Ring Stick Up Cam Plug-In HD security camera with two-way talk, Works with Alexa – White

4/8/20 update:
this is the final update. The firmware upgrade resolved my issues. It is working fine. So i upgraded my review to 5 stars. Here is the bulleted summary. The original review, and the previous update, appear below unedited.
* excellent support. They reached out to me to help me when they saw my original review. Had that not happened, i would have just sent this back.
* you cannot flip the video if you mount this upside down (like hanging it below a roof overhang, for example). It must be mounted right side up. I don’t know why, as the indoor cameras can be mounted either way.
* the integration with other ring cameras in the app is excellent. The upgrades to the app that occurred recently allow one to set “modes” and enable or disarm various cameras in various situations. Handy.
* unlike the indoor cameras, this outdoor camera has limited control over motion detection zones. You can activate three different set zones, but you cannot draw a region like you can with the indoor camera. The motion detection works fine, but i’d rather be able to activate a particular area as opposed to picking from set regions.
* the firmware upgrade was problematic, and was the source of the issues i had. I don’t know why, but with the support help i got, it updated fine and resolved my issues. If you get one of these, and when you install it tells you it needs a firmware upgrade, make sure that happens. You can ensure it does by seeing the blue light on the front flash on and off after you set it up (and the update starts). Despite repeated attempts on my end, that did not happen until i was on the phone with support. The update does take a while, so be patient. But if the blue light is not flashing, try power cycling the camera until it does.

Bottom line: recommended.

4/6/20 update: this is an update to my previous review. This is still a work in progress, but progress has been made. I increased my rating to 3 stars, but will revise it again after i am done testing. After posting my original review (below, unchanged), a ring support person saw it and emailed me. Which i did not expect. We arranged a call, and he helped me get the software update applied (which, for some reason, was never properly applied). This appeared to clear the issues. I had moved the camera indoors (to eliminate any network issues on my end) and tested it all weekend, and had nothing but problems. I convinced myself through that testing that the camera was defective and figured i would return it for a replacement. However, now that the software update was applied, it seems to be working fine. I moved it back to its outdoor location (which weakens the wifi signal) and am testing it now. Hopefully this solved the problem. However, kudos to the ring support to help with this. They reached out to me and the person i spoke with was quite knowledgeable. Very helpful. I am confident at this point that, if this camera does turn out to be defective, that a replacement will work fine. Hopefully this problem is solved for good, though. I will update this further after more testing.

The original review appears below, unedited.
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this camera (the stick up outdoor camera, powered by plug in) was completely useless. I have three other indoor ring cameras which all work fine. This one was flaky from setup. Like my other cameras, it setup easily with the app. I connected it and set it up indoors initially (the installation was to be outside). Once connected, it immediately wanted to do an update. Fine. I wait. No flashing lights, nothing. I wait and wait. After a lengthy period of time, i decided it was done. I continued through the setup and did a live view. It was very sluggish, but it worked. I figured, cool, it’s ready. So i unplugged it and went outside with an extension cord, plugged it back in, and started fooling around with location while using live view. Was working fine (however, it was here where i discovered there is no video inversion for this particular model if you want to hang it upside down – this is not true for the indoor stickup cameras, so beware of that). I leave it plugged in and sitting out side, and i return indoors to get something (i actually went inside to confirm via the internet that, yes, this camera really cannot be mounted upside down). I go back outside and try to reconnect to live view and it refuses. Claims poor connection. Complains about my phone, complains about the camera. Nothing changed. Not even the location. I had just spent several minutes up and down a ladder and screwing around with placement, all with live view. No problem. I finally decide to just remove the device and re-install it. So i do (this time depressing the button inside to put the camera in setup mode). I eventually get the same message, in the same place in the installation process, about needing an update. So i do the same thing again. This time i am doing all of this outside, because that’s where everything is now. Eventually, after (i think) the update is complete (it’s not like it tells you) i try live view. Doesn’t work. Well, it sort of worked. It worked initially, then when i tried to go back to it, it would not reconnect again complaining about a poor connection. I finally decide to try this one more time. I delete it again, move it all inside to sit right next to the wifi access point. I redo the install again (delete the device, put the camera in setup mode, re-install as before). I again get the need to update message. This time i just let it sit there for a good 20 minutes so to make sure it installed the update (or thought it did). So here i am typing this, with the camera sitting on my desk. It is in live view but constantly stops, complains about a poor connection, and so on. When i pop in and out of live view, it takes quite a while to reconnect. All of my other cameras are nearly instant. But not this one. All on the same network. The upshot? I have no idea if i just happen to have a lemon here or what, but this thing is useless. It won’t even work 4 ft from the wifi access hotspot. I can literally see it from where i am sitting. Every other device i have works fine, including other devices connected and sitting outside (an older security camera, a weather station, …. – all connected to the same network, the same wifi access hotspot). I am returning this today. Very disappointed since the other indoor ring cameras work so well.

