switch! :slight_smile:

You could use a smarthome “remote” button. Something like these would allow you to trigger smarthome actions, like turning on lights that are app controlled and not physically switch controlled. https://www.amazon.com/3-Pack-Flic-Buttons-Control-control/dp/B084H3NNZ9

I have also seen people hack Amazon dash buttons with ifttt to do the same thing.

How exactly does a smart switch control the floodlight cam? I’d expect to be able to configure this through an Alexa routine, but the input options for Alexa routines are limited to sensors, locks and doorbells. I’ve tried to use Lutron dimmer states to control floodlight but Alexa app doesn’t support dimmers or switches as inputs for routines. Ring cam can’t be controlled by IFTTT either. Suggestions?