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HomeKit Wemo Doorbell
- Thread starter philpalmiero
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Yes I bought one for my front door and liked it enough to get a second for the back. The only issue I have is that I have had a couple power outages and sometimes they need a reboot to get back online (rebooting involves unscrewing the security screw on the bottom and pushing a button, not difficult but annoying)
I’ve had the same issue with Wemo Mini smart plugs when I kill the power to do electrical work.
I’m interested in this doorbell too so if it’s normally reliable, then this shouldn’t be a huge issue for me. I’ll get a power outage in my area maybe once every 18 months. Don’t normally kill the power to my doorbell
(I'm the same poster above)
Yeah I've been doing electrical work lately so I run into that issue when my wifi goes down, but in normal use it shouldn't be a common problem.
Installing is pretty simple, you have to add a device inside the doorbell chime box, so that needs to be a real chime and not a digital one. And then the doorbell itself is just 2 wires that get screwed in.
For my back door there was no existing doorbell so no chime box - I had to get a plug in adapter off Amazon to power it.
There's no app it's all set up from the Home app, which I like. I have enough one off smart home apps on there already.
Yeah I've been doing electrical work lately so I run into that issue when my wifi goes down, but in normal use it shouldn't be a common problem.
Installing is pretty simple, you have to add a device inside the doorbell chime box, so that needs to be a real chime and not a digital one. And then the doorbell itself is just 2 wires that get screwed in.
For my back door there was no existing doorbell so no chime box - I had to get a plug in adapter off Amazon to power it.
There's no app it's all set up from the Home app, which I like. I have enough one off smart home apps on there already.
I got this one and can confirm it works wired directly to the doorbell terminals: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083R621RV?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
But anything that provides 16V / 30VA or 24V / 30VA should work. Most adapters specs list volt and amp values you just multiply those together to get the "VA" value.
But anything that provides 16V / 30VA or 24V / 30VA should work. Most adapters specs list volt and amp values you just multiply those together to get the "VA" value.
Just tried to set up my new WeMo Doorbell. First try, it showed up in the Home app immediately, but would not complete the set up. I tried using the code, but that didn't do anything at all. I have tried resetting the doorbell, resetting my phone's wifi, resetting my wifi router, using only the 2.4GHz band, and nothing worked. Now the doorbell doesn't even show up in the Home app.
The icing on this cake was trying Belkin online chat support. I waited for an agent for about 30 mins, walked away for 5 minutes, and came back to find the agent had come on, not got a response and closed the chat. Waiting another 30-or-so minutes for another agent to connect, only to be told that they cannot provide support for the doorbell online - has to be over the phone - which is Mon-Fri only.
Beyond frustrated.
The icing on this cake was trying Belkin online chat support. I waited for an agent for about 30 mins, walked away for 5 minutes, and came back to find the agent had come on, not got a response and closed the chat. Waiting another 30-or-so minutes for another agent to connect, only to be told that they cannot provide support for the doorbell online - has to be over the phone - which is Mon-Fri only.
Beyond frustrated.
I just installed one on 9/8. This doorbell replaced a Nest Hello that I had running in HomeKit with a Starling hub. I’ll give it a week before I post an in-depth review, but (and I say this fully acknowledging that I’m comparing to the Nest) so far I am not impressed.
I also just installed the WeMo 2 days ago. Also coming from the Nest. I can’t say I’m that impressed- image quality is slacking and night vision is just bad. Going to give it a few more days, but otherwise I think I’ll be going back to the Nest and buying Starling as well.
I absolutely love the Nest with Starling. It’s just a good all around doorbell camera and gives you a lot of extra HomeKit functionality but I switched to Logitech for HKSV and that doorbell has a too narrow FOV. Can’t see anything on my doorstep nor much to the sides.
Starling released an update not too long ago with HKSV support for the newer Nest cameras (I believe the older cameras are hardware limited). I’m really hoping Nest releases a new wired doorbell that can support HKSV with Starling.
God speed! But hey, maybe this just means the Nest is that good.
Other than the awful FOV, The Logitech goes offline/online about 20 times a day and this seems like the only other option for HKSV. The Nest is phenomenal but I need HKSV in my life lol. I want everything in one place.
Belkin has a 90 day return period. That should be enough to see for myself. As long as I can see clear faces on the doorstep, I’m good. Not sure I really care about what’s going on off my property. How bad can it be? Lol
I’m curious to hear your thoughts. I made the jump from Nest to HKSV to get everything in one place and stop paying Google for storage when I could get it through Apple with what I already pay. My complaints have a certain amount of psychology behind them. When I’m watching all my cameras at once on the HomeCam app (to watch my kids) it absolutely kills me to see the rather clear view of my two Aqara G2H Pros and then this yucky doorbell view. But in the end it does what it needs to, if you don’t mind the package detection being essentially useless.
