this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
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Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. Available for free at home-assistant.io

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Local only doorbells (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by dbrand666@lemmy.world to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world
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To expand on a previous poster asking about local only devices in general...

Has anyone found a reliable local only doorbell? I've been meaning to replace my Ring doorbell ever since Amazon bought them. I finally bought a Reolink WiFi doorbell and it looks great and was really easy to set up without Internet or their app, BUT...

It doesn't work. Capture to FTP gives me nice clear images but the videos are corrupt, maybe truncated. I can't even open them with VLC.

I tried installing an SD card and then moving the SD card to my laptop. The videos on there play for a few seconds and then freeze.

Reolink support hasn't responded to any of my questions, which is another minus for them.

I did notice that the unit seems to run very hot. Did I just get a dud?

So are there any alternatives? Should I just try buying another of these? At least returns (Amazon, Walmart) are easy.

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[–] notfromhere@lemmy.one 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’ve heard good things of Amcrest doorbell cameras. https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/amcrest/

[–] george@midwest.social 2 points 1 year ago

That's what I have, along with armcrest2mqtt for triggering things when the doorbell rings.

[–] BillyTables@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just set this up on my HA instance, works great. Easy to install and pretty easy to configure. You will need the Amcrest ios / android app for initial configuration, but after that you can delete it and just run.

[–] a1studmuffin@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does it allow two way video chat? I've currently got a Google Doorbell and the thing that's holding me back from an offline alternative is how well it integrates with Android and Google Home - I can be out with friends and still answer the door from my phone, see what's happening etc.

[–] BillyTables@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Yes, it does. A family member grabbed a package off my porch while I was out of town. I got a motion notification, opened the Amcrest app and did the 2 way video +voice chat with them, worked well, like a poor mans facetime session