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[Varche]

Anyone had any experience setting one of these £60 devices please?

This is what I had hoped to achieve. Put one on my elderly dads back door in Yorkshire so that when we send deliveries we can liaise with the courier and so on from here in Spain.

Ideally I would be there to install and set up with my mobile present. None of my family are tech literate or interested. The device has just sat in its box at my dads.I havent got a uk trip scheduled.

I can think of several solutions. Eg

1 Send my phone to UK and pay a handyman to set it up and then send my phone back.

2 Have the device sent to Spain and set it up on my WiFi and then send it back but that would then involve a handyman pairing  it to my dads wifi ( I have the wifi password here) . Would that be easy?

3. Have the device set up on a.n. Others phone eg handyman and then somehow set it up on mine without the phone leaving Spain and then hope a.n.Other removes it from their phone.

4. Something else I havent thought of.

There are a couple of enablers. An elderly relative is visiting us shortly from UK and could bring the device and return it.

Any helpful suggestions gratefully received! TIA

[TheBoy]

In my experience, it takes so long for the "call" to go through to the mobile, most time pressed couriers have long oppsed off by the time they are answered from the mobile app.

Round these parts, when they first came out (before Amazon bought them), they helped scumbags choose which homes to target, based on the fact that they were more likely to be owned by people who away more.  Not sure if thats still the case.

Amazon have threatened (and maybe by now, implemented) to use them as public wifi hotspots, which presents cyber security implications.

Lastly, the batteries seem to not last long and need replacing as they no longer charge.  They are fiddly to replace the batteries, as the plastic goes a bit brittle.


Needless to say, I don't/won't own one.

[TheBoy]

In addition, to remain legal, they take a *LOT* of setting up. Not that anyone bothers.  But to tie in with EU (and UK) law, they are not allowed to record public land without a licence.  So you are supposed to go into the app and mask off the bits that would show the road/pavements etc...   ...which on most houses would be most of the video, and certainly the bits you need.


Did I mention its a crap idea, implemented in such a piss-poor way? 

[Doctor Gollum]

Bro suggest getting a Ring camera, we already have a functioning non Ring doorbell.

His business is Commercial protection systems, so I value his opinion, however the mere thought of being an Amazon customer brings me out in a rash...

I can't help but wonder, to answer Snr Varche question, whether it might be better to let someone else micromanage the Aged Parent

I know that it is a horrendous conversation to have with someone who is, on the face of it, independent. But if you have to answer the door for him, from Spain, then he is surely dependent. In which case would a change of accommodation be more appropriate?

Difficult to phrase that in a way that reads as even remotely compassionate, so I apologise for that, but I wonder if it's a conversation that needs to be had sooner rather than later 

[Doctor Gollum]

In addition, to remain legal, they take a *LOT* of setting up. Not that anyone bothers.  But to tie in with EU (and UK) law, they are not allowed to record public land without a licence.  So you are supposed to go into the app and mask off the bits that would show the road/pavements etc...   ...which on most houses would be most of the video, and certainly the bits you need.


Did I mention its a crap idea, implemented in such a piss-poor way? 

We live on a private road, so if I want to capture the number plates of thieving pikey scum, then I will. And I will gladly share it too.

[TheBoy]

In addition, to remain legal, they take a *LOT* of setting up. Not that anyone bothers.  But to tie in with EU (and UK) law, they are not allowed to record public land without a licence.  So you are supposed to go into the app and mask off the bits that would show the road/pavements etc...   ...which on most houses would be most of the video, and certainly the bits you need.


Did I mention its a crap idea, implemented in such a piss-poor way? 

We live on a private road, so if I want to capture the number plates of thieving pikey scum, then I will. And I will gladly share it too.

Not 100% on legality of that, as I think a lot of private roads aren't actually private, but simply unadopted by the council.

If its not legal, obviously if it led to prosecution, the footage would be inadmissible.  And if it came out that it was how the old bill initially identified them, then any good defence would get the case kicked out.

[Doctor Gollum]

In addition, to remain legal, they take a *LOT* of setting up. Not that anyone bothers.  But to tie in with EU (and UK) law, they are not allowed to record public land without a licence.  So you are supposed to go into the app and mask off the bits that would show the road/pavements etc...   ...which on most houses would be most of the video, and certainly the bits you need.


Did I mention its a crap idea, implemented in such a piss-poor way? 

We live on a private road, so if I want to capture the number plates of thieving pikey scum, then I will. And I will gladly share it too.

Not 100% on legality of that, as I think a lot of private roads aren't actually private, but simply unadopted by the council.

If its not legal, obviously if it led to prosecution, the footage would be inadmissible.  And if it came out that it was how the old bill initially identified them, then any good defence would get the case kicked out.

We bear the cost of repairing it. Technically it still belongs to the original developer, built in the late '50s/early' 60s.

I agree with your point re admissibility, but if clear information leads to a 'routine traffic stop' and said vermin happen to be in possession of items that are, er, dubious in origin, then that's on them. All the corroborated video proves is that they were at a given location at a given time. The contents of the vehicle is what ties them to the actual wrongdoings.

