The Ring Alarm system is completely different technology than the doorbells and cameras. Instead of WiFi it is state of the art Zwave, and quite a nice system. (The Keypad in particular is a great device.) For the last year it has consistently scored #1 rankings for low cost DIY security systems everywhere from the Wall St Journal to Consumer Reports. So as always, the first rule of home automation applies: the model number matters.
AnywayâŚIâm not sure what specifically you wanted to do with the cameras/doorbells, but you can always use Amazon routines and get a similar level of integration to whatâs available with SmartThings. (In fact, the Amazon method works with a few more models than ST.)
Just saying if you choose any system which is primarily local you sometimes need to go out of system for integration with cloud based devices, whether itâs IFTTT, Homebridge, or Alexa routines.
I just set up a ring alarm system and am quite impressed. i was already using a couple of the ring alarm keypads (2nd gen) with my ST system and @RBoy device and app handlers. The only thing missing for me so far for the ring alarm is a very loud external siren. which i can put together with a ring dome siren and a relay to either trigger a ST contact or pass thru 12v for a siren horn.
I almost gave it a shot when I bought my current house and was debating what security system to install. I was hoping Ringâs alarm system would be more open (e.g. an API) but it isnât. I also donât see any particular benefit in its use of zwave-based sensors, since Ring only supports their own sensors.
Home automation is cool but it isnât critical. Security for me is. Not even so much the intrusion part, but the fire/smoke alarm part. We have pets and I want to know if something bad happens at home, and Iâm willing to pay more for a professional grade alarm system that I know will be reliable, even if I have to give up some automation features Iâd like to have. Ringâs alarm infrastructure may be better than their doorbells & cameras, but my confidence level in Ring as a whole is not enough to trust the safety of my family to them.
In my backyard, I have a Ring Floodlight cam as well as some regular light fixtures, with ST zigbee bulbs. On my back door I have a ST button that toggles all of them on or off when pressed. My dog likes to go out in the middle of the night, and I want the lights on before I open the door. The lights on the Ring floodlight wouldnât go on otherwise until it detected motion, and if I set the motion sensor too high they go on and off when the wind blows.
On the front of my house I have 4 fixtures. My wife doesnât like the lights real bright, so theyâre on a zwave dimmer. When my ring doorbell detects motion between sunset/sunrise I set the lights to 100% until thereâs no motion for 3 minutes, then they dim to their previous value. Not only is it convenient to have the extra light when we come come, a few times Iâve seen lowlifes trying our car doors late at night so this serves as a deterrent.
I consider these to be fairly basic automations, and were easy to accomplish with ST and webcore. I donât see any easy way in Hubitat. I really donât want to rely on reverse engineered APIs and the like. Using an intermediate like Amazon routines or IFTTT might be possible, but Iâm not crazy about adding yet another cloud system in the mix.
If I had the time and money to do it all over again, Iâd certainly make different choices and pick devices that could be controlled locally, or at least had published APIs.
while out mowing the bigger then average suburb backyard around the pool and shrubs on this very cool morning (waited all week for the cold front) I reset all the outside bosch motion sensors. They have been out there for almost 3 years now in the cold of winter and heat of summer and the batteries still say 100%. I did rotate the 4 batteries around.
Just set up our new Q70T 75â and have had numerous problems. Connected via the smart hub and set everything up. Alexa wonât open Netflix or Prime Video with out saying âAlexa tell the TV to open Netflixâ, same thing with Prime. We should be able to say âAlexa open Nextflixâ right? She keeps saying we donât have any connected video skills. Alexa wonât turn on the TV (though she will turn it off). Tonight we couldnât even turn the TV on via the remote without power cycling.
We are very disappointed with this Tv and itâs our first in 8 years. If Samsung canât correct this we are going to take it back.
I know with the Firesticks and a lot of other devices and skills, you have to link them to an Alexa device in the TV and Video settings in the Alexa App.
