OK, I got my first Reolink doorbell (Wi-Fi version) 2 weeks ago to be installed at the front door. Opened the breaker for the doorbell transformer and re-routed the 20VAC doorbell secondary transformer wiring to bypass the existing chime and sent power straight to the front doorbell and to the side doorbell (I'll get to that install shortly).
On the bench, with the Reolink plugged into a furnished 12VDC wall wart, I linked the front doorbell to the 5Ghz from a Netgear AP in the living room that will be just 4 feet away from the doorbell's mounting place. The Wi-Fi from the Netgear will be penetrating drywall and a 2" x 4" fiberglass insulated wall with brick veneer. I logged into the doorbell's webGUI, enabled RTMP and changed its IP setting from DHCP to static and gave it a unique IP outside my router's DHCP pool. Set up
Blue iris using RTMP from a drop-down menu for Reolink RLC-410, et al (Thanks,
@David L !). Unplugged the Reolink from the wall wart, as it will be powered by the existing 20VAC doorbell wiring.
Using the furnished template, I drilled 2 holes in the mortar joint, tapped in the furnished plastic anchors and mounted the included angle adapter to the wall. Then I screwed the metal bracket to the angle adapter, also using furnished screws, then after forming loops in the 2 solid wires and coating them with dielectric grease, I attached them to the 2 screws on back of the doorbell. Lastly, I mounted the Reolink onto the metal bracket with a "click". A pin-like key is furnished that you put into a hole in the bottom and push upward to un-latch the doorbell from the bracket. I closed the breaker feeding the doorbell transformer and by the time I got into the house and looked at BI's screen it was ‘up.’
I'm impressed....and I'm not easily impressed. The mechanical side and the networking/electrical side of the install went off without a hitch. I admit it's not a long time but it's been rock steady for 2 weeks now. I configured the motion detection in Blue Iris and it works but as usual, I'll be tweaking that as the days pass just as any other camera. I plugged the furnished chime into a 120VAC wall receptacle in the living room about 20 feet away and it works great.
I chose wireless mainly because of the brick.....I just didn't want drill the mortar joint and attempt to fish CAT-5e/6 cable for POE into an outside wall and up into the attic with fiberglass batting for insulation. I won't go into the boring details but I'm not physically able to do it these days and it's next to impossible to get anyone around here to do it to my satisfaction. I'm too used to doing projects like this myself after being burned so many times by dishonesty, incompetency or having to do re-work and/or cleanup after someone's poor workmanship.
My second reason for wireless is lightning. I'm sure after 9 years on IPCT some of you have read my tales of how much equipment I've lost here in NW Alabama because of a former 60 foot stretch of CAT-5e in my attic sucking up the ESD / static from nearby strikes and destroying motherboards, switches, AP's and PC Ethernet ports. I replaced that attic run of CAT-5e with Multimode Duplex 50/125um fiber and TP-LINK media converters at both ends in the fall of '22 (man, I need to write that up, too) so it would be foolish and a step backward IMO to pull in and use CAT cable up in there again.
Because I was so pleased with the first unit I ordered a second one and last week, after setting up and testing on the bench as I did with the first one, I installed it at the side door. It's also Wi-Fi and is hooked up to the 5GHz from a TP-LINK AP about 12 feet away in the utility closet where the ISP's fiber modem is located, along with the electrical panel and the water heater.
The TP-LINK's 5GHz has little trouble going through the same brick, located between a metal exterior door and a metal, double-wall insulated garage door, apparently.
Below are a few pictures because unlike the front door install the side door install posed a couple of challenges. First, 17 years of direct sun, UV and rain on the pushbutton had taken its toll on the 2 solid bell wires. The copper was corroded and the insulation split and cracked. I straightened them, burnished the exposed copper with crocus cloth, put some shrink tubing over the length to cover the insulation breakdown, formed a small loop to affix directly to the 2 screws on the back of the doorbell and lastly, generously coated them with dielectric grease.
As you can see, because of where the wire exited and its length I was limited as to how much I could move the mount up or down for the optimum view; the lower brick sticking out further than the one above it didn't help matters much either, especially since the face of these bricks is VERY rough. I was able to chip away on the lower brick’s superficial clay layer just a bit to lower the camera view sufficiently but no amount would prevent the gap behind the bracket because of the recessed mortar joint. That's OK though, as you will see that duct seal came to the rescue to keep moisture and especially our industrious dirt daubers from getting behind the bracket and into the backside of the doorbell. It's not too ugly, IMO...and when forced to make a choice I prefer function over form. You can see that I did not need nor use the angle bracket here. I will likely in the near future try to angle it down a tad, here as well as at the front doorbell.
I connected the wires, snapped the Reolink on, closed the breaker feeding the doorbell transformer and again, by the time I got into the house and looked at BI's screen there it was...just as easy as the first one.
I plugged the furnished chime into a 120VAC wall receptacle in the kitchen about 30 feet away from the side doorbell, selected a tone that is different from the front doorbell, tested, it all works great. Both doorbell cameras work great, no drop outs, the video stream is smooth, the chimes work great, the Reolink app on my Moto G Stylus 5G (Android) works great, including 2-way audio between the doorbells and the phone. I have absolutely nothing negative to say about this Reolink doorbell setup. It's been a long time since I've had a small project like this go so smoothly and turn out so well. Frankly, I’m still skeptical and as I said before, time will tell. But I can say if anyone has been on the fence about a wireless video doorbell and has hesitated because they've been reading about issues with chimes, not working with Blue Iris, the app’s slow and doesn’t work, etc....take the plunge and get one.
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The Reolink has been a good replacement for my Hikvision DB. Still wish it had WDR or BLC but I have been able to adjust things to get around this.
