The Home Improvement Q&A Thread

[Huntn]

Check out the simplisafe doorbells. I dont believe they charge.

This says monitoring $15 a month.

Smart Alarm Systems & Home Security | SimpliSafe - Lander

Protect your home and family thanks to our smart alarm systems with interactive monitoring. 60 day guarantee, free delivery and free returns! Shop now!

simplisafe.com

 

[Huntn]

Just thinking out loud...
I’m considering the Ring Security camera, but also the Logitech Circle, and I plan on calling my security company on Monday to see what they offer. For a security camera I’d say it’s important to have a recording. The weakness of Ring is you need Internet for functionality, but their monitoring fees are reasonable.

That’s ok for my front door, but in hindsight it would have been better to get an integrated system so if I expanded to outdoor cameras they would all work together.

The Ring Security Camera with floods is WiFi only, so there are possible issues with a good connection to the router and I read some reviews complaining about image and has no infared lense, although it includes spot lights that come on. Infrared would be better overall, but for deterrence the spot light is good.

Hard wired might be better, which The Circle has, but it still goes back to recording, at home or in the cloud. Cloud needs internet. I have no idea how much a home recording setup cost.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

Do they connect via hardwire or WiFi? Where are recordings stored? I assume internet/cloud.

WiFi, cloud. They offer a premium service with a week or 30 days of recordings, including zone detection, but the free account has been good enough for our usage. The cameras are great quality and I trust Logitech to be around.

 

[Wingzfan61]

This says monitoring $15 a month.

Smart Alarm Systems & Home Security | SimpliSafe - Lander

Protect your home and family thanks to our smart alarm systems with interactive monitoring. 60 day guarantee, free delivery and free returns! Shop now!

simplisafe.com

Thats the security monitoring for the alarm.

However I just looked into the doorbell camera and its the same as Ring. Free gets you live video only, no recording.

 

[Huntn]

WiFi, cloud. They offer a premium service with a week or 30 days of recordings, including zone detection, but the free account has been good enough for our usage. The cameras are great quality and I trust Logitech to be around.

I see both a wireless and wired version of the circle. Thanks for the info!

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

I see both a wireless and wired version of the circle. Thanks for the info!

That refers to how they are powered. They both connect to the network via WiFi, just to be clear.

 

[Huntn]

That refers to how they are powered. They both connect to the network via WiFi, just to be clear.

Thanks. you’d think Ethernet would be an option if there are issues connecting to the network.

 

[jeyf]

where will your $$$ door bell cam be in 5years?

 

[Wingzfan61]

where will your $$$ door bell cam be in 5years?

Probably the same place it is now, on my door. The better question is where will my $1250 phone be?

 

[Huntn]

where will your $$$ door bell cam be in 5years?

Tell me, where?

 

[Apple fanboy]

Tell me, where?

Hopefully attached to the door?

 

[mmomega]

Mine will be where it is now, about 2 inches off to the right of the front door.
I really like the Ring.

 

[rhett7660]

If you don't want to be tied to a company such as "Ring". You can always setup your own system using cameras and NAS box. This way you are not tied to a company, other than those who are making the cameras and NAS box. Most, if not all, now a days, allow for you to view over the internet i.e. cloud type solution. Hook it up to a UPS, or have it offload to a cloud backup or off site back up.

 

[Huntn]

If you don't want to be tied to a company such as "Ring". You can always setup your own system using cameras and NAS box. This way you are not tied to a company, other than those who are making the cameras and NAS box. Most, if not all, now a days, allow for you to view over the internet i.e. cloud type solution. Hook it up to a UPS, or have it offload to a cloud backup or off site back up.

I bought the Ring doorbell and through Costco got one year of premium included. After that it will be $3 a month or $30 a year. If I get an external camera than it will be twice as much. I’m trying to find out if Suddenlink Cable offers an external camera with the security system I already have, but this service is handled by a third party company and for sales you have to leave a message for them to call you back. Must be low on their priorities, but my guess is the system I own would not be compatible.