Rontally we are using the HMI ARC input with a sonos beam on our Q70T. Netflix isnât listed as an option on TV and Video settings. Also since Netflix will open when we use a specific phrase that seems very odd it wonât when we say it another way. Alexa keeps saying we donât have any enabled video skills. Itâs the same when we try to open sling or spectrum Tv apps, in fact hose arenât even listed in TV and Video. Thank you for your help.
If youâre looking for help with Samsung brand appliances, vacuums, or televisions, including how they work with the SmartThings app, see the official support forum, which includes assistance from Samsung staff:
Still no update from Smartthings regarding giving blanket access to google and amazon? its been some time now and would love to know if we are moving away from smartthings or waiting!
While I agree it SHOULDNâT take long, if they (errantly) made feature / case assumptions elsewhere in thier code based on not having to care if a device is visible in Amazon / Google or not, they would then have to review the entire branch to see what they break when they start changing it⌠Every time Iâve been involved in feature requests, this exercise took (MUCH) longer than the actual code change.
Theyâve already said itâs coming - but I donât expect to see it for at least another month (at least). Iâd be happy to be wrong.
Theyâve known it was a problem since the release of the New Alexa Skill back in Spring 2020. It should not take 6+ months to add this basic feature back in. Since all there has been is silence in response to requests for status updates, I wouldnât hold my breath on it ever coming back⌠Just like the old Contacts feature⌠and the ability to choose which default attribute to display on the small device view⌠and the promise of local processing⌠and SMS messaging for most of the world⌠and SmartLighting in some regions⌠and more than 20 rooms⌠and the ability to buy a hub⌠and the ability to buy sensors⌠and Echo Speaks⌠and the built-in battery backup of the v2 hub⌠and⌠andâŚ
This is the problem with modern technology. Companies have way to much flexibility via software. When I bought smartthings, I did my research and knew I could restrict certain devices. So i bought the dam thing with that impression but smartthings / samsung do not care how or what i feel or felt when i made the purchase and they can change or delete any function at will.
Its like buying a car with automatic windows then 2 years later the manufacturer deciding to make it manual and u have no choice, that would never happen in that world but in this new world , somehow it has become ok or normal for a person to buy something with xyz functions and later lose such functions with zero repercussions to the company. Ok smartthings i want my money back for the hub and the 70 smart devices now since you decided that the function you gave to me when i made the purchase is no longer an option, if u had told me that 2 years ago i would not have bought it. sounds fair, yes ?
Donât forget your phone presence sensor being an actual device (Remember the Family Tab?) and an App that doesnât take two minutes to load before you can click on something (Remember Classic?). Oh and ordinary people being able to make custom DTH without needing a PHD in Nerdism oh and easy to find utilities and easily knowing what Mode your system is in. What about knowing what triggered an Event?
Oh, and Apps that used to work like SmartLighing thatâs despite being rock solid for years, now is unreliable.
Unfortunately it isnât this easy. The proper fix requires re-working how permissions are granted at the device level. I canât go into more detail than that for obvious reasons, but suffice to say itâs a big engineering lift that is being actively worked on.
Blake, will we ever get device page access to conected automations ? Please say yes, its a killer at the moment
Trying to find where an automation for a device is located can be a total ball ache, especially if the automation was not labelled well at time of creation, I end up scrolling through automations, then smart lighting, then back again trying to find which automation or smart app is connected to the device I need to adjust or change
See, thatâs where product management went wrong. The âproper fixâ for the moment is to achieve parity with Classic, and meet the needs of your user community and stop hemorrhaging customers. Fix it fast first, fix it proper later. @cjcharles is spot on, itâs just a dumb filter on the back end service integration with Amazon.
they may be hemorrhaging power users, but thereâs no indication that theyâre hemorrhaging the 95+ percent of their users who arenât in that group. The people who have bought a smart refrigerator or washing machine or robot vacuum and never used classic.
Classic had 1 million downloads
7,300 reviews
2.9 star rating
Current app has 100 million downloads
577,000 reviews
4.3 star rating
I expect the product managers are pretty happy with those numbers.
