I have 2 wireless battery doorbells set up on my door right now for testing, directly above each other, the only difference in the detection angle is the height. One is hard wired, the other battery alone.
The detection settings are exactly the same on both, sensitivity, zones and all activity, 1 minute clip length, no end early option. I want to see cars on my drive before the people get out. I want to see who it is and be able to recognize their car.
80-85% of the time they pick up exactly the same movement, clips, human recognition, thumbnails etc. and do an excellent job, couldn’t be better. Good results.
Sometimes one will be triggered and the other one won’t. Happens both ways, sometimes it’s the black one, sometimes it’s the white one… When it’s a glint of sunshine or a passing car (which is not in the activity zone) I shrug and it doesn’t bother me, since that’s a thing, it happens. Sometimes the clip lengths vary in length, no big deal, often they match perfectly. I’d rather get false footage/notifications than no recording.
However, sometimes there’s a significant event (package delivery, Uber eats/door dash, kids coming home) and one will pick it up and have an awesome record of it, while the other one sat there and did nothing. Nothing.
That’s the incredible inconsistency that Is baffling. They act like peas in a pod most of the time, but not ALL of the time. They have the same specs, firmware, HB and location.
Bottom line, I can’t trust them. I don’t know if it’s because I expect too much of a ‘security device’ that’s only job is recording motion when it’s triggered to or that no doorbell can do it.
I have a ring pro waiting to be picked up at Best Buy right now and a ring 3 plus being delivered from Amazon today. I’ll be putting them up tonight and tomorrow to compare all 4 together, so we will see if I’m being unreasonable. The highest performer gets to stay.
I just took the picture below, the irony was that one noticed me stood right there, the other didn’t…
