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#373235 - 09/03/2021 18:22 Replacement for the Ring doorbell
larry818
old hand

Registered: 01/10/2002
Posts: 1038
Loc: Fullerton, Calif.
Hi All,

Does anyone have a good recommendation for a replacement for a Ring doorbell?

Mine worked great for like a year, but as the servers became overloaded, it's gotten so slow that it's mostly useless.

I'm looking for something similar that I can set up without using any 3rd party servers. I'm sure it has to exist.

Thanks!

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#373236 - 11/03/2021 15:55 Re: Replacement for the Ring doorbell [Re: larry818]
Dignan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12338
Loc: Sterling, VA
I have a Eufy doorbell that I like. It works on local storage (can't remember if there's a cloud option). I like it more than the Ring I used to have because it's faster and the notifications include a still shot of the activity that activated it. The only thing I miss from the Ring camera is that I can't snooze motion notifications for a while so when my kids play in the front yard I get a ton of notifications.

I definitely don't miss the Ring speed issues. It's insane how slow that application is. I don't know if it's a remnant of how they built their service because they were basically the first out of the gate, but it's just awful. It's hilarious that even they recognized it was so bad that they developed an app specifically to get faster notifications/viewing. Have you tried that yet? That could be a good/free way to see if you don't have to make any changes. I think it's called "Ring Fast" or something. It basically installs alongside the regular Ring app, but it takes over for notifications. I think it improves the speed by forgoing anything else that the Ring app does, and only concerns its self with loading a live view of the video feed as fast as possible.

The Logitech Circle View doorbell was released recently and is basically the only doorbell on the market that supports Homekit Secure Video. The Eufy doorbell won't be getting that which is a bummer. I'm hoping HSV becomes more popular and more products support it.
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Matt

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#373237 - 11/03/2021 19:20 Re: Replacement for the Ring doorbell [Re: Dignan]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31594
Loc: Seattle, WA
Originally Posted By: Dignan
I can't snooze motion notifications for a while so when my kids play in the front yard I get a ton of notifications.


Does that software have a way to exclude certain areas of the image from motion detection? I've never worked with doorbell software before, but all the security camera software I've seen has a feature for this. It's intended for exactly that sort of situation.
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Tony Fabris

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#373238 - 12/03/2021 02:14 Re: Replacement for the Ring doorbell [Re: tfabris]
Dignan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12338
Loc: Sterling, VA
Originally Posted By: tfabris
Originally Posted By: Dignan
I can't snooze motion notifications for a while so when my kids play in the front yard I get a ton of notifications.

Does that software have a way to exclude certain areas of the image from motion detection? I've never worked with doorbell software before, but all the security camera software I've seen has a feature for this. It's intended for exactly that sort of situation.

Oh, certainly. But these are kids we're talking about, and they run all over the freaking place like kids do, including up and down the front walk and other areas where I want it to detect motion from strangers.

*edit*
The notifications I received from Ring would give me the option - on a long press - to snooze for a period of time (I think it was 30 or 60 minutes). It would still record and it would notify my of doorbell rings but it just wouldn't notify on motion. This was a really nice feature. But it's a decent trade-off to have Eufy include a snapshot of the person at the door for motion and ring alerts. For example, last night we ordered pizza, and when the doorbell rang I could see on my watch that it wasn't the pizza it was UPS dropping off a package. I didn't need to open the app at all.


Edited by Dignan (12/03/2021 02:19)
_________________________
Matt

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#373239 - 15/03/2021 17:37 Re: Replacement for the Ring doorbell [Re: larry818]
larry818
old hand

Registered: 01/10/2002
Posts: 1038
Loc: Fullerton, Calif.
Thanks! I'll try Eufy. It looks good.

The Ring's notifications are pretty much instant, and it gives me a thumbnail with the notification, but it's like an 8x8 pixel image (kidding, but not by much). I can tell maybe tell if it's the post or something else, but for some reason it doesn't detect the post about 60% of the time. To go live takes 30 seconds or more (the person typically is already gone, maybe I can see the truck as it leaves) and to get the vid it recorded takes 1 to 3 minutes.

