"home false sense of security" :P

[Apoc]

I went to install the Frontpoint branded garage door sensor and our new garage opener didn't work. It actually turned out to be somewhat serendipitous because I then set up a notification to text my wife and me when the door opened, because we had to leave it unlocked. The opener is fixed now, so I removed the immediate alert and created ones that will let us know if the door is left open at three intervals OR if is open/opens when both my wife and my phones leave the neighborhood. The peace of mind is totally worth $40 for the sensor.

....and the wife accidentally left the garage door open yesterday afternoon.

One text 30 minutes later and she knew to close it. :thumbup:

[JustinG]

So finally got around to adding a much needed lamp to our "living room", we were apparently in search of "THE PERFECT LAMP".

As always we put the lamp on the exact opposite wall for where we wired in our switched outlet.

We always forget to leave a light on for the dog when we leave, and since putting said lamp down we have left it on 50% of the time after going upstairs for bed.

Enter the generic monoprice Z wave plugin, <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=11995">https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=11995</a><!-- m -->.

Works like a charm, and saved a few bucks vs the labeled name brand versions.

On at dusk, off when armed stay, controllable via FP app, problem solved.

Things like this are why people hate America.

[Apoc]

fyi - bulbs are cheaper and can be dimmed. they're also nice because if someone needs to turn a light on during your "off" time and doesn't have the app, they can just turn the knob a few clicks and it'll turn on. this works well when my mom visits and is up before the sun.

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[JustinG]

ohhhh, good call. May actually go this route instead now, return this plug in.

[WRXtranceformed]

Ended up picking up the Ring "pro" doorbell cam and the stick up cam + solar panel for the rear. Ring had a promotion going on to save $25 a camera so I figured it's time to get on board. The cloud storage / access fee is basically what I would be paying if I bought cameras through Frontpoint but I don't have to worry about hardwiring anything right now, and I like the fact that if I decide to switch from Frontpoint I'm not tethered to their equipment. I was hesitant about the battery powered / solar charger combo for the stick up cam but basically every review I've read, including homeowners in our neighborhood that have them, have said that it works great. That side of the house gets direct sun almost all day all year round so it hopefully won't be an issue to keep the battery charged. I've also got some flexibility to move it very easily should we ever build a covered porch or anything else that obstructs it back there.

The way that my doorbell is situated in our alcove actually hits a lot of our front yard and driveway. The eventual plan is to get the Ring Floodlight Cam to cover the whole front yard, driveway and street (and be able to pan / zoom) but I need to get someone out here to see what the cost is to relocate my front floodlight. I might even be able to convince the builder to do it for free if they put it on in the wrong spot per the house plans. Going with the doorbell first will let me see what kind of coverage I'll really get and how sensitive the motion sensor is before I pull the trigger on the floodlight cam. Maybe Ring will offer a discount on the floodlight cam in the future too

Will report back with my thoughts on the Ring setup!

[WRXtranceformed]

I need to get someone out here to see what the cost is to relocate my front floodlight.

Got a quote yesterday from a GC who lives in the neighborhood...$250. To move a floodlight 2 feet to the left? That has to be the "I can't be bothered with this project" price.

[JPolen01]

That has to be the "I can't be bothered with this project" price.

Definitely is the "minimum billing charge". You can't move that shit yourself? You don't even need to rewire it. I bet you can figure that out on youtube.

[WRXtranceformed]

That has to be the "I can't be bothered with this project" price.

Definitely is the "minimum billing charge". You can't move that shit yourself? You don't even need to rewire it. I bet you can figure that out on youtube.

I mean anything is possible :lol: The problem is that I have to pull apart the soffit because there is no access to it from an unfinished area. If it was in an unfinished storage area it wouldn't be hard at all. So I have to find someone who can remove the trim, install it and not make it look like someone blasted my roof trim with a shotgun slug. Also with anything electrical beyond installing fixtures or ceiling fans (ie rewiring) I would rather farm it out to a licensed professional for liability reasons

[Apoc]

Prolly coulda had your frontpoint camera installed and still been charged the same price. :lol:

[WRXtranceformed]

Prolly coulda had your frontpoint camera installed and still been charged the same price. :lol:

Exactly! So I'm going to hold off on the floodlight cam and see what kind of sensitivity I can set the Pro doorbell cam to. It may give me enough coverage in the front that I am fine with it since it in theory will get most of the front yard and pretty much our whole driveway. The flood light could easily be swapped to a motion-sensor flood just to give a little extra "false sense of security" for the driveway / side of the house without having to move the fixture.

