I have been researching smart video doorbells. I have read good reviews about the Eufy products, but I am confused about something. My existing doorbell works, and has 22 volts AC available, so I very much want a wired doorbell. I also want as much local storage as possible. From what I have been able to gather, the Eufy battery-powered doorbell has a base station that can use an SD card up to 128GB in size, while the Eufy wired doorbell is limited to 4GB of EMMC stotage in the device. Why the difference? Why not simplify the products, and include the same base station with both products? Why needlessly make things so complicated? It sounds like what I want is the Eufy wired doorbell with the base station that goes with the battery-powered version, but I don’t think this is possible.
The two doorbells are meant for difference audiences. The wired doorbell is meant as a single, standalone video doorbell to replace your existing wired doorbell.
The battery doorbell (which can be wired to charge the batteries) is meant for users who want to add more Eufy devices such as cameras, sensors, locks, etc. The Homebase works with the battery doorbell, cameras, sensors, keypads and locks to provide more storage and tie the devices together for automations and switching modes.
You can buy the battery doorbell that comes with Homebase 2 and then add the other stuff later. I did exactly that and now have a total of 13 devices running on my homebase.
I appreciate the response. No offense, but this seems a little short-sighted. You would think that someone installing a wired doorbell would actually be more likely to want to install other devices, since a wired doorbell evokes permanence.
I just bought the wired version I am contemplating returning it for the inability to access the data only via their app and to increase the storage size greater than 4GB. Why?
I don’t know anything about the first part, but I do know that the wired version has 4GB of EMMC storage in the unit itself and that cannot be expanded in any way, as the wired version cannot use the smart Homebase 2. The wired version communicates directly with a router and not through a base station.
Some clarifications
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The original homebase used an SD card that could hold up to 128GB
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homebase 2 that now comes with the new battery cameras and wireless doorbell has a fixed 16GB eMMC with 14.7 GB of usable space. There was a promise of enabling the USB port for external storage but as of now it can only charge devices.
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There are actually 2 wired doorbells. The normal one you can get anywhere that has the 4GB eMMC. There is a Best Buy exclusive that has a 32GB eMMC
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/eufy-security-wired-2k-video-doorbell/6425487.p?skuId=6425487
How can I access the data using a 3rd party app or NAS as I need to store the data to an external location more secure than the built-in (4|32)GB storage space? I don’t want to keep drilling holes on my siding. This device feels more like a false sense of security without a backup and saving to a phone is simply too manual and not practical.
@pca20, I believe as of now there is no way unless you heavily modify things. I have seen some really tech savvy users in here use packet sniffers to try and reroute the traffic when the data is requested through the app.
That is one of the reason why I went with the Wireless Version. At least the data is stored in the homebase2 inside the house as opposed to the unit itself.
I wanted the preroll of the wired versions to reduce lag from triggers but I just didn’t like the data being stored on the unit. I also saw the other cams that use the homebase2 support RTSP. So there is minor hope they add RTSP to the firmware of the wireless version. Though Eufy is known to promise new features but then never fulfill.
@gmogoody8 It’s sad that they would create several versions of the same device with such deficiencies. I guess I will return it. Thanks for the feedback.