Speaking of useless package detection, the Logitech barely sees my front porch/steps lol. Was also pretty useless with the Nest. I needed a downward angled bracket which killed the look of it and even then didn’t get most of my front porch so I’m no stranger to that. Maybe it’s my porch or the manner in which the delivery people drop off the packages lol, I dunno.
I’ll def post my findings when I test it out. Should be delivered in 3-7 days.
Aqara G2H Pros… was thinking about picking those up to replace my aging Circle 2’s. Seems like you’re enjoying them. Should give them a try too.
The Aqaras have been excellent! They have never gone off line and the night vision is very good.
As far as package detection goes, I haven't kept a tally but I'm going to start now. However I would estimate in the few days I've had it installed I've gotten about 12-15 false package notifications, 3 legit notifications of actual packages, and 4 or 5 packages that it missed.
So I just installed this doorbell. Initial impressions are that I’m loving the FOV. I can see everything on my property now and then some, as opposed to the very narrow FOV of the Logitech doorbell. It is so wide, I swear it’s capturing objects a little behind it even. Defiant not going to miss a package on my doorstep anymore.
Also, the picture quality is very fuzzy. A lot more than I expected. Don’t know if it’s due to a weak Wi-Fi connection or that’s just how it is. I have yet to add more eeros with a wired backhaul and one was supposed to go in the foyer by the front door so we’ll see about that.
I’m also getting a bluish purple type ring in two corners of my image. Don’t know if that’s just because of the way the outside light is hitting the lens or this is a defect. Will have to continue to monitor.
Some of the complaints were having trouble connecting. Mine connected right away the traditional way. Couldn’t get the NFC connection to work. Streaming feed are loading up pretty quick too on Wi-Fi. No more than two seconds.
Here’s a screen shot. Can’t see the blue in the top and bottom right corners I was talking about.
Also, the picture quality is very fuzzy. A lot more than I expected. Don’t know if it’s due to a weak Wi-Fi connection or that’s just how it is. I have yet to add more eeros with a wired backhaul and one was supposed to go in the foyer by the front door so we’ll see about that.
I’m also getting a bluish purple type ring in two corners of my image. Don’t know if that’s just because of the way the outside light is hitting the lens or this is a defect. Will have to continue to monitor.
Some of the complaints were having trouble connecting. Mine connected right away the traditional way. Couldn’t get the NFC connection to work. Streaming feed are loading up pretty quick too on Wi-Fi. No more than two seconds.
Here’s a screen shot. Can’t see the blue in the top and bottom right corners I was talking about.
I’m not sure what that is in the corner. I’m not getting that in mine. I did just get a successful package notification so that’s a plus. My new complaint is that doorbell alerts to my Apple Watch are pretty slow. About 4 or 5 seconds. Then the notification won’t load the camera view a lot of times. That could just be my watch showing its age.
Let us know what you think of the night vision.
Also, giving credit where credit is due. I haven’t had a false package notification in at least a couple days and the last package delivered did produce a successful notification. I’m not sure if that’s something “learning” or iOS 16, but I’ll take it.
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Will do. My day time image isn’t the greatest as it stands though. Hopefully it’s just a connection issue which can be fixed. Wondering if mine is defective.
I got a successful package notification too. Wasn’t exactly a box but one of my kids left their backpack on the porch and it popped up as a package notification. I’d say that’s successful. A package doesn’t have to be a brown box, right lol. Just something left on the porch.
So… it’s nighttime and it’s not the greatest but I’d say it’s the same as daytime. Everything beyond my porch is dark but I also live in the dark at night suburbs. I can see myself in the darkness but not clear by any means. I’m gonna try adding an eero in the foyer, closer to the doorbell to rule out a subpar connection. Still getting those top and bottom corner image issues. Maybe the lens needs to be cleaned.
FWIW I have an Eero beacon about 3’ from my doorbell and it still sucks. I think we may have to sacrifice the Nest quality for the full porch view.
Damn, well there’s that lol.
How is the connection for you? For me it was fine all day but for some reason overnight, it was doing the same thing is my Logitech. Constant disconnects and reconnects. My eero app says it’s connected to the 5Ghz with full bars. I am enjoying the very wide angle with this thing though. Hopefully they can fix the image quality with a firmware update.
So far so good with connection. It disconnected once but it was when my HomePods were updating so I’m pretty sure that was a hub issue. I just keep reminding myself that this is a doorbell with a camera, not a camera with a doorbell.
Which reminds me, I was always thinking about slapping a proper camera above my front door, also overlooking my property and just leave the doorbell as, well, a doorbell that can also “see” who’s right up at the door.