 

[robbieduncan]

Hmm, my video doorbell is PoE. As are the chimes for it (so you can add as many as you want wherever you want). DoorBird (German company). I simply don't like WiFi for stuff that doesn't move. I do have my entire house wired with Ethernet and a 48 port PoE switch which may be abnormal in a residential setting

 

[retta283]

Does anybody here know a good place to get clay bricks for cheap? Looking for variety in shades, mostly red. I'm redoing some of the brick wall, but removing some of the cement parging I damaged the brick. Made me feel like a fool instantly, because these bricks are the original and I was going to save them.

Only other time I've damaged bricks is when transporting a load of them in my truck, chipped up the corners due to improper storage so they slid around.

 

[Huntn]

Does anybody here know a good place to get clay bricks for cheap? Looking for variety in shades, mostly red. I'm redoing some of the brick wall, but removing some of the cement parging I damaged the brick. Made me feel like a fool instantly, because these bricks are the original and I was going to save them.

Only other time I've damaged bricks is when transporting a load of them in my truck, chipped up the corners due to improper storage so they slid around.

Include where you live or are you planning on shipping with freight?

 

[retta283]

Include where you live or are you planning on shipping the freight?

I'm in Kingman AZ, it's on my profile. I wasn't finding good bricks locally, so I'm thinking online

 

[robbieduncan]

Hard wired might be better, which The Circle has, but it still goes back to recording, at home or in the cloud. Cloud needs internet. I have no idea how much a home recording setup cost.

Do you have a NAS on your network? If so it may offer recording capabilities (e.g. Synology offer Surveillance Station). I have a Hikvision NVR at home. Cost £200 or so (with no disks). It can record from 8 cameras at once. Software is a little hard to use but it's functional

 

[Huntn]

Do you have a NAS on your network? If so it may offer recording capabilities (e.g. Synology offer Surveillance Station). I have a Hikvision NVR at home. Cost £200 or so (with no disks). It can record from 8 cameras at once. Software is a little hard to use but it's functional

I don’t know, am not familiar with the term. Will have to look that up.

 

[robbieduncan]

I don’t know, am not familiar with the term. Will have to look that up.

Network Attached Storage. A box with one or more hard drives and a network port that serves the disk up as disk shares on the network. These days they are basically small Linux servers that the manufacturers package up various apps to run on (or write their own)

 

[Huntn]

Network Attached Storage. A box with one or more hard drives and a network port that serves the disk up as disk shares on the network. These days they are basically small Linux servers that the manufacturers package up various apps to run on (or write their own)

I’ll have to see how expensive those are. I may have more questions. I assume something like a Ring device is proprietary and could not be tied into a NAS?

 

[robbieduncan]

I’ll have to see how expensive those are. I may have more questions. I assume something like a Ring device is proprietary and could not be tied into a NAS?

I don't know much about Ring. I have a video doorbell that supports all the "normal" standards so can be used by any standards based solution. Most security cameras and recorders support ONVIF (there are some exceptions).

A quick search indicates Ring may not support these sort of open standards. Whereas the DoorBird I have does.

 

[Huntn]

I don't know much about Ring. I have a video doorbell that supports all the "normal" standards so can be used by any standards based solution. Most security cameras and recorders support ONVIF (there are some exceptions).

A quick search indicates Ring may not support these sort of open standards. Whereas the DoorBird I have does.

Hmm, the Ring Doorbell cost $185 and though Costco includes 1 year of the cloud premium service. And now I’m considering getting an external security light and camera for the driveway. These device through Ring would cost me $100 a year to maintain cloud storage of recording, which is not outrageous.

 

[jeyf]

Do you have a NAS on your network? If so it may offer recording capabilities (e.g. Synology offer Surveillance Station).

I have a relatively new QNAP box.
Initially I thought it would be possible to add a security camera but have re thought this.
Main stop on this is the low quality of manuals and tech info. QNAP, an asian company and based off shore, has only moderate 3rd party representation in the US.

Unless you have lots of personal time to burn up on this.

-any security recorder need motion sensing. At one point the app Survellance Station did not have this function
-i got the standard 8G internal memory, maybe i should have gotten the 16G?
-I am only using QNAP as an ethernet file server, even that the initial setup was more difficult than expected
-the QNAP firmware seems to call home.