First Impressions of the Wireless Doorbell

[Robfrg]

I've just installed the AVD2001 wireless doorbell and already am a little concerned by the levels of functionality it's missing compared with my current setup.  I must confess that I push technology to eek out all functionality.  My current setup is based upon the Arlo smart hub, 9 Pro cameras that also integrate with SmartThings and HomeKit.  There seems to be some serious flaws right now in what the door bell can't do and was interested if others are having the same issues, have solutions or are solutions coming, honestly trying to decide if being an early adopter of this has been a mistake.

1. The doorbell was purchased to replace a PRO 3 camera, however what I saw overnight may mean it can't act as a direct replacement.  The camera happily recorded the milk being delivered this morning, the doorbell missed it by about 2 minutes according to the times on the recordings.

2. The night vision mode didn't seem to kick in, I was expecting recordings overnight to be black and white and not colour - the colour recordings from the doorbell lost a lot of detail.  Just me or is this an enhancement of the PRO 3 night vision and as expected?

3. There is no on/off for the video, I use SmartThings to control cameras based on other sensors, for example when I leave the house via the from door turn off the cameras for 10 mins.  SmartThings is allowing on/off to be set in automations, but it has no effect on the camera.  This is a real pain point for me.

4. HomeKit integration is just not there, when is this coming?

5. There is currently no ARLO Hub integration only direct to WiFi, while on the face of things isn't a big deal, but I'm assuming this means no local recording on the camera set up to monitor my front door, this theoretically makes it fairly easy to disable and render it useless.

I really do want this product to work for me, but looking at the list I think it's not a completely ready product yet.  Interested in your thoughts as a community.

[jguerdat]

1) Is it the same recording or is there a significant skew in them? I can't say why the timestamps are off by 2 minutes but I suppose it could be due to Smart activity on the servers and also maybe due to the exact second of the minute recording started. If downloaded, do both indicate the skew or are they pretty much in sync?

2) Night vision IR LEDs only happen when external ambient light is low enough to pass the threshold to use them. If you have some light shining brightly enough in the camera view, color/daytime recording is used, like on any other camera.

3 and 4) Home automation is a moving target for both the device manufacturer as well as the automation provider. Time will tell.

5) The regular camera is not affected by having the wirefree doorbell connecting to your WiFi. It will remain recording to the local drive with no issue (works here just fine). The doorbell won't record locally until firmware allows it to be connected to your base, as with any Arlo camera that can be connected to WiFi.

[Robfrg]

Hi, thanks for the response and interested to hear your experiences.

Point 1.  It's not exactly the timestamps are off by two mins, more like the motion was triggered two minutes later.  I believed I had the PRO 3 and the doorbell monitoring the same "space", I'm now questioning this having read the full pdf, the motion for the doorbell seems really restricted (I will test this further).  It's just too coincidental that the only movement the PRO 3 detected and recorded was 2 mins before the doorbell - and nothing on the doorbell footage to see what trigger it.

Point 2, indeed I'm glad you've confirmed what I would expect to happen, once again I'll test this later.  But can you confirm that the night vision should work as per the PRO 3 - leds light up and the night vision is Infra Red?

Points 3 & 4, hoping early(ish) adopter issues, can you confirm that you have no ability to disable the camera in the Arlo App (some have suggested you can?) except using modes.  Whereas with cameras I can turn them off individually.  IMHO for existing users this is currently a loss of capability.

Point 5, sorry maybe wasn't clear, cameras using the hub are recording locally just fine - I was referring to the doorbell not able to use local recording.  I get that this is essentially lowering the entry cost and complexity (I guess to compete with Ring and Nest) - but this does weaken my existing setup.

[jguerdat]

Night vision on all Arlo cameras use the red-ish IR LEDs. On the doorbell, it's a single LED in the middle.

I don't use home automation so can't comment on how it should (or shouldn't) work. If you mean using this automation to (dis)arm the doorbell, all I can offer is the toggle in the doorbell settings.

I expect that at some point the wireless doorbell will be able to connect to your base. Until a firmware update is provided, cloud recordings via a subscription is all you can get.

[Robfrg]

Interested in something you mentioned above, you said you could toggle the camera, I’m assuming you mean you have a toggle switch in the below window?

If you have can you let me know the firmware and app version you have, this is exactly the capability that all my other cameras have and what is toggled using my various automations on those cameras. 

[jguerdat]

I have the latest firmware as listed in the Firmware Release Notes section here - 1.2.0.0_445. However, I just realized I was looking at my WIRED doorbell for the on/off toggle - my wireless one does NOT have that toggle, just as you note. Sorry 'bout that.  DOH!