Which doorbell?

Hardware
1

Hi,

My Reolink PoE doorbell from 2023 has unfortunately died. I believe it was the first model they released.

I'm currently hesitating about what to do, go for Reolink again. I think the latest version is newer

Or should I go for the Aqara G400...

I have been using the Reolink with Frigate for a few months now. It is still set up quite basically. And I purchased a Google Coral for this.

Frigate runs in its own Docker environment. I have an integration running in Home Assistant. And I have Scrypted running in Home Assistant to get my doorbell on my Apple TV, Apple Watch, etc. (I wouldn't need this anymore with the Aqara G400 doorbell)

I don't use the Reolink Chime; previously the doorbell rang on my Sonos, but I don't have that anymore. Now the doorbell rings on my HomePod.

Reolink's integration in Home Assistant is great, but how is Aqara's in Home Assistant?

I also use the Reolink E1 Zoom, among other things as a baby monitor.

The newest Reolink doorbell has been out for a while now. That Aqara G400 is quite recent.

What should I choose?

Or any other idea?

2

As much as i dislike the privacy issues around ring doorbells. I bought my pro in 2016. Ring support replaced it in 2018 cause the battery died. It’s 2026, i’ve never payed for their cloud, i use it with scrypted and it still just works.

The Aqara is well reviewed. if you can stand Paul Hibbert, he’s got several good video reviews on youtube.

3

Hey, I recently installed two Reolink latest HW gen PoE doorbells (D340P) and they work perfectly on my Home Assistant.

I have only had mine for about 2.5 months now, however. Note that I've never tried Aquara.

4

Regular doorbell button connected to esp32 as binary sensor

Standard poe camera mounted to monitor door.

Ultimately doorbells may fail and will be hard to replace. Separating these into common components makes more long term serviceable.

1 Like
5

I have a similar setup this but use a Shelly button 1 (the one with the rechargeable battery) as my door bell button then have a vibration and door sensor on my security door for knock detection when its closed.

Works quite well. The only down side to the setup is that it's not a 2 way audio setup if you don't have the right camera for it that lets you connect a mic or has a built in one and if you also need to setup a speaker for the output from your side.

6

You can get poe camera with mic and speaker. Mount it to ensure decent sound

or since Ethernet exist place a esp32 with button,mic and speaker.

7

Reolink POE here (2 of them), also managed to get 2-way audio going (go2rtc) so everything running local.

8

Okay the simple way is to buy a new reolink doorbell because i think is for me easy to install. But the reolink is release 2 years ago. I don't know what the right thing to do is

s there a better doorbell for what I use it for at the moment:

Home Assistant
Frigate
Scrypted
etc

9

What do you mean 2 years ago?

10

I read somewhere that the first one came out in early 2023 (which I have), and after that in 2024, a v2 and v3 came out.

11

I have the V3, and it has been trouble free so far. We are in the Southern US, so the doorbells have taken hours of full sun for months now with no issues.