Ring Integration Options in 2022

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I am a bit confused about what is going to be working and not working after Smartthings removes groovy support in October. I've been working to migrate over to Hubitat in anticipation as I have a lot of Webcore pistons that I want to continue to use. Several of my more useful pistons get motion events from Ring floodlight cameras and I'd like to rebuild those on Hubitat.

I've looked at a few options:

  • Unofficial Ring Connect - this seems to have been abandoned over a year ago and seems overly complicated to get events requiring IFTTT which i'd prefer to avoid / not add another service to manage if possible
  • Using HubConnect to send and receive from Ring devices still connected to Smartthings - this seemed promising as I'm fine keeping my ST hub but that app has a 2 year old "release candidate" and I'm not sure if it's still going to work on ST after the groovy support goes away? Also downloads just stopped working on the site while I was in the middle of attempting to install :frowning:

What do the smart people here recommend in 2022 given the current state of platform / app support to enable my ring devices in Hubitat for both receiving events and controlling?

Thanks!

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This may be a bit more than you want to do, but I use Homebridge and the Ring plugin to capture Ring motion events and then flip a virtual switch (via Apple Home) that then triggers an automation in Hubitat. I have been using this for over 2 years and it works well.

You could also do this via Alexa (https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360031246432-Using-Alexa-to-control-your-Ring-Doorbell-or-Security-Camera-) and a virtual switch in HE exposed to Alexa.

However, since I use Apple Home as my UI, this works for me but YMMV.

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It's still being supported here and there by people in the main thread. I never had to use ifttt to get events and triggers into hubitat when I used it. @Sebastien You use Ring right? What say you?

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Yes, I use the Ring Integration and also Alexa with virtual switches for motion events on the ring (camera) devices. It works quite well!

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Awesome! Can you share how you connect up to those inbound motion events? If I can crack that nut, then I'm very happy.

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This seems doable! So do you need 2 routines for each virtual switch? (it seems the alexa routine only allows you to react to either motion detected or not detected).

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In the Alexa App, I use a virtual switch (that I shared from Hubitat) and two routines - one to turn it on, another to turn it off:

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I can then use this switch to trigger automations.

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Iā€™m doing the same as @Sebastien but in Apple Home. The Virtual Switch on/off trigger are what starts the automation.

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Got it, of course, I did this on SmartThings as well, just been awhile and I didn't do it with the motion detection. Thanks!!

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Got it working last night, thank you again! One gripe (for Amazon) that I'll vent in case you all have a more elegant solution - having to use a contact sensor vs a switch for anything I want to control on Alexa is super annoying because in Webcore I have to treat them differently from all the other switches that I'm turning on and off and remember to "open" and "close" them vs just group them with everything else I need to turn "on" and "off".

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Use @ogiewonā€™s virtual contact switch and you get the best of both worlds. Open and Close can toggle the switch. Preference to set whether open is on or off.

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Brilliant, so glad I asked, thank you!

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I'm a bit confused by this. I had Alexa and Apple Home setup in parallel to see which one would be more reliable (both were, but I got rid of Alexa in our home). I had a virtual switch in HE exposed to Alexa and it worked like a switch. Alexa would flip the switch when it sensed motion and vice versa. I don't think I had to deal with a contact sensor... or am I missing something?

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It's for making a contact sensor look like a switch or a switch to look like a contact sensor to Alexa.

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In my personal opinion, I have found that the "unofficial Ring Integration" works so well, that it rivals the more "upscale" integrations - Envisalink, and Konected.

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I meant why @user918 would need to use a contact sensor and not a switch in Alexa. As far as I recall, a virtual switch in HE would show up in Alexa as a switch and Alexa routines could take action on that switch.

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Right but if you want to use a contact sensor attached to hubitat, it won't be seen by Alexa properly. So you have the contact sensor look like a switch to activate the alexa routine. I used to use it with my bosch range hood. Don't have to anymore since bosch integration.

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As far as I can tell, Alexa can only respond to a state change from a contact sensor and can only change the state of a switch, so depending on which direction you are trying to control you have to use one or the other. Try setting up an Alexa routine that responds to a change in a switch - your switches won't be listed to choose from. Vice versa on the control side - you'll only see switches.

In my case I have both use cases - I want to flip a switch in Hubitat that controls an Alexa connected Ring device, so I need to use a contact sensor for Alexa to see the change. And I also want alexa to flip a hubitat switch when it detects motion from the cameras so I have to use a switch there.

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Yeah - all I had tried before was from Alexa to HE (not vice versa).

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