May 262013
Angelcare 4 Piece Baby Video Sound and Movement Baby Monitor System Ac1100, Gray/White
- Includes – 1 parents unit, 1 nursery unit, 1 charging base, 1 sensor pad, 2 AC adapters and 3 NiMH rechargeable batteries
- Made from plastic
- A complete 3 in 1 monitor
The Angelcare Video, Sound and Movement Baby Monitor System combines quality video with its 2.75” color LCD touch screen, sound and movement detection. If no movement is detected for 20 seconds, an alarm will activate. You can now have peace of mind at your fingertips. Enjoy minimized interference, optimal privacy and safe communication with the monitor’s 2.4 GHz digital transmission and frequency hopping technology.The Angelcare Digital Video, Movement and Sound Monitor offers complete video,
List Price: $ 289.99
Price: $ 201.99
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Great device,
My daughter (first child) was born at the end of March and we had registered (and received) for the Anglecare AC401 (Sound, temp, movement… no video) which was about $100 at the time. In early March we decided we wanted video as well, but not the big CRT display Summer rig that seems to be so popular. We landed on the Summer Infant babyTouch Color Video Monitor at $279 msrp… pricey, but we figured it would last through multiple children. I was looking around before we opened it up and noticed that Anglecare had just put out the AC1100 for $249. We exchanged our AC401 and Summer babyTouch for the AC1100. Saved us $130 and the need for two handheld units. Ok on to the review:
I had my concerns from the onset during the setup. You need to set the sensor pad on something flat between the spring and mattress, so i used a .25″ plastic chopping board from the kitchen. However… we were putting the baby in a pack and play to sleep in the first few weeks and the rods that hold the pad were spaced a few feet to wide. I made an exact measurement (added an inch+ on each side), and went to Home Depot. I found a 48″x48″ piece of 1/4″ plywood, and asked them to cut it to my specifications (the have a big rig set up in back just for this). That was it for the first hurdle the sensor worked great.
Now for issue number 2: The camera/transmitter unit needed to sit somewhere. My first thought was on top of a bookshelf a few feet away, but I had to screw the tilt adjustment all the way out (and use a magazine for some extra tilt). I still didn’t have a great view of the bed, and I was sure it would fall in the middle of the night waking the baby. Then I noticed that that the unit had a standard female tripod mount (the same threaded whole on the bottom of all cameras), which in my opinion was a nice attention to detail on Anglecare’s part. So I bought the Targus knockoff of the Gorilla Pod for $14 at the Target up the road. If you aren’t familiar with the Gorilla Pod it is a small tripod with three 12″ (ish) bendable legs. The legs don’t just bend… they stay how you bend/wrap/contort them, and are rubber coated for grip (this is a plus as it won’t scratch the finish on whatever you ware wrapping it around). We have a Jenny Lind crib so I just wrap the legs around the rail at one end of the bed. Problem 2 solved.
That’s really it for “issues”, and as you can see they were fairly easy fixes. Now I did have a few more concerns, but they were worked out by adjusting the settings form the handheld menu. I’ll share them here:
The auto sound detection just wasn’t for us. I wanted to hear the baby make some noise (breathing…) so I knew it was working. Plus there is a slight delay when it detects the sound and actually kicks the speaker back on at the handheld. I just turned the auto detect off so we would have a steady audio feed from her room. This worked fine because the volume control on the side is easy to work, and you get very little (if any) ambient noise (unlike some cheaper monitors i’ve experienced).
I’ve seen some people complain about false alarms or no alarms, and I had a few issues with this until I realized you can adjust the sensitivity from the handheld menu. After the initial adjustment we didn’t touch it for the first five months. Then one morning I forgot to pause the handheld before I picked up the baby (and left it in our bedroom). The warning chirp sounded, but the alarm never went off. I laid the baby on her matt and went back to our room… the motion sensor was going with no baby in the bed. I adjusted the sensitivity and now it’s working again (I test it nightly). I don’t know why I needed to do this, but I feel good about it now.
My biggest recommendation read the manual.
Ok Pros and Cons:
Pros:
- All in one motion/sound/video
- rechargeable AAAx3 in the handheld (it would have been easy for them to use some built in battery that won’t hold a charge after 6mos.)
- Tripod mount on bottom of camera unit
- Little to no audio static on the handheld
- Great attention to detail on design and software
- Belt clip for handheld unit
Cons:
- Small screen. They could have put a bigger screen in without increasing the units size.
- Mediocre video quality (this could be the display or camera).
- Night vision automatically kicks in when low light is detected, but during naps it gets confused (ie it stays in daytime mode and you can barely see anything). This could be fixed in future versions with a handheld override control (or a piece of black tape over the sensor).
- Unit broadcasts at 2.4 Ghz which interferes with wireless G router (I’m about to get a wireless N) if you’re not near the router.
I would have given it a 4 1/2 stars if I could. I am very satisfied over all.
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|If you want to sleep well, get this.,
My wife and I both worried about the baby. We are older first time parents, but we don’t really have any other indicators for SIDS. My wife couldn’t sleep and was constantly getting up and checking on the baby (so neither were sleeping). During my shifts watching him, every few minutes I would stare to see his chest move. This monitor gives us peace of mind and my co-worker wished they’d had one because his wife was the same way. If it’s too expensive, get the Angelcare without video (we have one for his other cradle) and you can watch the indicator.
For a PnP bassinet add-on we had to get a board for the sensor to rest on. The instructions tell you about this. I also agree with the person who said to get a camera mount (we use a gorillapod). It does require care to set the sensitivity so there are no false negatives or positives. It’s easy when they are newborn because they move constantly so there are large movements to trigger the sensor. Now it is set to track his breathing. I tested it by placing books on it and waiting for the warning beep. Then I tap the edge of the book lightly and it registers. I also tested that my jumping up and down next to the crib didn’t trigger it. We have had some alarms go off where we forgot to press the pause button when we pick up the baby so 15 seconds later you hear the warning beep (which means you have 5 seconds to press the button). It is something for which a false negative results in a false alarm, but a false positive means that it senses something other than the baby as movement and won’t alert you if the baby stops moving (breathing). We have had to resync the monitor with the sensor (which was an oddly complex process so look up how to do it before you have to we life in an apartment with 20 wi-fi signals within range).
All told this has been reliable and provides peace of mind. Reading reviews on a popular brick and mortar store’s website included a story where (if true) the sensor saved a baby by waking the parents when the baby stopped breathing (dad performed CPR) and the doctor called it a near-SIDS (which is infinitely better than SIDS). I’ve read elsewhere that confirmed that a sleeping baby which stops breathing may resume when woken (sleep apnea rather than near-SIDS, but still scary).
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|Simply Amazing!,
I’m a first time mom and so I don’t have much experience with older baby monitors, but this was is seriously awesome. The quality of the video is so clear and even in the dark you can see via some type of cool infrared technology. The sound is also quite good and of course Angelcare’s trademark ability to notify parents if there is no movement is great.
It was also pretty easy to setup and the monitor itself is really lightweight. I like how it comes with a little clip so you can clip it to your pants or skirt (abet probably not the most fashionable look but at this point who really cares!). The most complex bit of the setup was purchasing a plexiglass board to put under the crib mattress from Lowes and then placing the little plastic pad on it and then the mattress on top of the pad. You then need to attach the cords from the plastic pad to the camera/receiver that you position so it has a good view of the baby. It reminded me of hooking up my computer speakers.
Although this is a bit pricey, I highly recommend this item for someone who is not on a strict budget and able to spend more on a state of the art baby monitor.
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