Hi all, my Unifi Doorbell just died after only 4 years of service. I’ve been pretty disheartened with them lately, other products haven’t lived up to the company’s promise.

So I’m not looking to replace my networking stack yet, but I am looking for a doorbell camera. I only have the Unifi machine, but I also have an extensive docker/kubernetes stack, and mostly I want to use it with Home Assistant.

Any recommendations? Open to software, hardware, you name it. I have a few other Unifi cameras too, if they could be brought into the fold while I slowly migrate, I’d be interested. Thanks!

  • Faceman🇦🇺@discuss.tchncs.de
    English
    3·
    5 hours ago

    I’ve tried to use a Reolink POE doorbell for a while, and while the camera itself and chimes are just fine (and I have it recording to my Unifi UDM-PRO) the actual doorbell call and chat functionality is pretty awful, high delay, poor audio, buggy.

    I know there are ways to DIY the call and chat function through HA and Frigate, but I need an app that works reliably whether my HA server is running or not so that non-technical users can figure it out and the doorbell doesnt go dead when i’m working on my servers.

    So i’m moving to one of the new unifi doorbell lites until I find a better solution, or bite the bullet and buy a higher end one.

    Perhaps I just go back to a basic doorbell, plus a separate camera and intercom system but orchestrate it with HA manually, but again, I want this to be separate from HA so it can work at any time, so it’s unifi for now.

    • canthangmightstain@lemmy.todayEnglish
      1·
      3 hours ago

      Have you thought about moving your HA off your server and onto a miniPC? I know you weren’t really looking for advice but that seems like the move to me tbh, doesn’t take long to migrate and it might clear up a lot of headaches.

      • Faceman🇦🇺@discuss.tchncs.de
        English
        1·
        1 hour ago

        it is on a separate miniPC, but that is also a proxmox box that does a couple of of other things. I did have it on a Pi4 previously but I outgrew that. might need to go back to having HA as a dedicated appliance, not running Nodered and other things on it, keep all of that on the other servers.

        my whole setup needs a rebuild soon anyway.

        • canthangmightstain@lemmy.todayEnglish
          1·
          1 hour ago

          I guess I should’ve said “on its own dedicated hardware” too but, still.

          I think I remember reading somewhere about a firmware update that was pretty recent (8/2025) specifically for latency issues, you might want to check that out if you’ve had it awhile.

          • Faceman🇦🇺@discuss.tchncs.de
            English
            1·
            1 hour ago

            yes I was on the latest firmware that only came out in the last month and even when on the same subnet it was 1-2 seconds of delay, dropouts, mic issues. I had to have the thing replaced (under warranty) at one point because the two way audio just refused to work at all.

            swapping it for the Unifi doorbell lite as soon as I get a 45 degree mount for it.

            I’ve tested it and it’s miles better, the video quality is fine too, I though it would be noticeably worse but it’s perfectly decent for a doorbell, I’ve got other cameras on the front of the house anyway.