Also, since the cat theft last week, they've been out twice collecting footage from various neighbours with cameras, so admissibility seems to be of limited consideration 

[TheBoy]

they've been out twice collecting footage from various neighbours with cameras, so admissibility seems to be of limited consideration 

Much like YZ250's comments the other day about nicking people for taking video in the car, then asking for any footage

But a defence barrister would think all their christmas's had come at once...

[YZ250]

I have a Ring 4 Doorbell. (Yes I’m a slave to Amazon  )  It was fitted when I was discharged from hospital so that I could communicate with couriers/district nurse etc when I was hooked up to an antibiotic drip and I couldn’t get to the door.

To set it up on your phone as the account holder you will need to be on the same wi-fi as the doorbell/home wi-fi. Once set up you can view it away from home using 4G or whatever. Also bear in mind your mobile phone Android/iPhone software version, as it requires a later version to run the app. On the Ring Doorbell 4 it requires a minimum of Android version 9 and on iPhone it requires a minimum of version 13 I believe. It conveniently doesn’t mention that on the box as far as I can see.
Proximity and motion sensor are very easy to edit using the drag to boundary feature, so you don’t catch the neighbours in your recordings.
As TB mentioned, the notification takes a few seconds, so I have mine set to ‘Pre-Roll’, which catches the motion before the delivery guy gets to the door. You then have to switch to Live View to speak to them.
Now to everyone’s favourite bit of being an Amazon Slave, to save recordings for a month costs £35 per year. Not a big deal for me but if you don’t subscribe you have no recordings, but Live View still works without subscription. 

I probably haven’t answered the original question but, if somebody can set up the phone/doorbell wi-fi at your Dad’s end ’on their phone’, they could send you an ‘invite’ as a guest via the app as an approved person to view the footage and use Live View. This is how my wife views the doorbell on her phone, as a guest of me.    That way your phone wouldn’t need to be in the UK, but obviously I’ve never tried it from abroad myself.

[Kevin Wood]

they've been out twice collecting footage from various neighbours with cameras, so admissibility seems to be of limited consideration 

Much like YZ250's comments the other day about nicking people for taking video in the car, then asking for any footage

But a defence barrister would think all their christmas's had come at once...

When the pikeys damaged Mrs. KW's car we had perfectly legal cctv footage and the Police cba to follow it up. 

[Varche]

Yz250 , thanks that is very informative. Could you switch off notifications on your phone and in effect leave your wife as primary user? Does “ guest” not have access to change settings?

DrG. You may well be right about time for a care home. We as a family have regular discussions on the subject. The problem is that he is quite healthy. Walks up to 3 miles a day. He goes for a walk when he fancies which is a pain for deliveries - Ring doorbell, ready meals , Morrisons etc. You can never pin deliveries to a time. The big issue is he would not fare well in a care home scenario surrounded by Old and unwell people. Not being able to go out when he fancied fir a walk and his odd sleep hours ( early evening till around 2am) would be just two other issues.

[YZ250]

Yz250 , thanks that is very informative. Could you switch off notifications on your phone and in effect leave your wife as primary user? Does “ guest” not have access to change settings?
………

Primary user can not be deleted as then the account would cease to exist but, as you say, the Primary user could switch off notifications completely on their phone so that could work for you. 
It wouldn’t make the guest primary though, it would just mean that the primary account holder was ignoring the detection merely by changing their settings. When my wife comes home from work I’ll be able to answer that question better by looking at her phone. 

[TheBoy]

When my wife comes home from work I’ll be able to answer that question better by looking at her phone. 

Yeah, you laze about at home living the life of luxury, and send Mrs YZ out to work

[TheBoy]

When the pikeys damaged Mrs. KW's car we had perfectly legal cctv footage and the Police cba to follow it up. 

Yes, well, quite  .  Although that's a completely separate debate really.

The law really needs to start to move more in favour of the victim, and soon.

[Doctor Gollum]

Yz250 , thanks that is very informative. Could you switch off notifications on your phone and in effect leave your wife as primary user? Does “ guest” not have access to change settings?

DrG. You may well be right about time for a care home. We as a family have regular discussions on the subject. The problem is that he is quite healthy. Walks up to 3 miles a day. He goes for a walk when he fancies which is a pain for deliveries - Ring doorbell, ready meals , Morrisons etc. You can never pin deliveries to a time. The big issue is he would not fare well in a care home scenario surrounded by Old and unwell people. Not being able to go out when he fancied fir a walk and his odd sleep hours ( early evening till around 2am) would be just two other issues.

I was thinking sheltered/assisted housing rather than a care home per se, just enough supervision to be supportive and ease your stresses without sticking him in a chair in the day room...

https://housingcare.org/housing-care/facility-info-16792-rufus-court-lyndhurst-england was the type of place that I thought of... Flats here are often available on the open market for around £100,000.

Obviously that's nowhere near where he is, but there must be similar places locally