I bought a Ring alarm package when it was on a really good sale. I don’t know why! 
(we already have a separate alarm system.)
I have to wait until Tuesday when my techie aide arrives to even open the boxes.
I suspect part of me just wanted an S2 zwave system to play with. Unfortunately, that was the part with the credit card that day. 
Perfect quote from a great community member!!!
Let us know what you think of the ring alarm. I have a good friend (not techie) moving into a new house that is wanting me to help setup a DIY smart home. I was thinking of going ring alarm and alexa since they seem like an easy way to get into basic smart home and automations.
I have several nontechie friends with it who really like it, that was part of what influenced me. 
it seems to be a reliable “set and forget” budget system with excellent camera and floodlight integration.
The thing is, no Homekit integration and not likely to be. Also no Lutron or Hue integration except using Echo as a “man in the middle.” So why did I get it? This is like that 4th beer—it seemed like a good idea at the time (but that was after 3 beers 
).
JD,
With all the HA stuff it seems you’ve tested, and all that it seems like you must have in your HA infrastructure, I’m honestly shocked that you’ve never tried the Ring stuff yet. lol
Yes, I fear that was part of what influenced me as well! 
I vaguely remember thinking that since Wink is dying, the Ring system could reliably run my existing Wink zwave sensors but then why did I buy a package with 8 new zwave sensors? I don’t even like zwave sensors!
I blame it on the cold I had last week. My engineer’s brain was obviously unavailable when this decision was made. 
@JDRoberts I’m not so sure the engineer was completely missing in action. Quite often, it’s the tried and true engineer that is also the inventor/innovator. I actually see the way the best engineers think as the perfect combination of the most helpful aspects of both conservative AND progressive thought coinciding within the same mindset. 
p.s. Side topic:
Since I’ve been gravitating more toward Z-Wave because of the potential RF conflicts between Zigbee and 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, it struck me when you said that you don’t like Z-Wave.
Can you point me to a thread where you express more on which protocol/s you prefer for sensors (I know you use some Bluetooth stuff, but not sure if that’s it), and why?
I assume it varies, and depends on use case, etc, but I love hearing your perspective on this stuff, and have done a 180 (or at least a 90) on a number of things over the years as a direct result of hearing you out on things like this. 
I like zwave for lots of things. Just not inexpensive battery-powered sensors, where I much prefer zigbee because of its better power management, higher number of hops, and better signal dispersal controls making it more suitable to high humidity environments (including outdoors on a rainy day). 
I like zwave better for fixed position devices like doorlocks and window covering controls.
Cool. Thank you!
So, is ‘better power management’ about battery life, or about being able to manage signal strength of the RF?
Battery life, which in turn means the ability to use smaller batteries, so typically smaller devices.
This factor only applies to inexpensive devices, say under $25. The higher priced zwave devices like Fibaro, Aeotec, and Sensative are much better engineered and so can be smaller. They still have the hop and dispersion limitations, though, those are part of the protocol.
I have a Ring system. It’s great. As soon as my ADT contract expired I dropped ADT forever. $10 a month now vs $70 a month for ADT.
I have had zero issues
I find that amusing because I’ve got old HD Wink/GoControl ZW o/C and PIR that I’ve had for 6+ years and have only changed the battery once. They are on the outlying Fringe of network. I’ve got ST Zigbee in the same room as the hub that chew up a battery every couple of months. I know because I’ve got notification that cellar door sensor is offline & it’s been at least 2 years, probably closer to 3 since I changed that battery. I don’t think I have ever changed the battery on the GC sensor in the kitchen in the 6 years since I installed them. PIRs I’ve replaced the batteries once in each of them.
Of course I also have some old PEQ Zigbee sensors that last forever too, 2+ years on a battery.
Good point: Protocol is just the foundation, there’s still a lot of engineering that goes into individual brands/models.
Are you adding non Ring sensors to the Ring alarm system? If you are, keep in mind that these non-Ring sensors will not trip the Alarm and therefore notify the monitoring company. I’m sure you already know that but just in case.
I’ve had the system for over a year now. Have had several alarm calls that responded with quick notifications and calls from the monitoring service.
Now we all want to know your zip code so we can avoid having “several” legit security events in just over a year.
Thanks for this information. It is useful
Which components did you get? Are you connecting the devices via smartthings thru their hub? Ssince you paid for it im interested in following the integration and checking out your setup. I have an existing alarm system and started with konnected to make my old system smart. I started with only move a few sensors but Im have to get the bigger expansion to move all my zones over.
I got a package which was on sale that had the base station, the keypad, the panic button, and a bunch of sensors.
I’m not intending to integrate it with smartthings in any meaningful way as I would never put security Functions on smartthings Given their current level of reliability. I’ll look and see what options are available through Ifttt and Echo routines, but that’s probably it.
I know some people have much deeper integration, but I’m not interested in that.
Ring Alarm released! (Integration project in post 13)
Today will be the first day that my techie aid is here since the packages arrived, so we should take a look at it today. 
yes, for me thats why i went to konnected (I still have my old alarm system running), but like having the smartthings to use existing sensor as triggers etc. I was interested in ring cause I cant stand NOT having a smart doorbell (even a button!!) Keep us posted (pics are fun too!) enjoy!
The Ring Alarm integration with Alexa is getting better every couple of weeks. Alexa can arm and disarm Ring Alarm and the Guard feature works with Ring to listen for glass breakage and smoke alarms. The door/window sensors and motion sensors can be added to Alexa to trigger routines with other devices. Keep in mind, currently Ring cameras cannot trigger the alarm. Only Ring alarm sensors can. But you can trigger an alarm call from the app if you’re seeing something suspicious on a camera.
The ST Ring Alarm integration allows you to Arm/Disarm Ring with the ST Home Monitor.and Webcore Pistons.
There are various forks to Asishr’s integration that can take iit even further. However, I was unable to get those to work.
JD. the Ring Alarm siren is not very loud. I have not purchased an additional siren yet but I’m thinking about it.