The remobell+ is hardwired and uses the mechanical chime. Seems to work good enough. Price not too bad. Waiting to see how it compares to the wyze doorbell.
I’m guessing they make you install a separate second wiring to it then (other than just the chime wire)? The downside it that this method may be hard for some people to do… Otherwise it’s my understanding that if it only uses the chime wire as it’s primary power source (not a second wire to an AC outlet in addition to the chime wire), then it has to also be battery powered, because the chime wire won’t connect often enough to keep it powered nonstop.
Don’t think that’s accurate. It just needs a battery or capacitor to keep it functioning when the button is pressed/chime switched but most of the time it’s taking direct power from the transformer. I think?
Nope, just the 2 wires from the chime. It does have a resistor/fuse or something in the chime box that gets added. Nope, no battery. Chime can be enabled/disabled via the app. Fairly simple installation.
are these types of doorbells able to live stream? I’m guessing not if the capacitor only charges when the button is pressed.
That’s backwards. The capacitor charges when the button isn’t pressed. When the button is pressed, it shorts the two wires causing current to flow and the chime to activate. The capacitor powers the cam while the button is pressed.
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AFAIK there is no capacitor. Yes the remobell+ live streams just fine as well it does notifications and talk just fine too. Have to wait until Feb now for my pre order wyze doorbell.
There’s actually a small capacitor inside of it. You can see it from the internal pictures of the FCC.
https://fccid.io/2AUIUWVDB1/Internal-Photos/Internal-Photos-4957362
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I just don’t understand how that works logically without also changing the wiring to the chime…I mean, the whole reason the chime goes off with a legacy doorbell is because when you press the doorbell button, it connects the two wires, causing the chime to get current and ding. If you are using the same two wires without modifying the chime, and you make a connection with those 2 wires to charge the doorbell, then the chime should be constantly ringing because the power has to come through those wires making a connection and the chime is set up to ding anytime current flows through those wires, so it should then ding constantly if those wires are providing power. So it makes no logical sense to me that it could be constantly charging while not being pressed without either the chimes constantly going off, or a separate wire going to the VDB.
I am still confused. Even if it is charging through a transformer or something, the chime should constantly go off as long as there is any connection coming through that same wire…no matter what device it is going to. How do you allow current to constantly charge up a transformer or capacitor or battery or anything else without that current/connection causing the chime to go off at the same time? The chime doesn’t have a computer chip or something you can set, it’s purely binary based on “is the connection made and there is power? Then chime, if not, don’t chime”…so I’m so confused how there can be contant current/power but no chime, no matter what is being powered…
How can you have constant current going through wires but thing that is the source of constant current not realize there is any current?
(Note: I’m not denying this is possible…I’m not an electrical engineer with any of that expertise…I just don’t understand it on a fundamentally logical level, and would actually love to…seriously, I would love to understand it if someone can explain it to me in layman’s terms how this is possible…it would be useful info I’d be grateful for, and help me consider some other ideas…but I can’t get passed my current confusion).
The amount of current flowing when the button is not pressed is very low. Too low to activate the chime. Same principle as a lighted door bell button. Enough current to illuminate a bulb but not ring the chime. Push the button and the bulb is shorted increasing current to the chime.
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Yes the wyze has one, but the wyze doorbell completely bypasses the legacy chime and just uses it for power. That’s why wyze uses an external wireless chime. The remobell+ being discussed uses the legacy chime to ding dong.
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Oh yeah, I forgot about the lighted doorbells always drawing power, never really thought about how they can do that! Thanks!
Okay, I can understand that now!
Now that I think about it, I can actually make my doorbell ding slightly differently depending on how hard or solidly I press the doorbell button, so if you make the connection weak enough, it will draw enough power to charge up a capacitor, or any number of other solutions (including I imagine once the capacitor fills up, you could push some extra power into a battery or something? Maybe that’s a little complicated), but that current won’t push the chimes hard enough to trigger. Smart.
I am guessing though, that this method of reduced current doesn’t draw enough power for the Video doorbell to record 24/7, which is a bummer. I’d really prefer to to have a video doorbell that could record nonstop all day long to an SD card.
Now that I understand how that works, it makes me think that Wyze did things a little weird…they bypassed the chime to get a constant strong amount of power, but then still don’t allow us to record 24/7 to a local SD card. That doesn’t make sense. Either allow 24/7 recording, OR if you’re only going to allow intermittent recording, you might as well set it up to allow the chime to work. Instead, Wyze won’t allow the chime AND won’t allow 24/7 recording. That’s just weird to take away both options when you can definitely have one or the other.
I have one coming anyone, and I guess with my camplus subscription on it, it will still record more often than others, but still not 24/7 unless I tell it the entire view is the detection zone and set the sensitivity up to max…but then I will get unwanted notices unless I set it not to give me person detection notices (just package, detection and when someone presses the VDB button). That is a frustrating limitation.
