Ring cam wired vs plug in?

Looking at their spotlight cam and can’t work out why the wired version is more expensive than the plug in. If I got the plug in version I’d end up cutting the plug off to push the wire through the wall so why pay more for the wired version?

Presumably you won’t end up with a battery that will have a limited lifespan if you go for a hard wired one, whereas a plug in one you will? Although if it’s going to stay plugged in all the time it doesn’t really matter much.

Not battery. Hardwired vs plug.

Links to what you’re referring to?

Without looking it up I think the wired version is POE and the plug in is wireless.

Just had a look on their site and the only difference I could find is that the hard wired one says it includes the Quick Release Battery Pack but the plug in one doesn’t. Whether that is a mistake or not I’m not sure, but it is there in the technical specs right at the bottom. That being said the battery pack appears to be £25 but the difference in price is £30 so no idea why.

Edit: this post on their own forum seems to confirm they are identical: https://community.ring.com/conversations/ring-security-cameras/ring-spotlight-cam-plug-in-vs-hardwired/6580462151f6e6fe789a88f4?lang=en

Having had one of these (hardwired cam + light) I’d heartily not recommend them in a flash. They’re PIR right, so the light comes on when it detects a person? WRONG!

The PIR triggers the cam to send an image of whatever is in range to the ring servers whereupon a decision is made as to whether the light should be switched on.

so what used to happen with ours was, say I went out the back of the house to go to the garage for something, it’d see me come out the back door. (You could sniff the traffic at this point, and tell it was up to something.) I’d walk to the garage and open the door, get whatever it was, close the door and as I was walking back the light would switch on and I’d get a notification on my phone.

Utterly fekking useless.

I’ll have a look at their other stuff then. We have a couple of ring cams and I’d quite like another for the outside of my shed, ideally with a light I can tuen on/off remotely from my phone.

I had ring hombridge running on a raspberry pi in my office so I could control them from iOS.  It was just easier and quicker for me to say “hey siri, turn on the garden light” as I was leaving the house.

wired version is POE

They only do one POE and it’s the “elite”, no floodlights, also never on sale (even though all the others are all the time)

Floodlight cam is PIR and comes on instantly, even when I open the back door which is behind the sensor. Worth a look if you already had a ring subscription

The floodlight cam is a bit big for a shed roof. From what I’ve read, the spotlight has the same PIR and settings as the floodlight, just not as bright.

The PIR triggers the cam to send an image of whatever is in range to the ring servers whereupon a decision is made as to whether the light should be switched on.

lol. that is comical 🙂

@hot_fiat my main question would be, if you’re au-fait enough with computers to be sniffing network traffic & running Raspberry Pis, why are you wasting your money on crappy consumer products i.e. Ring when you can easily DIY it so much better & cheaper (Home Assistant)?!

@zilog6128 I know we’ve touched on this before but, can you run HA alongside OEM automation or is it ‘instead of’?

I’ve been meaning to look at it for months, but every time I make minor changes I get shouted at for “faffing about with things again.” Perhaps this needs a separate thread.

can you run HA alongside OEM automation

yes, I can control stuff via HA, iOS Home app or the separate manufacturer apps on my phone.

@zilog6182. I’ve three kids. At the time (5-6 years ago) they were 1, 3 & 5. Getting the pi to run took some careful surreptitious skiving from dad duties. Messing about building a home made camera system wasn’t really a consideration.

I only run HomeKit  compatible stuff now as it just works – it needs to be plugged in and switched on & not be a sodding nuisance. IME Nothing Amazon has had their hands on has met that criteria. Ring, Fire Tablets, AWS, it’s all sh1t. What the smeg must it be like owning a Rivian?

All the ring kit finally got flogged off after I got fed up with the way it would make people teleport about the place or send doorbell notifications minutes after delivery people had left. It had one job.