Anyone using Cat Pet Feeder?

Any brand to recommend? As only branded model is from Xiaomi, others never heard off.

Thanks

no but here is a video

it worked.



this is what it looked like originally before



this is how it looks now after electrician worked his magic







took out the not used stuff, to fit in the black box thing.

doobell chime works. doorbell cam works on wifi.

electrician knew what he was doing unlike most others. though he admit he isn't a techie, but once i showed him the reolink doorbell installation instructions/diagrams, and also eagles explanation, he knew exactly what to do.


If you need help to do this in PJ, selangor area, u can call ah chan who i asked to do this for me. price is quite reasonable. unlike other so called electricians that want you to pay them for consultation first to check before saying they can do. i explained the situation to chan over whatsapp the problem, then he confirm first he can do it, before i agree to give him the job to come over and fix it. so if u want an electrician that does his job without shaking u down for your moneys worth, then yeah i recommend this guy.





special thanks to eagle7 (and others who posted useful tips) for the kind assist learned a lot.


*update

tested cam, it worked while not at home using data on mobile. at home can work on wifi.

can do continuous recording but i opted not to. just stuck with the record on motion detect. the triggered event recordings worked. can also video call people who ring the doorbell whether u r at home or not.

my only criticism is, the camera does not have enough vertical, so i cannot see packages at feet level which is unfortunate.

so is this reolink doorbell the perfect doorbell cam? almost. the only reason its not perfect is because it doesnt have DUAL cam, or the very minimum vertical resolution to be able to capture packages at feet level which for me would have been amazing/useful to have since i get a lot of packages.

I can only rely on trigger events that someone showed, then use that to check the front door whether they left package on floor at the front door or not. rather being able to see the package itself.



some doorbell cams like eufy has an amazing dual cam that does just that (they have 2 cams, and they split the view for top and bottom which makes a lot of sense). but it's not perfect either. i almost went with that, but there was somethings i did not like about it

PS: i remember why i didnt like eufy. For self hosted storage, the only option was to use their expensive hub to do that. Reolink however has the option for FTP to self host the footage without the need for hubs. The downside i think was, you cannot view those saved footage to ftp via the reolink mobile app if not mistaken. If you want to do that, u have to buy reolinks NVR OR hub for self storage.

Right now i am storing on SD card, but for security purposes this is not ideal, because the robber can just yank out the doorbell and take the sd card along with the door bell with them.

Reolink also has another advantage that it has amazing third party support for things like home assistant and frigate self hosting. i didnt bother to setup for that. I'm fine just using reolinks default mobile app. It just works.


black reolink doorbell which is what i use has a 4:3 aspect ratio. It has a wide camera, but cannot see feet for parcels. The white version which is supposedly newer, uses a 3:4 aspect ratio, so less wide, but it can see packages at feet level on doorstep.

Then there is the newer reolink with lithium battery, that one also can view packages at feet level.

People thought reolink had a new doorbell in CES 2025, but they didn't If possible i think a dual cam similar to what Eufy does would have been great if reolink made it.

Anyway this black reolink, the video quality looks ok to me. voice is ok. lighting seems ok. Motion events get triggered too much (you can adjust settings but not sure whats best for this) so i disable record motion detection, and instead only record ring doorbell or detect person. After that the recording saved looked much better. Before i got too many unecessary recordings which i had to use filter for human/doorbell ring to find saved recordings. Anyway got it in a good working setting

notifications works (whether on wifi at home, or when ur remote using data on mobile). if someone rings doorbell it will give u a call like window so u can opt to answer or not (it looks similar as if somebody called your phone, which is nice). If it simply detects motion or person, it will just send a simple notification telling u a trigger happen. Then i can click the short notification to see the video recording for the trigger. So very nice (if u dont want notifications, you can turn that off. but i dont mind and its helpful to me so i left it on which is the default)

My cam faces someone else window in the distance, so i didnt want triggers for that, so i set a ignore area in the reolink setting, so that is nice.


if u want to make final adjustment for the reolink doorbell, you may need to resort to custom made mounting to adjust angle




right now my only downside is since i cant see if package is on floor at doorstep, i can only rely on people trigger, then once i see that, i can open door and check if there is a package or not. not ideal. so if u dont want that sort of experience, look for a doorbell cam that has a aspect ratio that covers feet level to avoid this situation.

for me i prioritized a wider angle because i wasnt sure whether 3:4 was going to be enough vs 4:3 This is why dual cam is better



im not 100% sure but i think eufy only does wifi 2.4 whereas the reolink does BOTH 2.4 and 5ghz band. My doorbell is set to auto to pick between the 2. This was another reason i went with the reolink.

reolink is good but i think they are falling behind against other doorbell in regards to dual cam and perhaps more advanced AI features. So if you are in the market looking for a doorbell, pay close attention to that.

Both Eufy and reolink DO NOT require paid subscriptions (exception is if u need rich notifications, then they do have a subscription for that, but its totally optional). I would only recommend doorbell cams that have a similar policy like these 2.

I think there was some controversy about rich notifications, if you want that you got to pay subscription for it. but for reolink it notify me got someone, i click it, i am brought to the saved recording. If i want to create a picture snapshot to save as pic, i can create it then when needed. so honestly i dont need rich notifications. Also how they do rich notifications is to save screenshots on the cloud WHICH I DO NOT WANT, and defeats the purpose of self hosting.

