Help Us Develop Our Doorbell Camera!

There’s nothing confusing about it. Obviously they were talking about the power source, because all video doorbells (wired or wireless), use wifi for communicating to it and watching the video feed.

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I agree that the power source should be the existing 16 v.ac power source. Adding another source would rule out most existing homes. The less complicated the better.
record to sd card, access by wifi, a must.

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Of course it’s confusing. The question is whether you prefer a Wired or Wireless doorbell camera.

If this is about power does that mean they are contemplating wireless power for this product? Of course not. “Wireless” in this context could only be about data connectivity.

The primary option most people will want is wireless connectivity and wired power. They should also consider either an option or a separate product that will support battery power.

The only problem with a battery power option in one product is that most of the current video doorbells are larger than most people want, specifically they are too wide. The ideal size would be the same as commonly available doorbell buttons, but that may not be practical. However, smaller (or at least narrower) than the existing competition would be desirable. Adding batteries to the mix works in the opposite direction wrt size.

I agree re: doorbell size when you’re using a battery-powered camera. I’ve got the Ring 2, but I’m really not a fan of how huge and clunky it is. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have bought it for myself, but it was a Christmas gift.

I talked about it earlier in the thread, but I really think the ideal video doorbell would be a two-piece product – a bell ringer button, and a camera unit that receives its signal and can be mounted somewhere else – maybe on the door as a peephole camera, or maybe somewhere above the doorbell.

If the camera is separate from the bell ringer itself, it makes the huge clunkiness less of an issue, in my opinion. The bell ringer could be as small as you want it to be, whether it uses a battery or not. It would use VERY little power, so it wouldn’t need to be huge and clunky. As seldom as the button would be pushed in most cases, (Probably not even once a day) the battery could easily last years. You’d likely lose more energy to self-discharge than from transmitting some quick signal when the button is pushed.

Doorbell camera needs a faster way to talk between phone and camera. The existing Wyse app has a 15 to 20 sec delay from alert to notification. By the time I pickup the phone most door alert people are walking away and can’t hear audio. I would like POE wired ethernet as well as power from bell transformer. Wireless has such a short range I need to put a router verfy close to any Wyze device. My Or it sprinker clock can communicate at triple the distance that my Wyze camera does.

The problem with a two piece unit is if you mount the camera high like you’re going to want to do to put it somewhere where you’ve got more room, you don’t really get a great view of the visitor’s face. You end up looking down on them.

It should be possible to do a doorbell camera that’s not a great deal larger than just a dumb button if you don’t put batteries in it. The batteries tend to blow the size out which really argues for two different products.

Unfortunately, I have this sneaking suspicion that these discussions of features are all academic. There’s probably a pretty good chance that Wyse is just going to OEM Xiaomi’s doorbell cam - hopefully their next generation. I don’t like the looks or the features of Xiaomi’s current generation doorbell cam, or at least the one I see commonly for sale.

If it’s a two-piece unit, you can mount the camera wherever you want. High, low, face-level, butt-level, on the door, on the side, above the door – whatever you want. It just gives you options, that’s why I like it.

If you wanted to get real fancy with it, you could even design it where the camera portion snaps to the ringer portion, so that people could use it as one piece if they prefer, or separate it into two pieces if they prefer.

I had no problem understanding that they were on about power
With ALL doorbells wired is low voltage 6v-24v depending on country, wireless is battery powered

As far as I’m aware there’s only 1 wired video doorbell with wired data & that’s the ring elite

Slightly off topic but related
It could of been your transformer
If it’s a high va 24v transformer it’s on its voltage limit & transformers output higher voltage when not loaded correctly & output will be effected by input
Eg if your 24v transformer is rated for 110v & your mains is 120v the output will be 26v
If the transformer has little to no load the output can be 35v

That’s why I use a 14v transformer for my nest, although it’s only 10va the output is 20v and the nest runs cool, a lot cooler than a friend’s that runs on a 24v transformer

That’s the main problem with low voltage AC

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So the question was “wired or wireless?”. That’s what the survey asked. You really think they were asking you if you wanted wireless power?

That is what I assumed. I don’t expect them to stick an Ethernet port on a doorbell.

Let me suggest that they were never contemplating powering this device wirelessly.

Now, maybe they meant to ask if it should be wired power or battery power, which is not the same as wireless power.

It was an unclear question that could have been stated much better.

Battery power is wireless power - that is the question i believe they were asking, i doubt they were asking if they should put an Ethernet port on a doorbell.

completely agree

Gwen has already stated that they were on about power & yes a wireless doorbell means battery powered

Agree. No confusion here. I’m not an expert on security or doorbell cam’s or even spent much time looking at what’s offered, but seemed pretty clear to me that the reference was for power - either 24v for the typical US house via existing transformer and wiring or battery for those with no power available. It would be unusual to see any existing doorbell or typical doorbell location that had Ethernet cable running to it. Maybe some high end luxury home, but none that I’ve ever seen.

it means for power source - connected to electrical circuit or battery powered. it’ll be connecting to wifi. I’m pretty sure they haven’t made any products that have an ethernet port, so they wouldn’t start with this one

Why not BOTH (actually EITHER). Why not use the wires from a normal door bell to charge an internal battery that could also be charged from a USB power source. I realize the voltage is different but the charge controller for the door bell wiring could solve that. If the existing door bell location is good for the cam then use those wires. If not then use the USB to charge it up periodically. It would be nice to have one product the fits both scenarios instead of two different products like other popular door bell brands do.

That’s normally due to space & the lack of it

For it to run off 16v AC it will need a power supply to convert it to 5v, 3.3v & maybe 1.8v DC
As it’s designed to run off AC it’ll have a little battery or large capacitor

For it to run off batteries it’ll require a large battery & power supply requirements will be different

If you decide to combine both versions you will need to make it bigger or compromise battery life

Also a device designed to run off batteries doesn’t last long constantly on charge normally less than a year

Devices that are designed to be powered that have a battery only charge to 70-90% (device dependent, 70% to maximize lifespan, 90% to maximize battery runtime, each manufacturer have to decide on how they want to balance the 2) to protect the battery but that can dramatically reduce the time it’ll last when on battery power

That’s how Ring does it. Seems to work pretty well.

Agreed. If Wyze only offer a bright white doorbell, I’m out. Like the other doorbells on the market, Black, Venetian bronze, silver options are a must. “Wraps” like some are using on their cameras won’t cut it, has to be a nice finish at the front entry of the home.