I purchased two of these from Amazon a year ago and they haven't failed me yet. Now I am linked to everyone in my neighborhood through the app and last night I received a notice that my neighbor's house had an attempted theft of his outdoor smoker/grill. I immediately contacted Ring through their app and told them to activate the recording service. That same man came to our back porch within minutes of leaving my neighbors house and tried to steal my brand new outdoor pizza oven. My Ring light came on and scared him away. My camera footage was able to assist the police in tracking down and arresting the man.
OK, Let me first tell you what I have, I have the Ring Floodlight Video camera, TP-Link AC1900 Long Range Wireless Wi-Fi Router (Archer C9)TP-Link AC1750 Wi-Fi Range Extender w/ Gigabit Ethernet Port (RE450),TP-Link 2.4GHz 8dBi Indoor Omni-directional Antenna, 802.11n/b/g, RP-SMA Female connector (TL-ANT2408CL), Sounds like a lot but it's not. The router settings are simple. There is free software programs out there (Google it) that analyze your Wifi signal quality, RSSI, signal strength and more so when you have everything setup you aim your antennas at the range extender and look at free program to see if it's better or worse, keep doing this until you have best signal, remember Ring Floodlight Video Camera goes from 0-100, the lower the number the better:
RSSI (dBm) Signal
-30 100%
-40 100%
-50 100%
-60 90%
-64 80%
-68 70%
-73 60%
-77 50%
-82 40%
-86 30%
-91 20%
-95 10%
A lot of people think the higher the number the better, Wrong. I had Ring outside mounted on front of carport, about 45 to 50 feet from router, the new C9 TP LINK from Amazon, Well er, ah, what was I doing wrong, kept Googling and reading and decided I had come this far can't stop now so ordered TP Link Range extender, boy did this make a difference. 2 ways to set up extender, simple way WPS button, push it on router and then push big button on extender or what I did I used WPS but named extender to, it will tell you how in instructions. Even though this was a major improvement I wanted more, after more reading I decided I needed the TP-Link 2.4GHz 8dBi Indoor Omni-directional Antennas so I got 3 of them, but only use two, 1 on each end of router and one that came with router in middle.
While reading up on antennas is where I read about aiming them at your device or extender. Man I was cooking with grease now. I thought it could not get any better than this.
OK, man was I wrong, completely. Today I moved Ring Floodlight closer to router by moving Ring on this side of carport, 9 feet up mounted on front of house near window, window is 9 feet up to. Mounted Ring, came inside, mounted range extender on window sill inside house, about 2 feet from Ring outside separated by glass window, came to router, just aimed the 2 8dBi antennas at range extender, other antenna straight up, turn on iPhone, Live View and almost fell out of chair, there are no words to explain the difference in video quality. If you do it right, this is a must have. I had not even used free programs yet to test aiming of antennas so I looked at signal strength on Ring App -25.
This is the stuff if done right. Good luck. Also if you have ethernet connection and want to use wifi at same time (Not be kicked off wifi upon every reboot, google use how to use Ethernet and wifi at same time, youtube video tells you how to add two things to registry to make this happen, works great, Again Good Ruck.
This is my second floodlight cam and I absolutely love it. I also have the Ring doorbell cam. The setup was extremely easy and it literally took me less than 15 minutes for each camera. I had an existing floodlight in each location which made the installation easier.
The installation kit had everything I needed including tools so I didn't have to use my toolbox, hardware kit or run back and forth to the hardware store.
The setup was also extremely easy. I got connected and up and running in less than 5 minutes after installation.
The key however is a reliable internet service.
I really like the custom configuaration. I can set sensitivities, detection zones and motion schedules very easily.
I was worried about my two dogs setting off nuisance alarms in the backyard but I just set the schedule to only notify me when the dogs are indoors (evening and night) and it works perfectly.
The video is also crystal clear with the ability to zoom in on your cell phone. It works well at night even when the floodlights aren't on because of the IR LEDs.