Hopefully they’ll come out with an upgraded version 2 in a year or 2 and I can just move this one to my secondary entrance.
Thanks for the explanation, it was starting to hurt my brain how on earth that was possible…I guess they aren’t exactly binary after all…or at least they are binary, but only when it is at or above the threshold, leaving room for other things to capitalize on input below the threshold. 
For my situation, I’m glad they did it the way they did. Currently I have two buttons, front and side doors. But only one chime on the main level. When I get wyze, bought 3, I’ll replace two buttons, one chime on main level, one in bonus room above garage and one on tinker room in basement. Hopefully can program them so that either button will ding all three chimes. 24x7 recording to sd would be nice, but I can live without it.
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Any update on when it will ship? I have waited patiently since September.
last update said 1/29
Wyze Video Doorbell:
- Used to say shipping starts by early February…
Orders will start shipping by 1/29.
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Their page says you can have any number of chimes per doorbell.
The question is when we’ll be able to buy extra chimes now. I need some more and they’re not on the site.
Just received our doorbell! Just like all of our other Wyze products, quick and simple installation, thank you!
I get nervous, though, if all this can be true!? American company, quality made and affordable? Please tell me it’s all true! 
Enjoy the honeymoon 
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It’s an American company, but most of the products are technically Chinese-made.
Wyze’s suppliers are mostly Chinese companies who build them, then Wyze makes some tweaks to the firmware to make them their own with great added features.
Personally, I’ve never cared about the whole tribalism stuff…I don’t care where anything is made or what country a company is from.
But for those that do, there are some interesting large scale macro-economics points that indicate even if a person is strong on tribalism and loyalty moral foundations (everything must be American), it’s actually better in the long term to purchase products that come in from other countries rather than ONLY your own (Still need to consume more of your own stuff than you export of course), and thus Wyze is the best of both worlds since they are bringing in other countries’ (Chinese) goods but making all the services for them run by Americans within the American economy. Let me briefly explain, keeping this all about ideas and how it relates directly to Wyze (making it better for America than being 100% all made American):
The real wealth of a nation is all it produces, plus all it imports, minus what it must export. In the long term, imports are real benefits, exports are real costs. In economics, it’s better to receive than to give. Therefore, a trade deficit increases our overall real standard of living, and the higher the trade deficit the better. The rest of the world (in the case here with Wyze: China) has been sending us hundreds of $billion worth of real goods and services more than we send them, which they get to produce and export, and we get to import and consume. It’s not a big problem when we consume stuff from other countries (including China, the bigger problem comes in the long term when we export too much to other countries. A lot of people have some of this backwards, thinking only in the short term.
A person can read a more in-depth explanation of all this in Warren Mosler’s “Innocent Frauds - The 7 Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy” essay, particularly the explanation about the myth that Trade deficits are detrimental, and his explanation about how Trade deficits directly improve our standard of living. …and while I don’t agree with a lot of the deep stuff he says and gets into (ie: certain financial policies), he makes some really interesting points on this matter of why in the long term view it’s actually good and more beneficial to purchase goods to come in from other countries.
The US can ALWAYS support domestic output and employment with fiscal policy (explained elsewhere in his essay)- even when China, or any other nation, decides to send us real goods and services that displace our industries previously doing that work. All we have to do is keep American spending power high enough to be able to buy BOTH what foreigners want to sell us AND all the goods and services we can produce as ourselves. With the right fiscal policy there will be sufficient domestic spending power to be able to employ those willing and able to work producing other goods and services for our consumption.
As long as we take in more goods from China than we send them, in the long term macro-economics scale of things, our economy will be better. Wyze allows us to take in products from China while providing profits to an American company that also continues to provide services.
Anyway, I won’t go any further as things can get into political ideology unrelated to Wyze, but my overall point is that Wyze is a great kind of company that is importing more goods from elsewhere, still making a profit for Americans, giving ongoing services to Americans, all without doing much exporting back to China (exporting to Canada and tight economic allies is not harmful), and they are disrupting markets to drive awesome competition and innovation (not just prices, but even things like how after Wyze launched Edge AI detection, other companies started working on and doing it too, to make things more affordable and effective…regardless of Wyze losing Edge AI, they drove lots of others to do it and that’s awesome!).
As far as I am concerned, the fact that Wyze imports from China and modifies the firmware to be personalized for their US business model instead is a huge plus…but I respect others with thoughtful differing opinions too. As I said, my ultimate opinion isn’t actually based on tribalism rationales (I’m more of a globalist in these kind of matters…having been all around the world, I just love everyone). I was just providing some explanations of why those who have tribalism values can still feel good supporting Wyze despite importing from China. In the long-term view, it’s actually a positive as long as we consume more than we export.
I just think Wyze is the best of both worlds in these kinds of things.
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Has streaming to google home devices been resolved? I’d love to have the doorbell feed come up on the tv automatically when pressed.