Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Pretty sure that's feasible via homebridge and some tinkering. You'd need a wifi button that's triggered when someone rings the doorbell, plus a camera that starts a live feed when when the button is triggered.

I used to love tinkering. Had home bridge running on a Mac mini a while back before ditching it as most of my smart home is HomeKit (August locks, ecobee thermostat and ~14 new model sensors, Philips Hue system, MyQ garage and gate opener, Lutron Smart Hub Pro for my solar shades, homepods, and now Brilliant Tech Control Panels have finally added HomeKit albeit in beta) aside from my Control4 system in Berlin which is a whole other system. Even have a few hackintoshes I built waiting for a new Mac Pro.

I’d definitely be interested in putting together a piecemeal system yet I’m old or just burned out lol.

I could run Homebridge off one of my Mac pro’s. All I would need would be:

- A wireless doorbell
- HomeKit video camera
- A lot of time lol

There‘s definitely a market for a video camera and doorbell system that are separate pieces. Hmmmm. Any investors, engineers, designers, and coders interested? :)

Also, just remembered, Netatmo was purchased by Legrand a year or so ago. I have legrand adorne dimmers and outlets in my NY and Berlin homes. Love them. I hope this delay means the company is restructuring since the merger or acquisition. I called them last year to ask about the video doorbell and forgot the rep told me Legrand is updating their systems for HomeKit support. Right now my wireless adorne system uses a hub and is only Alexa integrated but the mobile app allows for scheduling and remote control. Perhaps this is the reason for the delay?


Legrand Acquires Smart Home Startup Netatmo

 
Last edited:
Can't power anything with a siren and real-time motion AI with a small solar panel.
[automerge]1590670375[/automerge]
The number one reason why I eventually got rid of my Presence cameras is the really small field of view. 100 degrees just isn't enough to cover a driveway or a patio - and unfortunately, they've failed to improve on that with this new version.
You can power an entire house with solar panels and Tesla Wall Power batteries. Is it your position that you can no longer do that if you have mounted one of these cameras?
 
You can power an entire house with solar panels and Tesla Wall Power batteries. Is it your position that you can no longer do that if you have mounted one of these cameras?

It requires a substantial surface area of solar panels to power a house. The one in the Ring Solar camera is 7.75" x 5.5" for a camera/light that uses less power than the Netatmo. It's less about possibility and more about added cost with dubious additional practicality. Most people will buy one, maybe two of these things to be installed where there's already a junction box for an existing light. While they could possibly have made a second option that is solar powered, my guess is they realize the market for that would be very small. Additionally Ring makes a solar 1200 lumen floodlight and a solar camera w/ 300 lumen spotlight, but not a solar camera w/ floodlight, probably because the solar panel would have to be obnoxiously large to power that much stuff.
 
Last edited:
A few years ago that company transmitted the WLAN password & SSID unencrypted to their servers- They fixed this, but never informed the customers properly. At that time I scraped my Netatmo weather station, I will never ever by one of their products again.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Wackery
and if you wonder what the siren sounds like:


it is a French product after all.
 
A few years ago I bought right into the Netatmo ecosystem. Had two thermostats fail, 2 outdoor and 1 indoor weather station units go as well.

When they added TRV's, my thermostat was limited to pairing with 5 units (I needed 18) and their customer support told me I needed the v2 thermostat. I asked them how to tell the difference was between mine and the v2 and they (eventually, as they are VERY slow to reply) told me to order a new thermostat. As far as I could tell there is no difference and no way of knowing if I had bought a later version. Seemed like a money grab to me, couldn't see why mine couldn't be updated to handle the extra TRV's. Eventually binned off the lot and went with EvoHome.

I couldn't recommend Netatmo to anyone, which is a shame as their software interface is actually very nice.
 
Last edited:
The first company to combine
- AI object identification
- in-camera buffered storage
- local subscription-free offloading of activity clips (FTP, NAS)
- doesn't crash or disconnect once per day
gets all my money.

Netatmo gets all of these right, especially the AI (essentially zero false alerts), but the price and instability of my Presense makes it tough to buy more of them.
 
A siren? By the way this unit looks also, I would say this product is more geared towards prisons than it is the consumer market.😁

I agree this doesn't need a siren, but as far as how it looks... this is the best looking AND functioning security webcam on the market, IMO. The only one that looks truely clean and functional, and not like a toy. I love it's clean modern aesthetic, and it's also quite attractive for a camera that can also replace those hideous motion-detecting flood lights. It's also one of the only outdoor webcams that allows you to record direct to Dropbox or an FTP server which doesn't require a friggin' subscription.

I've owned one of the non-siren versions of this unit for three years now, and it's worked flawlessly and still works and looks like new. What I REALLY want is the freakin' doorbell they've been promising for over a year!

