Help Us Develop Our Doorbell Camera!

Also maybe you can put in a siren.

One thing to consider. The width (left to right) of the doorbell (hardware). It should not exceed 1.5 inches from left to right.

Other doorbell cams (hdw) vary in over 2 inches in width. Many door frames which are wood, also have additional wood trim, so in my case any wider than a 1.5 inch bell would hang over the wood edge on the handle side and therefore 1 ) look cheap, sloppy and unstable and 2) probably have alignment issues of where it would screw into the trim (screws not centering on trim). Thanks for asking.

Doorbell camera survey seemed like a waste of time. Didn’t really ask anything specific in regards to anything that would help you design it better?

  1. The ring is a great concept but mine is a $150 paper weight. Video is horrible, support is horrible, battery life of up to 6 months is a down right lie. Mine is set to minimum notifications and I get 3 weeks life.
    What we need for a good doorbell is good quality video with no lag, power/battery option (both included) battery life needs to be at least 3 months without charging or have built in solar charger. Not a $150 doorbell that costs another $65 for the solar option.
    Need to have the ability to record longer than 12 seconds. I am not able to see my alerts during the day so when I get home all I get is a 12 second clip. that is long enough for a strange car to pull up in my drive way and sit for a few seconds… I never get any recording of anybody getting out of the car because of the 12 second clip.

It is also EXTREMEMLY unstable on mesh, so bad that if you called and complained they gave you a chime. I guess which the chime, you pair the ring with the chime and the chime with your WiFi. For some reason the chime is more stable on mesh. That’s how it was explained to me.

Doorbell, “gate” access – LAN over AC power.

Can a camera be configured to use ethernet rather than WiFi? Can the ethernet adapter also provide electricity to the camera?

In our rural area many of us have gates at the end of long driveways. For you urban dwellers in apartments, perhaps you recall the scene in the Pixar movie “The Incredibles” when superhero Bob Mister Incredible drives up to visit the costume designer Edna Mode. From the driver’s seat he pushes a gatepost button, leans toward the grill in the post, and removes his sunglasses (mask) so Edna can identify his face – and the pair of them speak to and listen to each other. So, one way video and two way audio. After Edna recognizes Bob, then the gate is mechanically opened, closing behind Bob once the car clears the opening. (This implies a motion sensor or “electric eye” farther along the drive path.)

Now there is in the movie example and in most of my neighborhood enough electrical power to operate a gate. This might be a solar panel charging a car battery. It might be wires to the main electrical grid. Certainly there is enough power to run a two-way radio or a phone.

What there is NOT (at least in my case) is proximity to the WiFi signal from the router in my attic. I can’t even get the contact sensor on a mail box lid to send the "open / close " message.

If the Wyze “door” bell design can both draw power, and SEND TCP/IP data over the electrical line, then the gate problem could be solved. There exist ethernet / LAN over AC adapters already.

There are a lot of wired security cameras out there that use Ethernet instead of WiFi. Wyze doesn’t have any such cameras at this time. It would require more components in the camera and a higher retail cost.

Power Over Ethernet (POE) is a popular protocol these days. Many hardwired security camera systems use this protocol. So you only have to run a single cable to each location. I use POE with CAT-6 cabling to run power to an upstairs switch and my WiFi access points within my network. It is limited by distance though. Depending on the standard and cabling used, you can get 50-100 meters. This is about the same distance as a modern 5 GHz WiFi signals. Wyze would have to add 5 GHz support to its cameras. 2.4 GHz signals travel about 50 meters. Using an outdoor Access Point or Antennas could increase the range of your WiFi.

You can use POE with existing Wyze cameras if you had a Ethernet to USB POE adapter. However, this would only supply power, not data.

Wyze please make 2 types of doorbell cameras, one wired and one battery

People want a lot for a $20 to $30 system.

1 Like

Who says that the price range will be $20-$30 It’ll be an all together different camera and will probably cost more, just like the pan camera costs more for being a different camera compared to the V2.

Well… just how far away is it? Continue to wait or buy the Ring 2 on Black Friday when Amazon will again likely offer it for $99? I’ve tried 3 of the cheaper ones and all returned and refunded due to lag and other problems. Installed a Pan Cam outside but moved indoors as really wanted a video DOORBELL, not just a camera.

Probably next year at some point. I don’t know exact dates, (It’s still in development, so I’m thinking even THEY don’t know exact dates. Haha) but it definitely won’t be available for Black Friday this year. For the record, I’ve got the Ring and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it.

5 GHz = higher data rates, but less range
2.4 GHz = lower data rates, but more range and better penetration

1 Like

Hate to be not picky, but… The range statements regarding the two bands contradict each other.

How so?

I should have been more clear that reply is confusing - quote part of post says more range for 5ghz then lower reply says 5 ghz = less range - just looking at reply portion it seems like it is agreeing with the quoted statement rather than correcting it.

The person was asking about sending signals to his driveway. When ranges are tested, they are done so without obstructions. Like you would see outside. 5Ghz gives more range in this case. Most likely due to better radios and power.

Newer routers also increase range with technologies like beam-forming. Whereas technology like MIMO will increase bandwidth.

Oh, ok. Got it. Thx - I was a little confused. I got an att provided modem/wifi/tel combo thing, but I still use my old N router for personal devices. N is pretty old and have not seen any firmware updates in years so been thinking a new router might be wise. So thanks for expanding on the points to consider.

@UserCustomerGwen Sentry: Advanced, secure, modular video doorbell by Bosma Sentry Smart Doorbell — Kickstarter.

This has some features that would be great in the Wyze doorbell cam.

2 Likes

Very cool. :slight_smile: I’m a big fan of anything modular. It’s a great value proposition, because it lets the customer have exactly the features they want/need, without the need to pay for features they don’t use.

You did not ask any questions about a doorbell camera. I purchased a ring but did not install it. One feature missing on almost all cameras is the ability to have a rotating camera head 90 degrees. My doorbell is located on a side wall not a front facing wall. So I would want a camera that has an adjustable camera field of view to capture everyone walking up to the door when mounted on a side wall.