I own a whole lotta Ring products. And the oh-so-simple yet highly practical Ring Pathlight tops my favorites list. There’s really nothing else that compares in the smarthome space — exterior lighting that’s economical, functional, and battery-powered.
The Ring Pathlight comes in two flavors: a D-cell variant and a solar model… that can be periodically topped off via microUSB. Owning both, I prefer the solar model. It’s better looking, with light projecting downwards (vs up), and I’d rather charge it in now and then than purchase and dispose of D batteries (4 per light) every few months.
For those already in the fold, the Ring Solar Pathlight is currently on sale for $24.49. For newcomers, in need of a greater pathlight count and Ring bridge, the four pack kit is about $50 off at $112.
Isn’t this pricey for what essentially does? Would love to better understand your justification aside from the fact it’s a RING product.
There’s a multitude of ways to customize these, including Alexa motion triggers. Like, if pathlight detects motion after midnight, turn on living room Hue lighting to scare bad people away. Having said that, I currently keep it pretty simple: My six are scheduled to put out dim lighting between dusk and dawn UNLESS there’s motion and then they brighten up so no one trips and the bad guys will choose a new target. And these get way brighter than the cheapie Lowes and Home Depot solar kits I’ve seen. I have a long walkway and driveway, without post lighting and without street lighting, so about $150 out of pocket to improve upon that seems pretty reasonable – plus all the connected benefits.
That sounds pretty cool, but I’m not sure where the ring bridge fits in.. Is the bridge just a z-wave hub, or is it proprietary and only works with ring stuff? I have a ring doorbell and it’s just wifi, so I’d had hoped that the the rest of the ring stuff would be similar, and that they would be standard z-wave where wifi wasn’t feasable because of being battery operated. Their website is vague, just saying that I “need it” but then in the accessories page they show so many zwave things that “Work with” ring, so I’m hoping it is just a hub?
The Ring lighting bridge routes their own low-power RF protocol over WiFi. The bridge is a tiny thing, not much bigger than an Airpods case. Mine’s plugged in the garage. One day, I assume all Amazon/Ring stuff will be Sidewalk-enabled and a dedicated bridge wouldn’t be required if you had other gear. But, in case it’s not clear, Ring lighting doesn’t require Ring cameras. And while I could imagine replacing my Ring cams at some point, as I said above, there’s nothing else really out there on the lighting front.
The Z-Wave references you’re turning up are specific to the Ring Alarm system. As to why they have different standards, at the moment, Ring lighting is an offshoot of the Mr. Beams acquisition and the Ring Alarm hardware team was also acquired (the folks behind the Staples Connect stuff). Although it makes sense for the Alarm stuff to interoperate with as much as possible, so Zwave wouldn’t be dropped – but I could see Ring lighting going Sidewalk and an updated Ring Alarm supporting it.
I also have a long driveway without lighting. I’ve been intrigued by the Ring solar pathlights, but I’ve been hesitant for a few reasons.
1) I live in MN and I’m concerned about snow depth covering the lights. Anyone else have that issue? Any tips for how to deal with it?
2) Range from bridge to light. My bridge would be indoors, on the wall closest to where the lights would placed. The distance would be about 40 feet. Do the lights have their own repeater capability such that only the nearest light needs to be able to reach the bridge?
3) Effectiveness of the solar capability. Like I said, I live in MN — daylight is short here in the winter. How long has a USB charge been lasting in periods of low solar exposure? What about in the cold of winter when battery life is compromised?
Battery life would indeed be negatively impacted by cold but performance is also dependent upon on how you configure things and amount of motion. Adam Miarka gets way better battery life than me since he doesn’t let them glow overnight, they only brighten on motion. Also I have many critters around (fewer now) which can trigger motion and then brighter light (which I’ve reduced to 3m) overnight. Think I’m charging the one a bit in the shade every few weeks, but haven’t calculated it and I continue to tweak settings. The solar I added today (based on current sale) is about 50′ from the bridge (through garage door vs side brick wall of some) and app says the signal is ‘good’ – which is what it says about all of mine. I feel like a firmware update at some point improved reception.