This is my second ring stick up cam wired for outside. I have had nest cams in the house for years and was happy with them but wanted to give ring cam a try outside. I purchased the first ring cam to mount outside using the pan and tilt mount on the side of the house. This worked so well that i purchased another ring stick up cam and this one bundled with the pan tilt mount. I mounted this one in the back yard by the fence which allows me to see 360 degrees around the yard. I set up a detection zone for the whole back side of the house. When i access the camera i can pan around to see the garage which is further back in the yard. When i exit live view the camera automatically returns to a home position that i setup when i installed the camera. The home position is where the detection zone is setup. I did however have one problem with the camera. At night the night vision would cycle on and off continuously. I tried viewing in all directions thinking it might be a reflection causing it but that didn’t help. I put in for an exchange here on amazon. A few days later i received a replacement. I swapped out the cameras and sent the defective one back. The replacement has very good night vision. The process of exchanging the cameras was hastle free. I like the camera and tilt mount combination and would recommend them even for inside. I do need to mention the app. I’m satisfied with it. It works well on the iphone and ipad. I can pull up the camera on the pc but panning and tilting isn’t available. On the pc it works just like a stationary mounted camera.

Recién instalada funcionaba muy bien, pero con el tiempo ya no detectan el movimiento a la misma distancia, tienes que estar parado frente a ella y moverte mucho para que detecte tu presencia.

Very easy to install along with the picture quality is very good.
The one feature i do like is able to link cameras together to gather different angles of the video.
Highly recommend.
I use them indoor and outdoor.
The subscription is minimal for that peace of mind when you’re away from home or asleep

Great quality! Use this as portable camera to keep an eye on my kids when they’re in another room. It has great night vision and motion sensing capabilities. I use this along with my baby monitor and this is way more superb.

Terrific app and very user-friendly. Be prepared to pay an annual subscription for 1 ring device (for cloud-based recordings) of @$30 and $99 for more than 1. Overall we love it!

A camera a month is 3.99, a year is 39.99; however if you purchase the 100.00 a year you get everything for two cameras o more. I have 5 cameras and two doorbells. I am able to monitor my kids inside.
The outside cameras keep an eye on my car.
My garden camera has shown raccoons eating my vegetables 🙂

I got a pair of cameras and mounted them in front of my garage, perhaps 25 feet from my wifi router. Couldn’t get them to connect to the router at all. I was able to put my phone near the cameras in airplane mode and then connect to the router without an issue. It even claimed to have a full three rings of signal, but i’m not sure how meaningful that is. I bought a chime pro repeater to help boost the signal that i originally installed about half way between the cameras and the router. That was good enough for an intermittent connection, but to get a reliable connection i had to get an extension cord and move the chime pro to the other side of the wall where the cameras are mounted. Now that it’s only about 6 feet away from the cameras (closer than the power warts that are separated from the cameras by an 8 foot power cords, so i’m i’m sure i have the distance right) everything finally works reliably. But a wifi range of 6 feet seems incredibly short even when that 6 feet includes an exterior wood frame wall.

The motion detection isn’t remotely as nice as the ring doorbell. The camera has three zones (left, center, right) that can be individually turned on or off, rather than the user drawn polygon of activity in the doorbell. Even with ‘motion verification’ turned on, one of the cameras is constantly triggered by blowing leaves that appear in all three of the available zones. So i turned off alarms for this camera and now i get lots of nice videos of blowing leaves and the occasional car or person in that part of the driveway. Fortunately i was able to adjust the other camera so that it had a useful motion zone with many fewer leaves that only rarely trigger the camera.

After i posted the above review an agent from ring contacted me to discuss the situation further. She asured me that an rssi of about -60 db is acceptable, and i don’t disagree – the camera works at this signal strength. We talked about the relationship between the different components and she suggested trying other placements of the chime pro. After asking for permission to look at my devices she also pointed out that i have two chime pros and only one of them is being used as a wifi repeater. She offered to swap the newer one (only a couple of weeks old) for a simple chime and give me a credit for the difference. I took her up on the offer.

After the call ended, i also moved the chime pro to a different location. It’s now further from both the access point (downstairs instead of in the next room) and the cameras (15 feet away versus 5 feet away) than it used to be, the rssi reported by the chime pro is a bit worse (no surprise) but still very good. The rssi reported by the cameras, however, improved by about 15 db. I’m now wondering what’s inside that (uninsulated) space inside the eave that separated the previous chime pro location and the cameras. But i’m also happy with the result.

Another update to the review. Several days ago ring updated the firmware for plug in cameras (not battery powered cameras0 that provides the same motion zone capabilities that the ring doorbell has. This is a big improvement over the original three zones and makes it easy to avoid motion from false triggers, such as tree leaves, that might otherwise trigger the camera. Once i pulled out a ladder so that i could reach the cameras installing the update and updating the settings to take advantage of the new capability was easy.

They reflect out window even when you change setting

I will be ordering another one. Easy to connect and has great quality video and picks up the motions.

