Has anyone tried connecting a solar panel to the Eufy battery powered doorbell?
I’m thinking of buying one but the idea of taking off the doorbell every month or so (even every 4 months if it’s that good) is putting me off from buying it.
Can it be done? If so can anyone recommend one? Micro usb or hard wired?
It’s either this or the Ring door bell 3…
Support informed me that it can’t be charged. Im not sure if that means it cant at all or if they dont support it? However if you did hardwire a solar panel, 6v 3w 500ma ish.thats bound to trickle charge it?
Oh well, i may just go to Ring…shame really as i liked this door bell from user reviews.
Amazon just delivered the solar panel I ordered and I’ve plugged it into my 2c with an extra long micro usb cable (panel has a usb socket), it’s working/charging just fine, same specs as you put in your post, it cost 10 bucks, I can link if you like. As soon as the 2c is charged to 100 I will pull my doorbell and see if it will charge that too.
Edit: specs are 6.1 watts, 5-6v, 1A
Can you post a link.
I’ve tried two solar panels and it never charged the 2c cam properly. The blue led draws power and over a period of a week the charge was going down.
One solar panel was 5v and the other 3.5v I think (Ring solar panel for spotlight cam).
Interesting, the blue light is on and the camera is at 99% now. If it ticks to 100% I’ll link it. I’ll turn it off to see which way it goes.
Here is my post about solar : Eufy cam 2c on solar panel with pics?
Keep it on and connected for a week and see how it goes.
It worked, topped the 2c off to 100%, I just switched it to my doorbell which is at 63% right now so I will see what it’s at in about an hour if I don’t get distracted again.
Thanks for linking your post, I see you are in England, I checked amazon there but didn’t see the same brand but did see something similar that had specs at least as good as mine. The one on amazon here was $10.99, [Solar panel](Soshine Mini Solar Panel 6v 6w Solar Panel Charger - USB Solar Panel with High Performance Monocrystalline for Bicycle,Cellphone,Power Bank（not for iPhone） Amazon.com)
I don’t think the one in your post has enough output. I see that you are handy and you are able to convert the fittings to what you need so there’s something that will work for you. I got some long micro usb cables for mine, 16 (x2) and 30ft (1) also about 10 bucks on amazon, they just plug right in as a charger. The cords are flat so I could run them through a door just as easily. I will be using a light socket adapter to plug them in my carriage lamps that are near the cameras where I don’t need solar.
I’m in Oklahoma so it’s much sunnier here than where you are (I’m from Doncaster, Yorkshire), but I reckon If you get a panel with same or better specs it will work for you.
Eufy are likely coming out with one soon, probably, in which case I will buy it. But until then…
When the doorbell is full I will move it to another 2c and leave it up to see how it goes when it’s actually on duty to see if the blue charge light has a drain effect. Weird that even when I turn off status light in the settings that that one comes on when it’s charging, it’s just not needed 
Cheers!
Thanks for the update. Glad it worked for you. Do keep an eye on it.
The backyard doesn’t get motion so I expect the battery to last a while but I was used to having a solar on the Ring.
I’ll try and get a 6v or higher one and see.
Thanks
In the last hour or so the charge on the doorbell went from 63 to 65%, which is more than enough for the trickle charge for that unit. It was between 4-5pm, mostly sunny with some clouds
I will put it on the other 2c tomorrow and see how it goes into next week. That cam gets a lot of activity, road and entry facing with amazon deliveries, Uber eats/door dash and all that fun quarantine friendly stuff. If that camera manages to increase a charge or even hold its own with the solar help I think I will be happy.
Watching this with interest, thanks for the info
Just put it on the garage 2c, it’s a cloudy/overcast day but the blue charging light came on as soon as I plugged it in.
It’s just after 9am, current charge is 71%, I’ll have a look at it later on to see if it’s shifted any.
An hour later it’s gone from 71% to 77%, it’s not even sunny. That’s with the recording of the amazon delivery that came twice.
Hoping to chalk this one up as a win this afternoon.
Can I ask you guys to check back with us in a month or so? I am tired of charging the 2Cs every 3 months. Thanks for posting your solution to battery limitation!
I will, but it’s looking great as is, the 2c is at 91% now, up 20% in just over 3 hours, which is way beyond my expectations. That’s with the camera being on duty for deliveries and of course my head setting it off umpteen times as I pottered around with other stuff and plugging the cable in.
It looks like I’m going to have to tuck the panel away where it only gets the chance to charge for maybe a couple of hours a day. The sun came out a bit but it was cloudy most of the morning. I will probably have to move it to another spot in winter to keep the performance.
Very pleased.
I will do a thread later maybe with the 3 solutions for battery charging I’m using.
Hi i bought the Eufy battery doorbell. I hardwired in a Reotek solar panel 6V, 3.2W 0.530ma solar panel. By the time i set it all up, it was late, overcast and i couldnt tell if the doorbell was charging. I dont think its going to work at all.
Im going to see if by tomorrow it charges the doorbell…at least trickle charge it.
I didnt want to use the ring and im glad i didnt.
Sorry all, which Solar panel should i go for if the one i have doesnt work. Im based in the UK.
Btw, input 1 draws 8-24v but 0.05Amps. Is that right??? I would have thought it would draw way more current.
Thanks all.
Dav
Hi Dav,
My original thought was to hard wire the panel to the doorbell using the contacts on the back of it.
Smooth (also posting in here) advised me not to do that because the doorbell transformers are ac and a usb socketed panel (Dc) like I’m using might cause problems, so I went ahead and hard wired it to the house yesterday in a sad rage, lol. Smooth had lower specs than the one on my panel and it did not work for him on the 2c. See his thread he linked above.
The solar panel I have is amazing for anything that you can charge with a usb cable though, extremely happy with it for everything else. Best $11 tech I’ve spent for a while.
Hey thanks for the reply.
So does that mean i need to plug any type of solar panel into the usb port instead?
Regards
Dav.
I believe so, the panel charges that just fine. The problem there is that you will have to build a recess in behind the doorbell/ mounting house to make the cable fit. You will also have to mod the mount because the usb socket is right where the top screw is or glue mount it or something. It depends on the space you have to work with.
I started to do that, I was going to fit in a usb cable with a right angled connection, as I got my drill out to make a hole I discovered where the old doorbell wires were, the previous owner must have had them disabled. After I dug out all the filler and cleaned them up I got the wires and connected them, charges great and even rings the old doorbell chimes which are still hung in the hall.
I have no idea why the doorbell had been disconnected and filled in and painted over, I guess they used a wireless doorbell or something or just relied on the knocker. I had previously looked 3 times to find the wires and couldn’t, until I got ready to start drilling. I got lucky.
There are advantages to using the house transformer or one like Smooth got, the camera stays on all the time and ‘should’ be more responsive and the doorbell will show as hardwired in the app. Smooth drilled through his doorframe to get the wires to connect.
For the doorbell, I recommend the ac adaptor if you don’t have existing doorbell wires & transformer.
AC adapter is pretty cheat £10/$10-15.
I couldn’t get two solar panel to work and one of them is Ring solar panel for spotlight cam. I have a usb multimeter and both panels delivered decent volts (4.5-6v in the sun) and amps (upto 500-1200ma).
I’m pretty certain that eufy needs to add solar support on their cameras so that it can trickle feed charge all year around.
Thanks both. I don’t have for bell wires. But i do have some thing security related by the front door that needs power.
I could ask my electrician / cctv guy to take a spur off the wires for that and provide wires fir my door bell via a transformer?