The coverage is also great. I have a rather large backyard and I can see almost every inch of it with adjustment of the camera.
Switching between devices on the cell phone or tablet is very easy. I can easily switch between Live views on all three devices.
The only downside is sometimes the delay you get if the internet is slow or bogged down. You definitely have to have fast and reliable internet service to make this work.
The phone app works very well. Both me and my wife have this installed on our phones and we can access the same devices st the same time with no issues.
These devices give me peace of mind when traveling or leaving my wife or kids at home. I get notices any time someone is around my home no matter where I'm traveling,
If I'm in a location with good internet service, I can access the cameras for a live view of the property.
I really like the Ring. Easy to install....anyone can do it if you can read. If you do need support they are extremely helpful...a rarity!
I also have the Ring doorbell pro....also highly recommended go for the pro for sure...much better video.
So far two so called solicitors have shown up and done some pretty shady stuff including checking doors on my vehicle and running their hand along the top of the front door to see if a key is up there.
Just remember you will have to purchase the cloud storage on top of the unit...well worth it!
Update after having this for a month or so. Still love it. I have now caught 3 bandits trying to get into our dog door. Yup...3 racoon bandits trying to open the dog door. The motion sensor went off...light came on...i got notified before they gained access to the house. That would have been a mess...Thx again Ring!
Feature Product
- This bundle includes Floodlight Cam (Black) and Chime Pro Wi-Fi Extender. Get alerts when motion is detected, shine a light on blindspots, and sound the siren on suspicious activity. All with an extended network
- Floodlight Cam monitors your home in 1080HD video with infrared night vision and Live View-and lets you see, hear and speak to visitors from your phone, tablet and PC
- Works with Alexa to launch real-time video with your voice
- Floodlight Cam requires hardwired installation to weatherproof electrical boxes
- Chime Pro boosts Wi-Fi for Ring devices, amplifies alerts and plugs into any standard power outlet
- Optional 24/7 professional monitoring is just $10/month and includes Ring Protect Plus-free video storage for up to 60 days-at no cost. No contracts or cancellation fees
Description
I've had a number of different ring products so far, from the original ring doorbell, the pro model and the stick up cams, over all I have been pleased with the function and support provided by the company on their products.
I purchased 4 of these floodlight cams to replace the stick up cams on my property.
The viewing angle and the video quality is superb, the install and setup was easy and together with my trusty Netgear orbi's which blanket my property with wifi, the video stream is of great quality.
Voice quality over the speaker is loud and clear, the spotlights are plenty bright to do their job at night.
The siren is loud enough, but I'll admit for all I've read, I imagined it being louder.
Night image quality is very good and the notifications arrive fast at my smart phone and Ring chime devices.
I highly recommend this product provided you give it what it needs. (good wifi signal, a decent internet connection and a good mounting position to take advantage of it's field of view.)
I cannot speak highly enough for what a wonderful product this is. The quality of the Ring Floodlight itself is great and the quality of video is supererb in both day and night. I understand the limitations of night vision but it is still fantastic, the notifications are awesome and if you set your perimeters properly you don't get a bunch of extra annoying notifications. It is simple to use and installed for me from out of the box, connected to WiFi up and working the unit in less than 30 minutes. This is a must-have... i have shown 5 coworkers today how it works live and pretty sure Amazon will have 5 orders this evening. I will be getting another one for the side of my house that I never thought I could do anything about and a Ring Camera for backyard.. thank you Ring this should win an Award for best product of the decade!!
