Battery powered local control video doorbell?

Hardware
1

I know there are a million doorbell questions that have been asked. I tried to search, but didn’t see anything that really met my needs. I apologize in advance if I overlooked a thread somewhere, the amount of “noise” on this topic is simply mind-boggling.

I need three video doorbells. In a perfect world, they would all be the same or similar models, at the very least from the same manufacturer. I would like to keep the cost under $200 each, but may be willing to go as high as $300 each if absolutely necessary, or if the additional cost gets me a demonstrably better product/solution.

Two of the doorbells I can provide power to (if necessary) via standard doorbell wiring, or perhaps even PoE if absolutely necessary. If all three of them end up the same battery-powered model, that’s fine as well. They should all connect via WiFi (2.4 or 5, either is fine).

The third one is the problem - there is no existing doorbell wiring, nor is there any way to get wiring there without significant effort (removal of drywall on at least 1 wall and one ceiling (basement is finished)). For this one, I don’t see any way around a battery-powered doorbell, and ideally it would report it’s battery status to HA.

The following features are not needed, but would not disqualify a solution if present: puddle light, two-way audio

Ideally, I would like a downward-facing camera if possible in my price range (and battery powered), like the Ubiquiti pro 4. If this feature is not available in a battery-powered model and/or is well out of my price range, that’s ok - this is just a “nice to have”.

I plan to use all three with Blue Iris and DeepStack, so RTSP with substreams.

Does anyone have any first-hand experience with doorbells that meet these specs and work well?

2

I’ve tried many Doorbells and Duhua VTO is best for POE. Everything else doesn’t have good api or is effectively third party cloud or some other weird lock-in

Build something with pi + pi camera is option. raspberry pi can be battery powered or Poe but the diy may be much

Maybe look at separating doorbell function from camera. Aeotec has Zwave doorbell (battery powered) that’s great and siren/doorbell is bonus. You could look at POE cameras and I’m sure there are battery options for cameras. I recommend Amcrest cameras.

Look at Frigate vs blue iris. It’s new but nice.

3

The problem with separating the camera from the doorbell is that then I would have to figure out how to power TWO devices instead of only one. LOL

The other locations I want to put cameras around the house won’t be a big issue, but this particular location is very problematic - hence the need for battery-powered.

4

Maybe Eufy, i have a custom integration working for many Eufy devices. I don’t own myself a doorbell but there are many users out there. (Not affiliated)

5

I am also looking for a replacement of my Eufy battery doorbell that can integrate with Home Assistant easily.
With the Eufy I have a problem that the battery status is not updating. I am still waiting for an fix. This is a problem for me since I can’t create any notifications to remind me to charge the battery. I had a few times that the doorbell isn’t working because I had to charge it.

6

Charge the battery?? That’s completely unacceptable. The battery should be replaceable. Who wants to take their doorbell off their house to charge it every time? Sounds like a horrible design.

7

Yeah… I don’t have wires at the door otherwise I could always charge the battery. Replaceable batteries would be an option so I can switch every time… But still I need to be able to get the battery status to know when to switch

8

Every battery powered device in my system reports battery status, so…

9

Yeah mine has well but no fully integration with home assistant. Not sure why it is that hard to get the status

10

Not to be “that guy”, but perhaps the solution is to look into compatibility prior to purchasing devices, rather than purchasing them and then wondering why they don’t work? That was the entire point of this post…

11

As an update to this post, should anyone else happen across it in the future - I ended up just tearing open the wall and ceiling and running doorbell wire to the problem location, and I’m using Ubiquiti doorbells since I already have a Dream Machine Pro.

They work “ok”. Not well enough that I’d recommend anyone buy an entire Ubiquiti setup solely for the doorbells (or any of the other wireless cameras, for that matter), but if you already have Ubiquiti, they integrate nicely and mostly work well. I seem to have issues with connectivity with mine, even though one of them is literally in line of sight to an AP mounted on the outside of my garage.

12

If you running wire go with ethernet

It can be used for 24v doorbell or poe doorbell

In the past i just had a standard doorbell wired into gpio for HA to see. Then a poe camera mounted nearby pointed at door. You can do similar with the wireless doorbells or zigbee/zwave doorbells.

Even putting vibration sensor on doorbell’s bell could work. Apartments excluded, you can almost always wire a camera that can see door through attic.

Wifi through brick can be surprisingly bad

13

Thanks, but nobody said anything about brick, or a bell. :wink: