how to install reolink doorbell?

got it mounted and everything.

added the 2 wires to connect to the front reolink doorbell.


problem was with the box.

i'm not an electrician so donno is it a transformer or doorchime.


instructions are here
https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articl...oorbell-Wiring/

https://reolink.com/blog/doorbell-transformer/

https://reolink.com/blog/how-to-install-a-doorbell/

https://reolink.com/blog/doorbell-voltage/



it simply says, if got doorchime box, use the bypass.

if no doorchime box, only transformer, then just leave it connected as is.


the handyman didn't know what to do for the box. all he said, the front has no power, because he wasn't sure what to do with the box despite the instruction provided.

any tips or who to ask who knows how to install this x-x;


found this old thread
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/4365517/all

the box looks like this.





The box i have looks like this

https://shopee.com.my/DOOR-BELL-240VAC-Buil...873.16074374415


so how do you set the box for the reolink? i ask the handyman he don't know







*not sure if this is the same situation, but that box is a chime with integrated transformer if not mistaken

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



This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Jan 21 2025, 08:12 AM

sauce
https://www.reddit.com/r/reolinkcam/comment...orbell_voltage/

https://reolink.com/product/reolink-video-d...#specifications



not sure about box. donno if need turn off mcb before open. i'll wait for handyman to come first


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






sauce

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







https://www.instructables.com/Making-a-Door...ated-Transform/




or... does anyone know who can call to do this for reolink doorbell? that is the simpler solution.

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Jan 21 2025, 08:45 AM

well the pic is similar to what i use. i found that off shopee.

for mine it's not open. the outside no labels or anything. scared to open after get get electrocuted

when able will take pic then.

but overall looks something like that.

i think it's a wind chime with integrated transformer, but i'm not 100% sure (i'm not electrician) but based on shopee product description for similar box, makes me think that.

from the youtube i saw, they did this

- at the doorbell at front door, open up, then got the 2 wire. use the meter, figure out the voltage. check if this is sufficient to power the reolink doorbell. If too high or too low, have to then change at the transformer to adjust (how? donno, i'm not electrician )



well i mostly hoping for a referral who i may call to do this for me 1 of the guy's i had try do this didn't want to turn off mcb for the front doorbell. so the wire was live ! even the reolink instructions said to TURN OFF before messing with it. and didn't have a power meter (or whatever its called), to check the voltage for the wire before attaching.... simply unqualified




Anyway i already asked seller they will hook me up with someone to do it for me. I rather not diy myself and get electrocuted. also i don't want unqualified person to die either or my stuff get electrical fire. Not worth it

i already asked 2 people so far, both tried, they failed. i even showed the reolink instructions
https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articl...oorbell-Wiring/


but they don't know what to do

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Jan 22 2025, 09:03 AM

this device you mention,

so got the 2 wire from it, to the reolink doorbell.

then the other wire go where? the transformer for power? like that is it?


so basically, what this thing does is, down step the voltage to the voltage i need to run the reolink, correct?


I'm assuming this is put inside the existing doorbell chime (integrated transformer) box i already have yes?

So what then about the existing chime bell? what to do with that?


the thing is, the electrician is the one suppose to know and recommend what to do. But in reality, they expect u to know and tell them what to do (im not electrician how am i suppose to know )

hopefully the next guy that comes actually knows

this is what mine looks like (yes the actual one)

so what the so called electrician said, the top right is the one connected to the doorbell. the reolink instruction said, to use the bypass to connect the doorbell wire here, to the transformer.




so the guy said he don't know how to do this part. because he said, unlike the reolink instructions, there is only 1 wire (not 2) in the top right for the chime.





he said, if he connect the bypass from the top right to bottom left, it will cause electrical fire. so i told him not to do it then


so this is the crux of the issue, not sure what to do with this. but currently the reolink has no power until this gets figured out. also no idea what voltage any of this stuff but if i had to make a wild guess, the transformer must be 240v, then the chime must be getting a lower voltage somehow to work.





This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Jan 22 2025, 09:36 AM

i can barely read it but i think it says either

220-230v OR 220-240v. I think it's the later 220/240v

50hz

friedland?

