Just installed the Ring “Spotlight Cam Pro,” Hardwired edition, which is actually a battery-powered unit that ships with a separate hardwired kit. This is a good thing, because the unit will continue functioning absent mains power and even longer if a second optional battery is installed.
My disappointment is that this camera is not recognized by SmartThings, which is ironic because the Ring Floodlight I purchased not too long ago for a different location at my home is recognized, along with the Video Doorbell 2 on my front door. Thanks to posts on this community site, I now know this is a known issue, leaving me no choice except to wait.
This is just one more example of ST’s burden to achieve interoperability. If it’s a matter of Ring making a change, one need only wonder what incentive they have for doing so. Will it generate additional sales? Or, is it a change for ST to undertake? Are there any developers working on Edge drivers that would recognize the fingerprint of this different camera?
The Ring integration is owned by Ring, so it’s up to them What specific models to include. It’s always been a limited set, for reasons which have never been made clear, but which I suspect have to do with battery life. (I know you said that yours is hardwired, but through a kit addition: they may not have any way of recognizing that feature internally.)
Anyway, the ring integration doesn’t use an edge driver at all, so there isn’t much that the community can do to help you. Right now it’s a cloud to cloud integration.
The new industry Matter standard doesn’t yet support any security cameras, but they have said they are going to in the future, probably next year sometime, so if that happens, it may be possible that we will eventually get integration with the camera model you have via matter. But that’s a pretty long way off at this point.
Your best approach is to contact Ring support and tell them that you would like to see smartthings integration.
I have 20 Ring devices, a combination of door bells and cameras. It seems that after a new model comes out it takes a year or so for Ring to update the integration and then the camera pops up in Smartthings. I have had to be very patient and just wait but they have eventually showed up. I have purchased a few refurbed models from Ring over the years because I don’t want to wait for them to include the new ones and I want to make use of the motion sensors in routines.
Thank you, JD, for reminding me to distinguish cloud-based integrations from those that otherwise rely on code residing in the hub. This absolutely clarifies the responsibility is for Ring to make their product identifiable to SmartThings (or others like Amazon’s Alexa). I will follow your recommendation to reach out to Ring with a request to push this along. I also appreciate your mention of battery life because it makes perfect sense that preserving the charge would be a primary design objective.
I will mention, however, that when I scanned the 5-digit QR code for setup, it did register as the hardwired variant of this camera. Additionally, the icon on the top right corner of the Settings screen depicts the two battery slots, the first of which is green with the electrical charge symbol whereas the second slot is greyed since I don’t have the optional second battery. Removing mains power produces a red icon in the top right corner of the main viewing window.
Thus, even though the box indicates this is the battery version, the firmware apparently knows otherwise. On the other hand, I can’t imagine how this is managed by the supply chain, as the hardwired kit was definitely shipped in a standalone box. Thanks once again for your prompt and informative reply.
Michael, the hardwired version of the “Spotlight Cam Pro” only became available in March of this year. So far as I can tell, it’s merely the addition of a separate kit that attaches to the back of the battery version that includes a USB-C connector to maintain charge for the camera’s internal battery/batteries. Anyone that buys this version will connect it to mains power such that integration-wise, it should be treated the same as the hardwired version of the Floodlight. Let’s hope Ring comes to that realization in short order.
Meanwhile, since you have a substantial number of Ring devices, I’m curious if you have considered any of the company’s alarm products. A close family friend is considering a home alarm system and has asked for my opinion. The extent of the Ring gear they have to date is one Video Doorbell 2 with a Chime located in a different part of the house. These folks have absolutely no technical skill or interest in learning, so I’m apprehensive to inherit responsibility based on an innocent recommendation. But if the system is easy to use and performs consistently, I would be more inclined to promote it. Many thanks in advance.
My brother, cousin, and several friends all use the Ring security system and really like it. I have had experiences with it at my brother’s house. Definitely easy to use and reliable. Also integrates quite well with Alexa.
There are no real home automation features to speak of other than what you can do with Alexa routines and there are only a few third-party devices that you can add to it. But for a basic monitored security system I think it definitely earns its high ratings from everyone from the Wall Street Journal to consumer reports.
I would also note that all the people that I know have the older version which did not include a Wi-Fi router, so it was less expensive and a bit less complicated.
The naming convention at ring is a little oversimplified so that it can be confusing.
The hardware base station is either the ring alarm, ring alarm second generation, or ring alarm Pro (which includes the Wi-Fi router and costs about $150 more).
Everyone I know personally who has it has the second generation version.
The monitoring “ring protect” plan now available has 3 tiers: Basic, Plus, and Pro. Any of the three can be used with any of the hardware base stations. The professionally monitored plan is now $20/month (a couple of years ago it was $10/month). Some of the “ring protect pro” features are only available with the “ring alarm pro” base station, so if you’re going for the less expensive hardware, you need to read the features carefully to figure out what you’re going to get.
But I would definitely put it on the candidate list for anyone interested in an easy to use DIY installed professionally monitored system.
Bruce, yes as JD said it was very easy to setup and has been problem free except the Smoke/CO sensors which I have had many false alarms and the wifey doesn’t like that at all. I have a very extensive Gen 2 system covering my entire 5200 square foot house. I’m grandfathered in to the 100 a month plan until 2025 which also covers all my cameras. I won’t get the newer base station as I hate the EEro Wi-Fi routers and I already have enterprise grade Ruckus Wi-Fi 6 access points spread around the house. Ring has been very good for me. I had an old DSC system but I got sick of trying to make it smart so I switched. Using Alexa and virtual devices, I have been able to use all of the motion detectors, window sensors and door sensors in Smartthings. It works very nicely. Your friend should just be able to change batteries now and then and be fine.
