Breaking ground with my migration from Iris as it were: questions including cameras

Wiki Projects & Stories
1

As you may know, I really can’t make my big orders until I get my Iris prepaid visa card in, which I hope and pray will be soon, but once I do I will dig in deeper with the deployment.

So yesterday the Ring Video Doorbell 2 came in. Well technically the Video Doorbell 2 and Ring Chime came in. I set them up and made some discoveries that are a bit concerning.

#1. Due to the positioning of my doorbell, my field of view is very limited to the area of about 2" of lawn past my walkway, and over to my garage and down my driveway. I have a GREAT view of the drivers side of my Wifes car though!
#2. I don’t want to EVER install another doorbell button again unless I am moving this thing from a side orientation to a straight forward orientation, which is going to happen when I redo my siding, and I will pay a contractor to do that…

So with my limited field of view, and the fact I want video coverage of all access points of the house, it would appear that I will need ANOTHER camera.

The problem is that the doorway is in a 36" recess and the house and garage are shaped like a giant reversed L if you are looking at the top of my roof with the backyard up, the garage etends to the right down 22’ past the front of the rest of the house. My idea here is to put a Ring Spotlight camera at the corner between the house and garage to catch that part of the yard, one above the garage to catch the driveway, and one by the back door to catch the entire back of the house / back yard…

Now my question is, how many cameras does Smartthings support? And can I trigger the light siren, and strobe on the Spotlight cameras with an ADT Alarm event ?

As soon as the Iris gift card comes in, and of course allowing for a decent buy on them, I am going ot pick up the ADT Smarrthings setup, hub / starter kit and 15 additional contact sensors. Plus the now apparently needed 3 ring spotlight cameras.

Once I get them installed, how do I configure the application / software for, at the current time, self monitoring. I need alerts sent to mine, and my wife’s phone.

How do I set up a pass code / pin so that my housekeeper and brother in law can gain access to the house without triggereing an alarm? And how do I integrate my current Iris 2nd generation contact and motion sensors to log access to my workshop, but not necessarily trigger any sort of alarm?

Lastly, how do I set up my Iris 3rd generation Zigbee smart plug to be able to turn on / off my dust collector (overhead air filter, not the actual giant vacuum type dust collector)?

2

They make wedges for the Ring doorbell that may help it get a better angle. All SmartThings video integration is cloud based, so if there is a limit it would depend on Arlo or Ring having a limit.

3

I have installed the Ring video doorbell with one of those adjustable wedges that gets me out to a 50 degree angle. It would be hard to explain without a pic, and honestly I don’t want to post a photo of my house with a description of the security online…

In the above mentioned L shape, on the leg where the front door is, as you approach the door, it is recessed approimately 36" from the actual front of the house so that visitors coming to the door are covered by the roof as they ring the doorbell. The doorbell is on the left, and facese the garage in such a way that everything from the wall the doorbell is mounted on, to the property line would be effectively behind the doorbells possible field of view. There really is no logical way to reorient the doorbell to gain a better field of view. With the 50 degree wedge installed, which I am actually at around 40 degrees, I have the best possible field of view.

Now mind you, IF I rehung the door such that it swung from the left instead of the right, I could move the doorbell to the front of that walkway / opening and while this would give me a full field of view of the yard, that leaves the 36" set back where someone could easily hide from the doorbells field of view from behind. An expensive solution that solves the problem, but causes a different one.

We are planning on upgrading to Hardi siding and trim on the house in the next few years. At that time the doorbell will be moved right to the trim at the door, facing it straight out toward teh walkway and street. That will cover more of the needed area, but still, won’t catch it all.

The corner where the leg and upright of the L meet is at the very front of the house, and would easily catch the entire yard with one camera. Of course that leaves the driveway unmonitored, I have a spot where an Iris camera is coming out over the driveway for that.

4

If you are not married to the Ring Doorbell the Arlo doorbell solution doesnt use a integrated camera. You would get the option to position it anywhere you like and at any angle. You can use 5 cameras with 8 days recording for free with the basic plan on all cameras but the new ultra.