I'm using this floodlight cam to monitor a vacant family home located 1-1/2 hours away from our home location. Installation was very easy. I had my own tools, but the product came with everything needed (and these weren't the "cheap" IKEA-like assembly ones either) so I used those supplied with the cam/light. They even provided an "s-hook" to hold the light up close to the electrical junction box during installation so you didn't have to try juggling the fixture while making the electrical connections, or argue with your wife who is holding the fixture "too low, stop moving around, don't answer that call, etc., how thoughtful was that?!?! It "paired" very quickly with the wi-if network, and I'm very impressed with the picture quality and response time. I installed 4 Panasonic web-cams 15-years ago at our home that had pan/rotate/zoom capabilities so I was a bit concerned that this product was a fixed position camera. The wide angle (I'm old and don't remember the product specs but I think it's 140-degrees) 1080p picture quality with digital pan and zoom quickly alleviated that concern. The clarity, length, and width of field-of-view is amazing! I've already ordered a 2nd floodlight cam as well as a Doorbell Pro for the "remote" vacant home. I also plan on ordering units for our own home. In speaking with the very friendly, and knowledgeable Ring support group, I was pleased to find out I can add as many Ring units, at as many residence locations as I desire and still be able to take advantage of their "unlimited" $100/year 60-day video Cloud storage plan that also provides a discount (10% I think) for additional Ring products purchased on their web-site, and if I remember correctly, also some type of extended product warranty. If you visit the Ring website, (and I'm sure those products will also be available thru Sellers on Amazon as well) they have several new products shown that will be available "Fall 2017" that look very impressive, including their new Doorbell Elite version that will feature POE (I think this stands for Power over Ethernet) which means you can connect this Doorbell using a CAT 6-type cable to a compatible switch/router and have a very secure and stable "wired" (not "wireless" ) connection without having to have a seperate pair of wires to power the functions of this "Elite" Doorbell. I am not an employee, or am in no way affiliated with Ring, I payed the same price we all payed for this product that I purchased here on Amazon, but as an engineer who doesn't like having arguments with my project helper (i.e. my wife), and who recognizes a high quality product that is designed to make installing and using the unit easy for most anyone, I felt the need to compile this review.
The device was easy to install. The setup didn’t work exactly as the instructions said, but I got it up and running without too much difficulty. I ended up having to buy a WiFi extender to get the best video quality, but that isn’t the fault of the device. It worked fine for about 2 weeks and then it went offline. There is power to the device but it will no longer connect to my network and I can’t get it to go into setup mode so I ca. Try to reconnect it. I tried Ring’s troubleshooting instructions with no luck. I called their support line and the associate ultimately tried to tell me the device probably just wasn’t wired probably, and that I may need to contact an electrician. I pushed back on that and they agreed to send me a replacement. I’ll see how that goes and update this accordingly.
Update: I received the replacement and it is up and running. No problems so far. I will give it a couple of weeks to see if it lasts longer than the original one did. If it does, I will adjust my rating.
2nd update: the replacement is has been working for about a month now with no problems. There is some slight freezing and artifacts g while viewing the image, even though I have 150mbs WiFi with an extender near the camera. I wasn’t expecting TV quality, though. Overall, I am pretty happy with the camera.
The Ring family of camera products is a decent choice for folks who want eyes on their perimeter without needing high-definition video. I have a Stick-Up Cam with solar panel, a Video Doorbell Pro, and two of these Ring Floodlight Cameras, so I'm familiar with the products and their various quirks.
PROS:
- Highly-sensitive motion detection
- Acceptably-bright floodlight capability (about 70% as bright as a typical 150W incandescent I regularly used in my outdoor motion floods)
- Easy setup
- Set the sensitivity to "People Only" and our dog can come and go without setting off the alarm. Well done, Ring!
- Programmable motion zones allow you to block out moving objects like wind chimes.
- Motion alert scheduling means you can turn off alerts during the day.
CONS:
- $99/year for cloud recording feels a bit steep
- No way to turn off motion activation on lights (i.e., if you turn off the lights in the app, any motion will turn them back on)
- Activating the camera with a Live View sometimes takes a LONG time (even with strong wifi)
- Motion alert scheduling doesn't seem to allow for multiple "motion-on" and "motion-off" periods during the same day.
Before choosing Ring, I priced other camera systems, and all in all you get a lot of value for the relatively low price you pay to buy into the Ring ecosystem.
So far, so good.
Wi-Fi Extender for Ring Camera
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