I kinda get it, I think. If this is the way it works (requiring the battery), then maybe there’s no power loss blip during a failover when AC power goes down, so the doorbell doesn’t see a voltage dip and have kind of a brownout reset? That’s how I’m imagining it now, anyway.
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Yeah, but the BCPros I have seemed to already function this way…if there is no battery then it runs off AC converted to DC alone. If there is a battery, then it runs power through battery because it’s unsure if it’s running through reliable DC or through solar. I am able to do both with the BCPro, and would’ve expected them to continue the same method for all devices using this same battery.
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Oh, yeah, I get what you’re saying, and that perspective makes sense if you look at it as a common method of operation among devices that use the same battery pack. I plead ignorance about Battery Cam Pro’s operation, though, as I have zero of them.
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@Crease @carverofchoice - Thank you both for the follow-up and comments. Happy to have you as primary forum resources. My next “to do” will be to test the BCP that’s on solar to see if it operates w/o the battery.
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I moved my vdb.v2’s person announcements to Google Home before the known Alexa issue. You get a chime effect and the verbal announcement. I’m going to switch back to Alexa out of curiosity to see what happens. Alexa is flawless with person detection announcements on all of my other cams. Will still upgrade to the DUO’s.
Just got my Duo and installed it. The dual stream loads super quick and everything seems to be working very well.
The only feature I would like to see added is actions in automations. “Turn motion warning off” and “turn motion warning on” as actions within Automations for the Duo. This is already supported by the Floodlight Pro. I have my Floodlight Pro set up with an automation so that when HMS is set to “away” or “home” then Floodlight Pro action “turn motion warning on” is triggered. When HMS is disarmed, Floodlight Pro action “turn motion warning off” is triggered. I would love to have this same ability with the Doorbell Duo.
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I did notice that the battery that comes with the duo is slightly different than the batteries I got with my Battery Cam Pro, but I put a fully charged battery from my Battery Cam Pro into the doorbell and it worked flawlessly so it must be minor cosmetic changes to the battery. They are confirmed 100% interchangeable.
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I know this was addressed in the AMA on Reddit a few days ago and the devs said there is no plan to add additional sounds to the new WiFi Chime at this time, but considering there is a specific setting and trigger for the chime to sound if a person is detected, it would make sense to add a spoken notification “Person detected on doorbell” as an option instead of playing a ding dong or Christmas tune.
The problem with this is that solar is unstable and unreliable and may cause your camera to go in and out and be hard on it when the sunlight is weak.
BCPros can definitely run without the battery, but they need the power to be stable. I know they work without the battery because I used one for MONTHS straight with no battery in my house. I had it plugged in by USB cord with no battery and it worked great for months. I am guessing that solar power would just be too weak and inconsistent too often, and then definitely wouldn’t work at night if there was no battery.
How is it different? I didn’t notice the differences, but now I’d like them pointed out to me. 
I asked that question in the AMA And then I added a wishlist about it so that we can show Wyze how much interest there is adding more sounds. Please go to the following wishlist and upvote it and select the main options you think they should add, and any comments for other sound ideas:
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@carverofchoice - Thanks for the reponse on the BCP operating just on solar. Based on your comments, I’m going to scrap that intended experiment. Still keeping the wired BCP w/o battery giving me a free spare. Power outages in my area of New England are a rare occurrence.
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I just ordered the Battery Cam Pro (BCP), Duo Cam Doorbell, and Doorbell V2.
The battery from Battery Cam Pro vs Duo Cam Doorbell are the same but different.
BCP shipped with model battery WBat1: 3.7v, 6200mAh, 22.94Wh
Duo cam Doorbell shipped with WBat2: Nominal 3.6V, 6200mAh/22.32Wh
There are some ridges on the casing of WBat2 that I presume help with grip when removing from one or both devices. Further, WBbat1 has what appears a metal part in the end of the interior spline where the BCPro clip holds it in, vs plastic on WBat2.
TLDR: what’s the difference? They made slight improvements to the same battery and shipped them. They’re interchangeable and swappable.
Wbat 1 Top, WBat 2 Bottom - Label View
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Thanks for taking the time! That is very interesting. I just confirmed the same on mine. It is cool to know that I can now tell which ones were originally for the Duo Cam Doorbell vs the BCPros. I currently have a BCPro Battery in my Duo Cam Doorbell.
I wonder why they downgraded the batteries for the doorbell to 3.6v, 22.32Wh instead of keeping them up at 3.7V 22.94Wh.
It’s still fairly close to the same, but I wonder why the change.
Thanks for the great description and pictures. I confirm everything you said.
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Just got my Duo Cam and installed.
Noticed that there is no security screw to keep it to the mount like the Video Doorbell Pro had, instead it has a very small hole at the top of the mount in which you insert a SIM tray type tool to release (a little larger than an actual sim tray removal tool, but same shape). It seems less secure IMO than the video doorbell pro. Bummer.
Also, for anyone wondering, yes the SD card is great, but it is subject to the similar cooldown and max recording length limitations without the Cam Plus subscription.
I’m noticing a weird partial trigger of my mechanical chime when the camera either detects motion or turns on the IR lights. Anyone else experiencing this? UPDATE I should note that at this time I do not have the chime controller installed in my mechanical chime. So something interesting is happening with the circuitry. I’ll see if I can narrow down more info tomorrow.
That also caught my eye - maybe they were able to get a batch of battery cells from the cell manufacturer that didn’t quite meet 3.7v spec grading (maybe for Wbat1 or for some other client), and the batch came out at 3.6v, and wyze engineers said “yeah still works for our needs” You’ll notice words “nominal” vs “rated” on Wbat2 as well. - Then again, this is completely conjecture.
Sorry for the multiple replies. after lurking in the forums for a while I decided to start contributing the answers I can’t find myself so others don’t have the same pains (within reason, I don’t have time or resources to buy all the products and compare them, though that would be fun).
As a newbie I am limited to how many photos I can put in the posts I guess.
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If you have it wired, you should be able to have it record continuously, or if you set it to events only, it should still record the entire time there is motion even if the notifications are on a cooldown. So like the other Wired Cams, the SD card recordings themselves shouldn’t be limited by a cooldown, just the notifications for events. So you should still be able to go view the SD card for events that were during a notification cooldown. That might function differently on Battery though.
I haven’t connected mine to my chime yet, so I can’t say much about that. Right now I’m running on battery and will probably add the chime later.
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I’m glad you did. That an excellent thing to notice. Nobody else had noticed that yet (or mentioned it), so well done.
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Hm. I guess i am fundamentally misunderstanding the cooldown period and recording limitations, as you say for non battery cameras. I’ll have to play with this.
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No, SD recording isn’t subject to cooldown; notification from the backend is.
Edit:
Additionally, I’ve seen reports that cameras on Cam Plus Lite are actually uploading videos to the cloud during cooldown but aren’t being reported.
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