Video door bells

[dinny_g]

Another good use for Video Doorbells - discouraging dodgy fuckers...

I was on my way back from walking to the shops and my phone tells me someones at the door - Motion Detected though, rather than actually ringing the bell.

From a distance I see the chap leaving the drive to talk to his mate in the van - some sort of Roofing company but by their accents, of Irish decent and no fixed abode.

So I get in and check the footage - sure enough, he walks up to the door, sees the ring bell, turns his back, uses the door knocker and then proceeds to walk half way out to the gate to wait. Didn't want to be filmed...

Sneaky bastard...

[Mito Man]

It is surprising what you see people get up to with these cameras. Over the years I’ve seen a few dodgy people walk up, have a good nosey around, notice the camera and then sharply make a U-turn.
The younger chavs steer clear of them too now so it’s a win win.

[Beany]

We’ve quite often come back from being out and found packages left on the front door. Having a camera won’t stop them going missing but will prove that they actually attempted to deliver.

We have also had an argument with a courier company who claimed no one was in then took a photo of a random gate down the road to prove it

I don’t particularly want a doorbell, but it seems a subtle unobtrusive way to have a camera keeping an eye on the front of the house and the cars parked there.

We have a St Bernard for that!

Does your St Bernard draw flipbook animations of dodgy fuckers outside?

[Zonda_]

We’ve quite often come back from being out and found packages left on the front door. Having a camera won’t stop them going missing but will prove that they actually attempted to deliver.

We have also had an argument with a courier company who claimed no one was in then took a photo of a random gate down the road to prove it

I don’t particularly want a doorbell, but it seems a subtle unobtrusive way to have a camera keeping an eye on the front of the house and the cars parked there.

We have a St Bernard for that!

Does your St Bernard draw flipbook animations of dodgy fuckers outside?

When she opens up with her barking the dodgy fucker don't hang round for long!

[Jobbo]

Blink review now I've had the cameras up a little while. I have one looking at a patio which is about 16ft square, one looking at our front drive and one looking at our back garden. The 4th is looking at you right now.

I'm very happy with the resolution despite them only being 1080p, and the focus and ability to capture images at all times of night and day. I've set them all to trigger on motion (no excluded areas) and to record 15s of footage, or stop sooner if the motion ends.

All of them don't record the initial movement which triggers them; it's possible for something to pass through the view completely, triggering a recording where nothing is visible. So there's a bit of a wake-up lag.

The one covering the patio is doing a good job of capturing anything which comes into shot and doesn't go out of it straight away. It is triggered by birds, cats and foxes; it does seem to be triggered quite a bit by birds landing on the eaves directly above, but since the eaves woodwork is painted black the camera doesn't immediately catch the eye - it feels like I've got the positioning pretty much bang on and don't intend to move it.

The one covering the drive is mounted above the end of the garage, facing just our drive and back to the house. I think the movement sensor is quite hampered by parking our cars in front of it so I increased the sensitivity. It's still quite possible for me or my wife to come out of the door and through the side gate without triggering the motion sensor at all. It does get triggered occasionally by a car passing in the road (only just visible at the very top left corner of the image) during the night. Not been triggered by any cat movement or any other animals

The one covering the back garden is mounted at eaves height. I put it in a 90 degree corner above the garden gate thinking that would allow a good view up to both walls and the garden in between. It seems sufficiently sensitive to pick up anyone going through the garden gate and appearing underneath it, but it's not possible to angle it down far enough to pick up anything but the top of their head if they don't walk further into the garden. I've picked up a cat twice on this one, though I would have expected more. The big issue is that the range for the motion sensor isn't that great, so walking across the grass further away from the camera doesn't get picked up. I might try increasing the sensitivity, but there is a second issue: I've managed to mount it exactly where spiders like to construct webs. If I sweep the web away with a broom there's another constructed the same night - quite impressive to watch the infra-red footage, but not very useful

So I'll probably move the drive and garden ones, but my initial feeling is that they're better for smaller or enclosed spaces, or directly monitoring a doorway, perhaps.

We did leave them inside the house while we were away for the night (to my stepdaughter's chagrin, since she was home) and realised we could talk to the cats on live view. Which led to amusing cat nose curiosity. But I don't want cameras in my house, fun as that was.

[Jobbo]

Last night’s web

[integrale_evo]

I’m pretty pleased with the cameras, there is a slight delay and worse from some angles than others. I’ve attached one the the bracket of an existing floodlight and it works really well. Set zones so the neighbours heads and our plant blowing in the wind don’t trigger it.


The second one isn’t quite so good, it’s twisted as far as the bracket allows, fine in the day but gets some IR glare at night. Would be better spaced out a little I think. Also seems less sensitive and slower to wake to movement. I wonder if that’s linked to the position.

Doorbell less good. I was expecting the alert system to be more customisable, need another chime of some sort inside as at the moment an old fashioned knock on the door was easier to hear throughout the house. Still handy to see who’s been. I’m not totally happy with the position either, I’ve put it where it fits and looks best as a doorbell, but that means about 1/3rd of the camera is recording the wall it’s up against. I don’t want to angle it more and invade the neighbours privacy. At the moment it can see their cars parked, but won’t trigger until they move across the shared access. At night it gets so much IR glare from the wall you can’t see anything with it. Maybe it would work if someone actually approaches the door. Wonder if there’s something I can do to block some of the ir output not to shine on the wall.

[Jobbo]

Another one.

[Beany]

Apparently spraying some grease (something like lithium or silicone grease - something that will stick around for a while) stops spiders from setting foot - might be worth a try?

[Jobbo]

They're not on the actual camera - I've just chosen my locations badly so they're in corners where spiders like to construct webs. Might give it a squirt of WD40 anyway

[mik]

I use silicone spray round my cameras - it’s effective for a few months at a time

[Beany]

I need to do the same around literally all my fecking windows on the house, I'm sick of brushing webs and eggsacks off them.

[Jobbo]

Blink Outdoor cameras are heavily discounted at Amazon currently. Since we are happily keeping track of our cats with them, I’ve ordered 4 more

[Rich B]

I got a Eufy doorbell this week - there was £15 off on Amazon. I have to say, I'm impressed.

So far it does everything I want/expected, and for £85 with no monthly sub it was a bit of a bargain really. Video and sound quality is great, it was easy to set up - job done.

[Jobbo]

You don’t need to pay a monthly sub on the Blink cameras, but oddly I haven’t been pursued to pay anything for cloud storage anyway.

[scotta]

Blink Outdoor cameras are heavily discounted at Amazon currently. Since we are happily keeping track of our cats with them, I’ve ordered 4 more

Ive got two of those - quite impressed with them.

[simon_g]

Reolink have one coming, key thing for me is option of wired ethernet (and powered over it too) as well as a wifi model.

https://store.reolink.com/video-doorbells/

Been very happy with their cameras that have the AI person/vehicle detection - that plus a blocked zone in the frame means I get a phone notification as soon as someone steps on the driveway but not from people on the pavement, bushes moving in the wind or the neighbour's cat.

[DaveE]

I've been wondering about a smart doorbell for a while

But we've never had a doorbell, so we don't have any of the wiring

So we'd need a battery one

The Arlo one looks pretty good

Something that annoys me is that these still seem to be using micro USB

In 2022

I'd expect everything to be USB-C nowadays...

[KevH18]

Blink Outdoor cameras are heavily discounted at Amazon currently. Since we are happily keeping track of our cats with them, I’ve ordered 4 more

Ordered one from Argos with a free indoor camera for £50. Thanks for the recommendation