Cameras¶
Where the Cameras Are¶
| Camera | Location | What It Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Front Door Doorbell | Front door | Front entry, visitors, packages — rings the chimes |
| Driveway Cam | Outside, driveway downspout | The driveway |
| Backyard Cam | Outside, backyard downspout | The rear yard |
| Backyard 2 Cam | Outside, backyard | The rear yard (second angle) |
| Garage Cam | Inside the garage | Garage interior, both doors visible |
| Personnel Door Cam | Inside, at the side door (house side) | The door between garage and house |
| Cat Camera | Laundry Room | Interior — always-on local stream, cat detection |
The front-door doorbell is wired (no battery to charge). The two outdoor cameras are solar-powered — they top themselves up from sunlight, so there's nothing to plug in or recharge.
Motion Alerts — Chimes¶
When the Garage Cam or Personnel Door Cam detects motion, Ring rings the chimes directly — this is handled natively by Ring, not by Home Assistant. Motion-to-chime is configured per-camera in the Ring app under Motion Alerts and per-chime under Linked Devices.
| Chime | Location |
|---|---|
| 1st floor | Kitchen area |
| 2nd floor | Hallway |
| 2nd floor | Master bedroom area |
| 3rd floor | Office |
Ring's native chime-on-motion fires in 1–3 seconds. Cooldown and alert frequency are configured in the Ring app per device.
Watching the Cameras¶
From the Dashboard — Cameras Tab¶
The Cameras tab in the Command dashboard shows every Ring camera feed as a single full-width column of full-size live tiles — Driveway, Front Door, Personnel Door, Garage Cam, Backyard, and Backyard 2. Each tile shows a snapshot that refreshes every 2 minutes and updates immediately when motion is detected. Tap any tile to open a live stream.
From the Ring App¶
Open the Ring app to watch live footage from the Ring cameras, review recorded clips, or check motion history. Ring Protect Pro covers all Ring cameras with video history.
From Apple Home¶
The cameras appear in the Home app via the HA bridge (Garage Camera, Personnel Door Camera, Cat Camera). Tap a camera tile to start a live stream. The Ring doorbell and outdoor cameras are best viewed in the Ring app or on the dashboard.
Ring cameras stream via the cloud — expect 3–5 seconds of startup latency. The Cat Camera (Wyze/Thingino) streams locally and should be nearly instant.
Ring Subscription¶
Ring Protect Pro is active on an annual subscription. This covers: - Video recording and cloud history for all Ring cameras - Professional monitoring (when the alarm system is installed)
Object Detection — Cats¶
The Cat Camera (the Wyze v3 running Thingino in the Laundry Room, camera.wyze_cam_v3_1) does more than motion — it runs object detection through the Frigate add-on. Frigate watches the camera's video stream and recognizes specific things in view using a built-in AI model; the model's catalog of objects includes cat (alongside people, dogs, cars, and more).
When a cat is detected, Home Assistant flips binary_sensor.cat_camera_cat on and sends both phones a critical push notification with a snapshot (it bypasses silent mode / Do Not Disturb). Privacy mode mutes it. Because this is real recognition rather than pixel-change motion, it ignores things like a curtain moving or the light changing.
How it runs
Frigate is a Home Assistant add-on doing the detection locally on the server (no cloud). It currently watches just the Cat Camera and tracks the cat object; more cameras and objects (people, packages, dogs) can be added later. Detection runs on the server CPU — fine for one camera; a Google Coral USB stick would offload it if the camera count grows.
What's Coming¶
| Device | Where | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Ring Indoor Cam (plug-in) | TBD | In hand — location not yet decided |
The Ring doorbell (front door) and two solar outdoor cameras (driveway, backyard) were installed 2026-06-28 and are now live.