I am looking to replace all my Nest gear now that they changed their licensing agreements and Google now has access to my video stream. Since the EufyCam 2C has local memory in the base station I thought it would record on a loop so I can scroll backward in time. But it appears that its only storing clips created based on triggers.
The problem I am trying to work around is that there are sometimes quick, sudden events that happen too fast to trigger an event, but nonetheless are important to review after the fact. And in many cases I don’t even need notifications of events, but just need to review the video from the previous day.
Am I doing something wrong, or does Eufy not support this? I really want to dump Nest/Google but having access to a stream going back several days is super important to me.
The Eufy battery cams don’t support recording without motion detection. The batteries would last about a week if they did. That’s common for all battery cameras. However, their indoor powered cameras support 24/7 recording to an sd card. You can still be notified, but can go back in the app and view the days recording. The indoor cams support up to 128 Gig card, so that’s plenty of storage.
What you give up with the indoor cams and floodlight are integration with the battery cams through the homebase. Homebase integration allows automations and modes for all connected cameras.
You could use an indoor cam to supplement in places where you want timeline recording. Others have made cases for the indoor cams or just put them in a protected location with a little silicon tape to seal the sd card slot.
Of course, I was wondering about the battery life claims. Since I can still get missed motion events than there is little value as a security device - bad guys rarely walk slowly across cameras. I guess I will be putting these camera for sale on craigslist and continuing my search for Google/Nest replacements.
If you spend some time using the motion test feature, you can dial in the Eufy cams so they don’t miss events. Also, where you place cams makes a large difference. If you can set up your devices so that motion passes across the device rather than head-on, it make a large difference in detection. I’ve had my setup dialed in for about 3 months and have caught everyone moving around the house with only a couple of false alerts.
I have even added a motion sensor, so I catch someone walking alongside the house before they get to the porch. I use that to trigger my porch cam so I get good head-on video.