Today, I received my Ring Spotlight Cam -the wired version. This is like the Ring Floodlight camera but instead of floodlights, it has a couple of LED spotlights on the side. This hooks up in an electrical outlet. Ring will also be making a rechargeable battery version which is currently on preorder and their website says they will start shipping around fall of this year.
I like my Ring floodlight camera that when I saw this, I knew that it will be the perfect camera in my backyard. If anybody is following my channel, right now, I have the Blink XT outdoor camera hooked up in my back patio and it works as intended… without any issues but it is missing some features that the Ring Spotlight has…it has a light first of all, it also has 2 way communication..so I can talk to anybody sneaking in the backyard, it also has an alarm/siren which is manually activated…these 2 features alone can be the difference between somebody breaking in or not at your house.
Ok, let’s check out the features of this camera:
It is a 1080p HD video with 2 way communication
It has an advanced configurable motion detection
It has a motion activated spotlights
It is plug and play…needs to be plugged in an outlet so you don’t have to worry about replacing or recharging batteries
And it is Wifi connected.
It also has infrared night vision
It is weather resistant
and has an adjustable mounting bracket
So, let’s open it up…
It has a security screw that will lock the camera to the mounting bracket.
We have the camera itself which is already hooked up to the power cord and to remove this plastic packaging, you will need to twist off the power cable from the camera.
This camera is basically a tweaked version of their floodlight camera…same body with the lens and the speaker in the front and the motion sensor at the bottom. It has the mic hole on the side…
and on top is the reset button…build quality is excellent..made of hard platic that has some heft on it. This is pretty much weatherproof..just like their floodlight cameras.
Let’s check out what else is in the box…So, we have a power cord…which is paintable to match your house…this is 20 feet in length so you have some flexibility on mounting the camera… I can tell you right now though that if you want the power cord to go through a wall..you need to drill at least a 3 inch hole to get the plug through…or you have to cut the cord and rewire it. In my application, I already have an outdoor outlet that is pretty close to where I’m going to install this, so this is not going to be a problem.
Now, we have the install kit…where we have the usual tools that Ring provides…the phillips screw and torx screw combo driver and the masonry drill bit.
We have the mounting plate that includes a built in level.
We have the mounting screws and plastic anchors for brick, concrete, stucco or drywall installs
and we have another security screw lock…I guess an extra one.
And we have some cable clips..to secure the power cord.
And here on the side of the box we have the paperwork…
So, we have the decal…the usual paperwork…
and the setup manual which is pretty thorough…
Basically, installing the camera is pretty easy. We just need to install the mounting bracket first, then we are going to push in and slide down the power cord…and push and twist the camera on like so..
It has a ball joint so that you can position the camera but has limited range and just by looking at it…this camera can only be installed in a wall and not in a ceiling…
Now, let’s setup the camera..if you are new to Ring…you have to download the app and register…
So, for me, I open up the app…click setup device..choose spotlight cam wired…
I’ll name the camera backyard..then confirm your location.
It is already plugged in and the bottom of the camera is flashing..so click yes..
Now, you have to go to your phone’s wifi settings…and connect to the Ring setup network…
Then, go back to the app…
Click the Wifi network you want the camera to connect to…
Type in your password…
“Rome wasn’t built in a day”
click continue..i’ll skip this step..click close and your camera is all setup…
Let’s check out the Live View…good it works..
Now, let’s test the lights…these are the spot lights…it works…
Now, the alarm…this is manually activated to prevent false alarms…that is pretty loud…so the alarm turns on the light and with red light flashing on the bottom…
Now, it is time to install the camera outside…
First, we need to install the Ring mounting plate..then we are going to slide in the camera..
I’m going to start securing the power cable with cable clips…from the beam…to the wall and to the power outlet..
Then I’ll just loop and tie the extra cable so that it will be out of the way…
and I’ll just use a padlock to lock the outlet cover so that it at least it cannot be easily unplugged.
Now we need to secure the camera to the mounting plate by screwing in the security screw to lock it in. Then we need to tighten the screw on the ball joint whenever we adjusted the camera to it’s optimal position.
So now this is how it looks like with the finished install…the cable can be painted to match the color of the house and I’ll be painting mine in the near future…I’ll make sure first that everything is working properly..
So, now we can tweak the settings in the app…let’s try the live view to double check the cameras position…I like how wide the angle of the lens is..I can see the door, the windows, the shed way back and the fence…
Now we have the event history which shows your recorded footage..like this one which was recorded earlier…now, you can sort the footage by motion only or recorded through live view…
You can toggle on and off the spotlights and the motion alerts…
We have device health where you can check and see the signal strength of your Wifi…
We have the linked chimes..which I need to link it to my Ring chime..so that when motion is detected, it will turn on the chime..
Now, we have the motion settings…on top is the motion sensitivity..If you want to detect just people…then move the slider to the left and if you want all motion..then more to the right. I’ll keep mine in the middle…
Then we have the motion zones…by default, the camera will not have any motion zones setup so it will not sense any motion until this is set up…so click on add a motion zone…and move the blue dots to adjust to any area in the screen you want the motion to be detected…So I need mine all around the fence..to the door and everything in between..click save when you are done.
Also, you can schedule the motion alerts..you can pick which days and which times you don’t want to be notified… Please note that the camera will still record any motions that were detected…you are just not going to be notified. It is the same thing when you toggle the motion alerts switch to off..
Then we have the light settings…where you can adjust the motion zones for the light to turn on…this is different from the motion zones for the camera.
You can slide the slider to the left for a narrow motion sensing and to the right to have a wider motion detection. I’ll keep mine at the widest.
Then we have a timer for the lights…you can choose from 1 minute to 15 minutes for the light to remain on when motion has been detected..I’ll keep mine in 1 minute. Click done when finished and save to save the settings.
We also have option to adjust the light brightness…which in my case is not really needed. I need the brightest setting anyways…but it is good that it can be adjusted.
We have the shared users..which I dont have any set up yet.
So that’s it for the settings…
Now, I’ll show you the features of the camera at work…
Let’s makeup a scenario. A person creeps around your backyard…which in my case…my backyard is surrounded by a fence. So, somebody can be there unnoticed. When motion is detected, The Ring spotlight camera will start recording and I’ll get a notification.. I will be able to see in real time what is going on…I see that there is an unwanted trespasser in my backyard…So, I can turn on the 2 way communication to talk to him.
If he still not going to leave I can activate the alarm to scare him off.
If I only have a passive security camera that doesn’t have 2 way communication or an alarm, then the trespasser can just continue his way trying to gain access to the house and the only thing I can do is to call the cops and pray that they will arrive in time to catch the person. But, with the Ring spotlight camera, you can actively attempt to prevent further action by the trespasser by talking or sounding the alarm. So, this camera is perfect for my backyard.