But if you insist on rich notifications, i read there was a work around so you didn't have to pay for subscription to get it. I think it involved using home assistant or frigate to self host to set that up. It's a bit complicated, for me just wasnt worth the effort just for that.


for self hosted recordings (in regard to reolink and eufy), the easiest is install the sd card on doorbell cam. I already mentioned this is not ideal from a security point perspective. but its the cheapest and easist method.

Next method is NVR or hub. These are additional purchases (not cheap). With it u can add a ssd or hard drive (depending on if u r going eufy or reolink, they are different), it will save ur recorded videos to this which u can keep in your home/office (this is what i would recommend).

There is a third option where u can self host without purchasing additional nvr or hub. For reolink they got FTP option or third party option to record onto those solutions. I already mentioned downside u cannot use the reolink mobile app to video these saved recordings if u opt for those.


There is also cloud, but i didn't look into this. I suspect subscriptions may be involved. Also from a privacy standpoint, i would not want my recordings on cloud. I rather self host.


the only recurring costs for me is the power supplied to the doorbell. For storage it only records during triggered events, so im not using continuous recording though u can set that up on reolink if u want that (but it will use up storage space even faster. old footage gets re-written over once u use up all storage space). So the only main cost was my initial purchase of the doorbell cam. It exactly cheap but for some level of security deterrence and awareness of my surroundings (even when i'm asleep or away from home), i think its worth the expense.

Also because i power it via wired (to the box shown in screenshot), i dont have to suffer the hassle of removable battery powered doorbells where for those u have to recharge manually by removing the lithium battery to charge, every month or so i heard. If you want hassle free, just setup doorbell to be powered via wired is better imho.


This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 24 2025, 07:58 AM

there r interesting third party projects using reolink doorbell cam paired with their reolink hub to block internet access


https://www.reddit.com/r/reolinkcam/comment...ub_disable_uid/

https://www.reddit.com/r/reolinkcam/comment..._doorbell_wifi/

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 24 2025, 12:46 PM

Hi all, my Google Nest Hub 2nd Gen just died on me. After checking with seller from Shopee, they only provide 3 month's warranty from date of purchase, but checking directly with Google, device is still under warranty, but cannot claim RMA from them since they don't ship to MY. Any electronics repair shop in Klang Valley able to repair IoT and smart gadget devices? Went to Digital Mall PJ this morning but all of them don't do smart devices repair, mostly Macbooks and Apple stuffs only. Any leads as to where I can bring this to be repaired is greatly appreciated.

Do you still have return back to US? If they offer replacement can use forwarder service

Yeah, it seems that I have to resort to using forwarder service from SG to MY, since Google US can only send to SG as the nearest point. Any ideas how much is roughly the cost for using this forwarder service? Do I have to apply for SIRIM beforehand as well?

So they’ll send a replacement to SG instead?
There’s gimworld, but I haven’t use their service yet
No need to apply sirim

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. Looks like there are a lot of hassles in getting this sorted. Hope the shipping from MY to US doesn't cost a fortune then, else it's not even worth it to do RMA in the first place.

I don’t think it’s worth it if you need to send back to us. It’s gotten way to expensive now

I wonder how was the power consumption for LED stripe light automation, like it was on 24/7 right? But it was connected 240V whole day, but i think dont have cost issue right?

https://i.imgur.com/71d9oV7.mp4

You mean the lights are on 24/7 or the controller to lights are on 24/7?

The controller

controller standby watt is very minimum, usually less few watts. dont need to worry at all

Alright thank you!

I have super newbie questions 🙇‍♂️ would like to ask:

1) Are smart switches able to wire for 2 way, specifically smart switch for water heater? One of the smart switch vendors I spoke to suggested that I use app scene/automation function to mimic 2 way switch function instead, I'm not sure if this is recommended...

2) From my understanding, most smart switches are not compatible with DC fans. Would like to ask anyone's experience, do IR/RF blasters work well with remote controlled KDK fans?

First you need a smart home 'system' in your house.

Then, with a smart home system, you can add those WiFi switches appropriate to your item. Then you can link sensors, additional switches, scenes to activate it. Example you can use a sensor to activate the water heater switch. Some expert home they rarely press any switches.
Even my mom's home I automate, half of it are sensors or timer triggered.

For the Fan, you mean is to trigger the fan to move default at a certain condition, or would like to control the fan speed, direction etc too?

1. To have a 2 way smart switch, 1 of the switch need to be a wireless switch, controlling the primary wired smart switch. Make sure you choose high current rated smart switch for water heater.

2. There is no problem using smart switch for DC fan. I assume you are talking about ceiling fan? The function of that smart switch will just be on/off switch for the fan. If you would like to control speed, then yes, you would need to use an additional RF/IR blaster depending on which method your fan is controlled.

I am currently using smart switch for my DC fans. No prob so far.

Thank you, this was the clarification I needed 🙇‍♂️ maybe because I'm not very fluent in Chinese so the smart home vendor I spoke to didn't seem to understand my concerns about 2-way switch.

Yes, just on off for the fan, I already have existing basic system of smart bulbs and considering add RF/IR blaster (built into ZigBee hub) but I was finally considering doing proper renovation to add smart switches for further control over house fixtures. Just that my fans and lights are currently sharing gang switch and I don't want to hack another hole just to have a dedicated fan on/off point

This post has been edited by DragonReine: May 8 2025, 07:41 PM

1) Like for existing 2 way wiring for water heater?
2) Works fine with KDK fan, the ir blasters anyway

This post has been edited by alucard89: May 8 2025, 10:53 PM