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Jan 22 2025, 12:24 PM

found 1 electrician but he said like this




but i already showed the pic of the transformer box, doorbell and the reolink instruction, but no confirmation whether he know can do or not. doesn't sound reliable

whats the going rate for electrician to setup doorbell? the jobs is actually already half way done.... (already mounted and almost wired at the front). It's just the transformer part don't know what to do

Do i still need the HLK-20M24?

I get that i may need that, but how to fit that in the box i currently have? doesn't seem like there is space for it not quite sure what to do here

this box i get is a chime, and i suspect it's an integrated transformer maybe. not sure what else it's wired for

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Jan 23 2025, 08:42 AM

i'm ok with that idea, but not sure if that white box is used for anything else other than a chime.



so any idea what doorbell box works?


actually eagle7's idea is already a good one, but what about the box enclosure for it, what to buy for this? and what to do with existing one with all those other wires already there to existing chime?



also i'm assuming this black box thing only downsteps. it still needs to be connected to a transformer ya? guess i'll try ask seller about this




*update


in my pic at the very top got the 2 wire.




is that where i put the blue bypass wire?



but even if do that it's not the correct voltage?








This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Jan 24 2025, 08:26 AM

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Jan 28 2025, 12:40 AM

i asked price quote, the guy want to charge a bomb. so cancelled that.

i found a different guy (electrician?), who seems to know what they are doing ( "Incoming AC240V connect to convertor, outgoing connect to doorbell.
This chime got wire. 2 from existing doorbell button and another 2 wire for AC.")

i bought the black box thing you suggested, and see if can install that instead.




reason why, because the wiring is all there so no need to do any drilling or whatever. just simply install the power supply, add the existing wire that connects to the doorbell to the PS, then that should be it.

How much does this type of install cost normally?

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Feb 6 2025, 02:47 PM

the item arrived, but how to install this? it has pins at the back?



where to mount these pins to? and how to get the 2 wires hooked to it?

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Feb 12 2025, 07:13 PM

o..ic.

so those 4 pins you just soldered directly onto the chime? you didn't sit it in some sort of casing to mount first? I'll inform the electrician see what he says


But question though. Was i suppose to also get a pcb to house this hilink item onto, since it is going to be soldered?

Or no need? just solder the points to the chime, somehow?


Found this

https://www.instructables.com/Build-a-Cloud...-WiFi-Doorbell/

Like in this example they did it like that. They soldered onto a pcb board, next they also had a 3d printed plastic casing to house it, and it had mounting screws to attach to something. but for me i don't have that.

So i'm assuming just using tape of sort to stick it into the white chimebox, and just solder the 4 pins sticking out is enough?



has the golden colored circle holes to solder stuff onto a pcb board



anyway will see what the electrician says


PS: looking at the pic, is it the white clip on the left, is attached to the THICK white cable bottom right? And the other end with the thin wire, is what is soldered to the hilink i assume?




my chimebox like this though, dont think there is room to fit it inside



This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Feb 14 2025, 08:26 AM

thx alot. i think that should be sufficient enough info. i'll pass along to the electrician and see if he can sort it out from there

i passed along the dets you mentioned to the electrician, he says he can do it (including the soldering as well). price seems fair.

i'll update how it goes. if works out, i can recommend him to others

This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Feb 18 2025, 10:44 AM

may i ask what wires are these to buy on shopee? i doubt the electrician has them

he said he has the solder device however.

electrician coming tomorrow, will report back how it goes.

i explained i dont have the wires u mentioned. he will source it for me and i'll pay extra (he will bring the soldering kit as well). no big deal.

from his explanations i think he knows what he is doing. i relayed the soldering setup you mentioned, he thinks he can do it

the wiring from the transformer/bell box to the front door is already laid.

so just have to rewire the front door to doorbell (this part is ez).

The hard part is undoing the existing chime/transformer box, to then place the new black box thing (for the power converter), to rewire it (i showed him ur pic diagram for the wiring). Hopefully he can solve this part.

obviously the power at the breaker box is all turned off for obvious reason while in progress ^^;

as for how to place the black box, i am assuming keep the current chime box, just remove the inner components, then just use some sort of tape to stick it inside the box and close it?



This post has been edited by Moogle Stiltzkin: Apr 22 2025, 08:10 AM

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