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#373240 - 17/03/2021 16:50 Re: Replacement for the Ring doorbell [Re: larry818]
Dignan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12338
Loc: Sterling, VA
I should have been clearer: for me the Ring notifications were instant but opening the live feed was super slow unless I used the Ring Fast app. Have you tried that?
_________________________
Matt

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#373241 - 18/03/2021 00:13 Re: Replacement for the Ring doorbell [Re: larry818]
larry818
old hand

Registered: 01/10/2002
Posts: 1038
Loc: Fullerton, Calif.
I have not, I'll give it a look. Thanks!

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#373242 - 18/03/2021 03:14 Re: Replacement for the Ring doorbell [Re: larry818]
larry818
old hand

Registered: 01/10/2002
Posts: 1038
Loc: Fullerton, Calif.
Ok, this is weird. The app is called "Rapid Ring" and it does work almost instantly. Weirdly, it's from Ring, who knows their main app is crap, so they came out with this second app rather than fix the main one. But, it gets better... you need both apps, as you can't watch recorded events with the fast app...

Eufy's still lookin' good. smile

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#373243 - 18/03/2021 12:37 Re: Replacement for the Ring doorbell [Re: larry818]
Dignan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12338
Loc: Sterling, VA
Yeah, sorry I thought I mentioned that above. It basically takes over the notification duties, and I guess it loads faster on live views by forgoing all other duties. It kind of makes sense. You're probably clicking on the notification to get the live view 90% of the time or more. And any other tasks are probably not time-sensitive so you can wait for the slow app.

But yeah, it still sucks.
_________________________
Matt

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#373246 - 22/03/2021 11:16 Re: Replacement for the Ring doorbell [Re: larry818]
andym
carpal tunnel

Registered: 17/01/2002
Posts: 3996
Loc: Manchester UK
I'm considering a 'smart' doorbell. But currently I'm erring towards an ESP32 with a camera. I keep trawling ebay for a suitably bricked Ring or Nest doorbell that I can scoop the innards out of and stick the ESP in instead. But there seems to be a market in broken doorbells, so they tend to go for silly money.
_________________________
Cheers,

Andy M

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#373247 - 23/03/2021 14:55 Re: Replacement for the Ring doorbell [Re: larry818]
larry818
old hand

Registered: 01/10/2002
Posts: 1038
Loc: Fullerton, Calif.
If all you want is a case, you could use one of these:

Amazon

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#373258 - 30/03/2021 17:06 Re: Replacement for the Ring doorbell [Re: larry818]
Phoenix42
veteran

Registered: 21/03/2002
Posts: 1424
Loc: MA but Irish born
Originally Posted By: larry818


Fantastic! I need to figure out a use for one of these

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#373265 - 31/03/2021 21:36 Re: Replacement for the Ring doorbell [Re: Phoenix42]
canuckInOR
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
Originally Posted By: Phoenix42
Originally Posted By: larry818


Fantastic! I need to figure out a use for one of these

The obvious solution is to run a Mycroft instance on a Raspberry Pi, with a custom wake word of "Ok, HAL".

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#373267 - 02/04/2021 00:30 Re: Replacement for the Ring doorbell [Re: larry818]
Phoenix42
veteran

Registered: 21/03/2002
Posts: 1424
Loc: MA but Irish born
Tempting... very tempting... smile

Particularly as HAL already knows my first name.


Edited by Phoenix42 (02/04/2021 00:32)

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#373421 - 02/08/2021 17:36 Re: Replacement for the Ring doorbell [Re: larry818]
DWallach
carpal tunnel

Registered: 30/04/2000
Posts: 3810
I'm still running a 1st-gen Ring doorbell, and it continues to kinda work. Since I have it mounted on stone, and I had only the small hole drilled for the original wires, I ended up using Gorilla Glue to affix the backplate to the wall. So, much as I would like to upgrade my Ring, it would require a chisel to remove the old backplate. A Ring replacement would need to be *really* good to be worth the extra effort.

Sigh.

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