Ring-a-Ding-Ding

Ring-a-Ding-Ding

A few weeks ago, Mrs. C suggested we get one of those Ring Doorbell things so we could see who was at the door or if there were any packages left (she buys a lot of stuff on-line.)  I saw no reason for such an extravagance.

A few days later at about 7 pm, the doorbell rang.

“WTF” I thought, who is at my door at 7 pm?  It could be a nare-do-well ready to bust in when I opened the door to his ring.  I went to the door with a ball bat prepared, just in case.  No one was there, it was just a delivery dude that rang the bell and left a package.

When Mrs. C came home from work, I told her we need one of those Ring things.

The Ring thing alerts you when someone is at the door, if they just approach the door you are alerted on you phone.  You hit the alert and you see a live camera shot of your doorway and can speak and hear through the same doorbell/camera setup.

We ordered the Ring Doorbell that night.  The other day it arrived and we set it up.  

OMG!!

There is a you-tube video I saw the other day that made fun of two teens trying to figure out how to use a rotary phone.  They looked really stupid.  After our attempt to set up our Ring, I no longer think these teens are so dumb.

I’m pretty sure a teen could have set up this door-bell thing in 15 minutes.  For us, not so much.  And Mrs. C is reasonably computer savvy.

We needed an Apple ID to set up an app.  Neither of us had any apps on our phones and we had no Apple ID.  It took about 45 frustrating minutes to get this ID and to download the app.  There must have been a zillion logons, passwords and security questions to answer.  All done on a tiny phone keyboard. 

Installation and set up was not too difficult, only took about an hour of multiple frustrations, but we finally got it done.  

Then testing.

The bell worked and the phones were alerted.  The camera worked and the speakers were fine.  Next we tested the motion sensor.

It did not pick up motion unless the storm door was opened.  That was no good, as we wanted to see if a package was left, or if someone visited without actually attempting to ring the bell, you know, like a bad person.

For an hour we kept trying to figure out this sensor thing.  Finally, after searching the internet we realized the sensor is not a visual thing, it reacts to heat.  With the unit on a door behind a storm door, the heat changes are insulated and not picked up.

Bummer.

Further research found that as our front is under a roof and our door is an insulated metal door, we really do not need a storm door which is a pain in the butt anyway.

I removed the storm door glass pane and the motion detector worked as expected.  

Eureka!!

I had to replace the glass with the screen in the storm door, as with no glass the tendency was to walk through the windowless storm door and trip on the frame.  We could not just remove the door, frame and all as it might be against the notorious Nazi-like HOA assholes…I did notice every unit in our community has an unnecessary storm front door.

Anyway.

We now have our new toy.  For $110 and a $30/year “Cloud” fee, we will know when a package is delivered, and even if we are not at home, we can tell the Jehovah Witness people to “GO AWAY!”