Edit: I do wish they made it in white, and that they made their indoor camera in some other color than pinkish gold.
 
Last edited:
Is anyone still using Homekit ? I got the impression that Apple had little interest in it so have largely abandoned it myself. The Google and Alexa systems are becoming more the standard way to go it seems.
 
C'est impossible! In EU only les Flics can have sireens.

It's home-kitted so it's iSiren !

Can I get the model with the "Jason Bourne chase" sound? 😜
 
Is anyone still using Homekit ? I got the impression that Apple had little interest in it so have largely abandoned it myself. The Google and Alexa systems are becoming more the standard way to go it seems.

Seriously? I’m sure tons of people are using HomeKit. Do Google and Alexa ensure continued use in perpetuity like HomeKit does? Genuine question. With HomeKit communication, all data passes directly between the device and Apple’s servers. If the device manufacturer goes belly up or starts to charge a subscription, like Wink just did, everything will still work fine through HomeKit. And some companies like Chamberlain charge a subscription for all the third-party aces stuff like Alexa and Google, except specifically for HomeKit which is free. Likely because the way Apple forces device makers to implement HomeKit doesn’t allow for it.
 
A few years ago that company transmitted the WLAN password & SSID unencrypted to their servers- They fixed this, but never informed the customers properly. At that time I scraped my Netatmo weather station, I will never ever by one of their products again.
I remember that. It was among diagnostic data that was being sent back.

They did fix it and the newer generations of products are much better than that early weather station product. The cameras all use IPsec tunnels to connect back to Netatmo so there's no unencrypted data going across the net, none of your video is ever stored on Netatmo servers (though the thumbnail previews can be), and the SD cards used for internal storage are encrypted at initialization with the camera using a unique key. You can't, for example, swap the SD card into a different Welcome/Presence camera to see the content of the SD card.
 
I'd also like to move away from my Nest Hello, but Netatmo's offering won't be the answer to that issue. Their cameras aren't very secure, either. Anyone with your Netatmo creds can still view your feed, even if it's turned off in HK. Netatmo doesn't offer 2-factor authentication. And the cameras won't run without being tied to a Netatmo account - they regularly phone home. If they can't do that anymore, they disable themselves after a while until you reconnect them to a Netatmo account. There's a reddit on that somewhere. The cameras also can't be updated through HK, only through their proprietary app

Wow. Didn't know any of that. I've been waiting for the doorbell for 18 months. Now I don't know what to do. I really don't want to buy the Ring version. It wouldn't cost me any more money as I already pay them for the alarm but I really thought Netatmo were a better privacy option than Ring/Amazon. So confused now...!
[automerge]1592244216[/automerge]
I was about to make mention of that point as well. It’s the only video doorbell with HomeKit I’m interested in yet this delay usually means a product may not make it to production after all. 😑

I hope you're wrong, but it's been sooooo long that I fear you might be right. ☹️
 
It's not often you can return to a thread 3 months after posting and add a new comment that'll appear immediately after the last comment you posted there.

Netatmo have announced the video doorbell is coming out next week! It's only taken them nearly 2 years but it's great news. So pleased I didn't give in and buy a Ring spying-doorbell instead
 
Well not sure that netatmo is a good long term investment. I am on my second camera and it has just stopped again, They work for a year or so then just die which is not acceptable for a £300 camera.
Netatmo will not take the second camera back for a replacment as the original camera they replaced is over a year old.

they are great cameras but i wouldnt buy anything Netatmo now as they dont last long outside.

The only other option is ring but im not a fan and want something with homekit.

Glad i didnt buy any other netatmo products (stay clear)
 
Netatmo have announced the video doorbell is coming out next week! It's only taken them nearly 2 years but it's great news. So pleased I didn't give in and buy a Ring spying-doorbell instead

I was waiting too and hope their doorbell come soon. Got email from them say it coming next week. Was starting to wonder consider different brand doorbell. Problem none seem have good option I want. Ring well known have staff see what on video etc, Nest Hello have Google and subscription get full feature out of it mean pay extra and both not HomeKit. Netatmo have all I want, good doorbell, no subcription, free video access and ALL of features and HomeKit.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SaxPlayer
Not at launch but will add later update. They been do that same for other camera.
That's lame though. They promised HKSV for my Netatmo security cam - haven't seen that yet....apple should just make these themselves with this slow adoption.
 
That's lame though. They promised HKSV for my Netatmo security cam - haven't seen that yet....apple should just make these themselves with this slow adoption.

Yeah I agree they very slow add new HomeKit stuff but at least they do keep their word even take feels like forever! I remember waiting indoor camera have normal HomeKit add in and waited for ages finally update came in end. Many companies promise and never deliver.
 
  • Like
Reactions: xpxp2002
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.