Hi guys,
I bought these from Amazon and not sure whether it'll meet my below requirements-
1) Can these be wired
2) Does it have chime? I read somewhere as home base has in built chime in there.
Limited-time deal: Eufy Security by Anker eufyCam 2 Pro Wireless Home Security Add-on Camera, 2K Resolution, 365-Day Battery Life, HomeKit Compatibility, IP67 Weatherproof, Night Vision https://amzn.asia/d/3Z53rjD
Please share your experiences and expert advice
Thank you all.
…are you asking us to read the instruction manual for you?
Let’s face it, we prob will anyway
Idk if you’ve linked the wrong item but that’s an add on camera. You need homebase to work with it.
bought these not sure whether it'll meet my requirements
Hi there, the link you provided just shows the EufyCam 2 Pro and HomeBase2, no doorbells. I don't have the EufyCam, but do have the Eufy Wireless (Battery) 2K Doorbell and Homebase 2, so I can only share my experience with those devices.
To your questions, the HomeBase does have a chime. My doorbell can be wired to a low voltage existing doorbell wiring (but I don't use that). The cameras you linked to cannot be wired. One of their selling points is the long battery life, so if you were looking for wired, there may be better options.
For convenience of checking who is at the door using the Eufy app the doorbell and Homebase work well. However, for security protection, or if you want to use other platforms such as HomeKit, Home Assistant, Scrypted, or even Google Home I wouldn't recommend it.
The doorbell, and many of their cameras have a huge security flaw. There is a "sync" button on the devices, which when pressed will remove the device from your account and effectively wipe all of the recorded footage from the HomeBase. As well as removing the footage, the potential thief can then also take the camera, and add it to their own system, or sell it on with no issues.
While the systems don't require a cloud subscription, they do require constant internet access. If you block the devices from the internet you will not be able to access the app locally over your network. From memory the cameras stopped recording after a period of being blocked from the internet too. This means that if Eufy decide to stop supporting the devices, or go out of business, the devices become a paperweight.
The devices are said to have end-to-end encryption, however Eufy hold the keys to decrypt them. That means that if Eufy employees, or a government agency requests access, they will be able to access your cameras and recordings. If Eufy accidentally give access to another Eufy user, they will also be able to access your devices/data. This kind of privacy breach has happened with Eufy in the past. Being unable to block the devices from the internet, means you have to live with these risks.
Regarding integrations, my issues with HomeKit were specifically with the Doorbell. Eufy had promised to provide HomeKit and HomeKit Secure Video (HKSV) support to the doorbell. They never delivered that promise. They do have HomeKit support on the cameras you linked to though. They also previously broke a promise to support an older automation platform called If This Then That (IFTTT).
Getting into a more advanced integration, I have set the doorbell up with a custom integration to Home Assistant (and Scrypted), but there is no RTSP or ONVIF video output so it doesn't work reliably. Even the integration with Google Home does not perform very well, and it takes over a minute to view the doorbell on a Google Nest Hub. By that time, the visitor may have already left.
So in conclusion, if you are happy to live with those compromises they are good value, but if I had my time again, I would go for something else, probably Reolink.
The doorbell, and many of their cameras have a huge security flaw. There is a "sync" button on the devices, which when pressed will remove the device from your account and effectively wipe all of the recorded footage from the HomeBase. As well as removing the footage, the potential thief can then also take the camera, and add it to their own system, or sell it on with no issues.
How do other brands like Ring or Google Nest handle the scenario where you want to reset your device or sync it to another network? The line that Eufy gave me was that this functionality is so if your home base dies or you want to swap it out, you can reset it to resync it. I've tried to find details on how other systems address that issue in a different or more secure way, but haven't been able to find any details. I'm keen to know if this is a Eufy specific issue, or if it is the same for all brands but only Eufy seem to cop flak for it.
That’s a good question, I do not know the answer.
Edit: it may be common to have a button to set up the device again, however I think it would be uncommon to erase the data on a separate device when that happens.
I don't have expert advice but I have a Google.
1. No
2. Yes