Installation instructions are horrible and printed in a light grey ink. Too much is overlooked/missed by an assumption that you (the self installer) knows the product fully beforehand. Not written for a first timer. Mounted this with the optional ceiling/overhead mount over a detached garage (this should have been included). Too far away to get a strong enough wi-fi signal from the house yet. Poor quality wi-fi antenna system? Probably. Trying to move the router closer to the camera. They don’t mention this signal distance issue nor offer any troubleshooting tip suggestions. Assumptions again that your installation scenario is based on being a fully high quality techno place with knowledge. Nice that it can be part of a system that can be added too simply. Not mentioned forthright though is the point that to record any images you need their subscription service which is based on each device you want to record. Too much reliance on and expectance of using “the cloud.”

Seems to be a pretty nice camera with a few limitations. Motion detection is different between daytime / lighted conditions and night time with ir. The ir lit areas seem to be less motion sensitive than in the daytime. Considering this is not a professional security system camera it does fine. One thing i wish ring would add is a time control or ‘home vs away’ to the ‘motion warning’ where it announces that you are being recorded. It would be nice to have the announcement at different times and situations. If i’m home or it’s during the day, it’s not needed, but at night or if i’m gone i would like to have it without changing it in the app for each camera each time. But i like them well enough that i have bought four of them so far.

Excellent product but where i was installing unit off my garage it wouldn’t link with my wi-fi , so i returned unit

I switched to the ring camera because soon amazon is no longer going to support their cloud cam. So far it’s good but the one feature i loved on the amazon camera was that with location services it automatically set the camera to turn to home mode. I’m not sure why this isn’t a feature on the ring camera if it can snooze it when i get home why not change the mode? Or if i could have alexa change the mode as part of a routine. Picture is great, night vision is great and i like the neighbor feature. I also really like that there a few different modes and i can set what the camera does in mode. When i’m at home i like to be able to watch the live camera sometimes but i don’t want the constant motion notifications. It would also be nice if i could create different modes.

We got this camera for our backyard, mainly to keep track of our husky that i like to call ‘houndini’. It’s good overall. The features of each camera are pretty well represented but i missed that this camera had the ability to talk through but no sound. How hard is it to put a two way microphone in for a $100 unit. Either way it works and syncs up with the app but there are better units available in my opinion.

Great overall but wish the picture quality was better. I have a bunch of ring cameras and love the product quality and that i can talk and listen to someone at the camera, just wish they had better picture quality. It’s my only gripe with ring products. Overall i’m very happy with them and i believe they are a great deterrent to anyone messing with my house.

Camera works fine but the moving base is trash. Gotten a replacement for the first one and it doesn’t work either.

Front camera keeps losing its connection. Poor quality at times and modern is closer to front camera then back does its job back does great but even with night vision hard to see without light

Update:

thanks to jason of ring, i was able to get this matter resolved. He walked me through some troubleshooting and determined the camera was in fact dead and sent us a replacement.

So here are some basics if you are considering these cameras for yourself.

Alexia:

so when i first bought these for my grandmother, i had them working on my amazon account, but unfortunately at the time and possibly still as of writing this, there is no way to have motion alerts brought up on a single alexia. So i was getting alerts for both my camera and my grandmothers. To fix this i made her a amazon account of her own, and migrated her ring cameras to another account.

Battery:
my camera only needs the battery swapped out once every month unless there is a lot of traffic in front of my door.

I recommend buying an extra battery and when you know you will have to swap out, charge it the night before and change it in the morning. You’ll be able to see how much battery is left via the app and ring will email you when its time to charge as a reminder.

Solar panel:
i had no luck with the solar panel given my location, i can only recommend a solar panel addition if you are in a really sunny area and/or the camera gets sun.

Plug in:
the plug in comes with a cord and a outdoor adapter. The outdoor adapter can act as a extension cord that gives you a giant extra length of cord to give yourself some room to play with when setting it up inside or out.

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So very disappointed in this products set up instructions. I have two other cameras the instructions were right on. I installed a fully charged battery, scanned the new device into the ring app. Then set up software asks to switch to a power source, battery or power outlet. Why not both? Looks like it does not charge the internal battery, but it does. Very poor wording in the app setup instructions. So i called, spoke to technical service for 30min asking, ‘will this camera charge a battery in power outlet mode, i think it won’t? She stated after much discussion it does not, admitting my suspicions are correct, it’s battery or power. But not both. A total show stopper…. But!!!

Still not convinced i went on-line and found this statesmen which changed everything.
‘stick up cam plug-in comes with an ac adapter that plugs into standard power outlets, and you can also purchase a quick-release battery pack (sold separately) for dual power. With the battery pack inserted, stick up cam plug-in will be powered by the adapter and will use the battery as backup.’

great that is what i hoped. So the problem was a poorly educated technical gal and the wording in the app at set up. Not the actual operation of the camera. I took a battery at 50% from my ring door cam and installed it to see what happens through the day. And (yea!) it does charge ‘very slowly’ from 50% to 88% in about six hours.

Be very careful not to pull power and the battery as i did thinking it had static memory, not! In a couple of minuets all the set up memory is lost and set up must be done all over again. Don’t loose the ‘scan code’ you may need it for the setup process again.

All in all it’s working as designed. Only reason for the 4 stars is programing is very convoluted to figure out.
Be wise and do your homework. Technical support is normally great but in this case ring did a poor job training the agent. Hope this helps?