I just finished set up my Eufy homebase 3 with doorbell 2 and Solarcamera S330 2 months ago. The homebase in the entrance, doorbell at my front door and the camera a bit further away at the garage.
I had to use a wifi repeater to get signal to the camera but everything was working perfectly.
Until last weekend, the camera suddenly went offline. Nothing changed in my house setup, no stuff changed that can disrupt the signal. So I went and checked the camera, it has power so removed it from the base. Moved closer to the house and suddenly there is connection again. Apparently the wifi signal is not strong enough. Now I started testing how far I could go before the signal drops out and found I can go halfway through the backyard to my garage, while before it would reach the garage easy.
So the easy solution was to move the repeater to the cleaning room just 5 meters away from the camara location on the garage. But I was surprised there still was not enough signal for a connection.
Then again I tried which distance was close enough for signal, and while walking towards the repeater I got a strong signal with around 300K/s speed. But when I turn around facing towards the garage, so away from the repeater, the signal drops and the camera livefeed cuts off. When I turn back again towards the repeater the connection is back again.
So I found that I can easily reproduce and solve the issue by turning the camera around at exactly the same position. Facing towards the router makes connection, facing the opposite side breaks the connection up.
Therefor I was wondering, could it be possible the camera has 2 wifi antennas, one back one forth, and the back facing antenna could be defect?
Is there some other explanation to this issue? It seems the wifi signal is strong enough, on my phone I have full signal and a quick connection. Also the camera is working good facing the direction of the repeater.
Does anyone have a clue what could be wrong? Thanks in advance for helping.
Wait, am I wrong? Did I read your post incorrectly… I thought the S330 solar cam can only connect to the HomeBase3 using its own Wi-Fi not a Wi-Fi repeater.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding how the system works. Anyway I have a router and repeater. I connect the homebase to either one of them and it works.
I was expecting the camera and doorbell also to connect directly to those since it seems their signal is depending on the repeater location. But I did not investigate how this works, it’s just an assumption.
So do you say they are directly connected to homebase?
An update from my side. When the camera was offline I connected homebase to the wifi router and then the camera came online again. Then o connected it back to the repeater, the camera is still online and the problem seems to be solved.
I’m pretty confident about the signal issue as I described in my first post but I can’t explain why the system is working again. The only reason I can imagine is that there is a rear facing wifi antenna in the camera that was not working and somehow started working again.
One detail is that I have a internet cable plugged into my homebase all the time and additionally it’s connected to my wifi.
Yes, your S330 & Doorbell connect directly via Wi-Fi to the homebase 3. The homebase 3 transmits its own Wi-Fi signal to communicate with them. The closer the homebase is to the cameras the stronger the signal to them will be.
When you first set up the HB3 an internet cable (ethernet cable) is required. After that you have the option to connect it to your home’s Wi-Fi if you need to.
Like if your internet cable isn’t long enough where you want to place the HB3.
You don’t need to have both connected at the same time, it’s one or the other. I would stay with the internet cable for a stable connection.
Yes, there could be an issue with the camera antenna.
Your S330 cameras cannot talk directly to your router or use a wifi repeater. They only talk to the Homebase 3, which then communicates through your router or repeater to the internet.
Cameras and Homebase do use the same 2.4 Ghz band as wifi band, but use their own proprietary protocol to communicate.
Your Homebase talks to the Eufy app using your router or repeater with Wifi or directly to the router using the Lan port.
Eufy does make powered cams that communicate using standard 802.11 Wifi and don’t require a Homebase, but the S330 don’t function in that mode.
Thanks, that clarifies a lot. But also it does not explain the behavior I had with the camera.
Anyway it’s fixed now and did not occur anymore so I guess it was temporary.