[WRXtranceformed]

So far the experience with Ring is mostly good. They forgot to ship the solar panel and the Stick Up cam I received was obviously a refurb unit, so I called them, their CS was good and apologized profusely and sent a new one in the mail. I'll report back on my thoughts when that actually gets here.

The setup is stupid-proof (even though the doorbell chime didn't initially work because stupid here hooked the wires up wrong). The Pro bell looks really good and has removable face plates with different colors. There is one that is almost identical to our trim but wifey liked the brown better because it matches our door, so brown it is:


The app interface is pretty good, customizable motion sensor zones and sensitivity are a plus and despite some of the reviews the speaker / microphone are plenty loud for two-way communication. We already caught the post man running through our mulch bed to deliver a package :lol: Being able to pinch and zoom in on live view is cool too.

Only few qualms so far is that there is no way this is 1080p as advertised; it's clear but I would be surprised if you could consider it even 720p:

The night vision is pretty good though with the IR lights (black and white) or when we leave our porch light on (it's supposed to be one of the best out of all of the doorbell cam options):



I saw a bunch of complaints online about people saying that the motion alerts don't get to them fast enough, but I don't think those people understand the process in a cloud based system like this. If someone rings the doorbell, we get a notification basically immediately and can communicate. If it's just a motion sensor trigger, we get a notification and the ability to switch to the live view but to actually watch the motion capture video it takes about a minute or two for it to record, save, process and upload to the cloud where you can then watch it from your app or computer. That is completely acceptable to me; if someone is really lurking around the house it's not likely to be a one and done motion event (like a car passing by or the delivery guy leaving a package) and I would probably catch them on the live view.

As you can see, the fishbowl effect of the lens doesn't exactly capture as much of the yard as a real-life view does, so we will probably proceed with the floodlight cam retrofit assuming the Stick Up cam replacement process goes smoothly.

[WRXtranceformed]

Well that escalated quickly. Sending everything back under the 30 day return policy, app freezes constantly, camera is stuck in night mode right now for no reason, still haven't received the solar panel or the replacement camera. CS seems pretty solid so far but I'm not real confident this will all get returned and credited properly with the obvious shipping / tracking logistics issues they have.

Back to the drawing board! May end up giving the Skybell another look since it does integrate with frontpoint and could also act as a standalone system I believe.

[JustinG]

Happy with our Skybell HD, and yea, if you leave frontpoint it integrates with pretty much every other home automation system out there.

Skybell is supposed to be coming out with another doorbell that is shaped like Ring vs Round. But given that ours is mounted on the siding not the door frame, size/fitment wasn't an issue. I saw a news release saying Front Point will be getting that version, but no release date as of yet.

Only complaint with the SkyBell is you have to push the button a little harder than a normal doorbell for the doorbell to ring, and most people don't push it hard enough. But the motion sensor detects them so I am typically at the door by the time they reach to ring the bell anyway.

Plus you can change the color of the light on the SkyBell, FRONT PORCH NEONS YO!

EDIT: Cheapest place I found it was directly through Front Point

[Apoc]

Just get frontpoint gear and be done with it.

[JustinG]

Got an email for 10% off Front Point store....save ya a little on the Skybell

[WRXtranceformed]

Got an email for 10% off Front Point store....save ya a little on the Skybell

Nice, I was going to call FP this afternoon and see what their pricing looks like. I'll mention the 10% discount

[JustinG]

I wanna say I paid $189 for the Skybell HD

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[JustinG]

Anyone with a liftmaster or Chamberlain door opener and wanna sync with frontpoint or control via their app.

$20 at your local Home Depot.

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[WRXtranceformed]

Anyone mess with Alfred or Manything? I have my old S7 lying around and since I'm waiting for Skybell to drop their slim version I figured i would give Alfred a shot since it's free. It actually works surprisingly well, including the motion capture. Free storage on your phone too. The only tricky part is if you want to use it to monitor the outside of your home, you'd have to permanently wire it and probably put it in some kind of lifeproof case...or do what I did yesterday as a test run and just put the phone up in your window.

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[Apoc]

Just get frontpoint gear and be done with it.