Finally ditched the ring, and was able to pretty easily run a Poe line in my hundred year old home to the doorframe. It’s only been online for 5 hours and I haven’t played around with the settings much yet.
Took a side by side because some people tend to think it’s huge, but it’s quite a bit smaller than the Ring Doorbell 3, which is still the size of all Ring’s products.
Also put a UniFi Chime in our living room. Honestly, with the volume turned up all the way, it’s almost as loud as the old Ring chime. Only annoying thing is the limited tones to choose from. Almost no delay from pushing the doorbell button to hearing the chime go off.
Hello! Thanks for posting on r/Ubiquiti!
This subreddit is here to provide unofficial technical support to people who use or want to dive into the world of Ubiquiti products. If you haven’t already been descriptive in your post, please take the time to edit it and add as many useful details as you can.
Ubiquiti makes a great tool to help with figuring out where to place your access points and other network design questions located at:
https://design.ui.com
If you see people spreading misinformation or violating the "don't be an asshole" general rule, please report it!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
I just ripped out a google nest gen 3 and replaced it with a G6 entry. could not be happier, it's all integrated with my home assistant and works great, the ai detections are surprisingly good. Google's new doorbell is less reliable and offers less without subscription then the previous gen.
FYI you can upload your own ringtones by clicking on "manage audio" link on the device settings tab in protect.
I wish the PoE ones had terminals to make an existing mechanical chime work but that would be very above and beyond. I have a WiFi one currently and it's good but has connectivity issues at times and with the WiFi jammers out there now PoE seems safer and more reliable.
If you’re even remotely technical, it’s very easy interface a Shelly smart relay to simulate a button press based on a web hook from Protect Alarm Manager when the UniFi PoE doorbell is pressed ands have it ring your mechanical chime in addition to your smart chimes, or in place of if you prefer. I can post links if anyone is interested.
To use an existing wired doorbell chime and have it activated by Unifi doorbell?
Yes, it is fairly easy to do.
Does that work if the Internet is down?
It doesn’t need any Internet capability, other than maybe during initial setup. After that it’s 100% local, but does require local WiFi. If you lose your local WiFi, it won’t work, but then any other WiFi doorbell camera wouldn’t work either, so it’s no different there. As long as your internal WiFi network is up and running, you’re good.
Here’s the original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/1nopbjp/poe_doorbell_classic_chime_no_home_assistant_no/
And here’s a video of someone actually using this project: https://youtu.be/ty9Z9MUSe8Q?si=ZNnDiibkR6ZFmTS4
Yeah. Running the cable was massive pain but I’m so glad I did it.
I have started looking into if I can terminate my own Cat6 slim cables. Those 28ga ones. Those would fit in my existing doorbell wire path.
I investigated this as well but didn't end up finding the bulk cable or rj45 connectors for stranded cable that was designed to hold onto thin diameter round cable.
Yeah, that's the catch is the stranded. I would not worry about riser, I would just buy a monoprice one and cut it up if needed. Maybe it would work to take off the trim and drill two large enough holes to make it work with the factory ends and then run the slim cable behind the trim. My door is pretty close to the network rack in the basement.
I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to since it’s the same wiring inside, just arranged next to each other instead of circular.
Are you able to use the NFC features without an Access Hub? Currently have the Doorbell Lite and want to upgrade to the Doorbell Entry. Interested in using the NFC reader to unlock my Schlage deadbolt through Home Assistant.
I have the Doorbell Entry. You will need an access hub to make use of the access features. Yes it seems like a waste to need one to only use the API to send a webhook. Also in my case I ended up with a defective Door Mini Hub, its emitting RFI all over the broadcast AM band, and I had to RMA the thing. Nothing like the hardware that you do not need to be causing problems.
Why not just add a door lock with NFC as an option? Going through Access and Home Assistant seems overly complicated to me.
GO BLUE!
What home assistant integrations do you use
I use the protect integration so the camera feed and sensors appear in HA then I can use them in my automations. For example if it’s nighttime and the camera detects a person approaching the door HA turns on the porch lights. Lots of other things you can do one the sensors are in HA.
As far as I know, the G6 entry is not meant to be outdoors right? I was thinking about doing the same as you but the lack of outdoor support made me a bit scarred. All unifi doorbell products specifically say they are outdoor capable and the g6 entry not.
That’s interesting, I didn’t really think about that, when the g6 was first announced it was listed under doorbells but they later moved it to access. However if you look at the dust and water ingress ratings the G6 is IP55 whilst the G4 “doorbell” is only IPX4 rated. This means the G6 is higher rated than the G4 for both water and dust.
In my situation the front door is under an awning and never gets wet during a storm so I’m not concerned but if your front door is totally exposed then it may be an issue. At any rate from a spec sheet perspective the G6 is more weather resistant than the doorbell category products.
That's a good point, regarding the rating of the device. My front porch is also a bit hidden from the rain as I have a little awning as well, so it should be fine. Now my biggest concern is to get an Ethernet cable for PoE on the outside of the house, I might have some nice drilling before me 😅
you can upload any ring tone you want to the unifi chime.
imperial March is my preference.
Really? How? I don’t see the option anywhere?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/s/I7rbXPYehs
Wow that's amazing. That's the first one that came to mind when I was reading your comment that a custom tone can be uploaded 😆
Love this. Can’t wait to switch my ring camera to UniFi
You can use your existing doorbell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty9Z9MUSe8Q
So would you say there's any noticeable improvement over the Ring?
It’s really too soon for me to tell, but there are four big factors for me that made me switch
How does ring have integration to the flock network but I can't get my 24/7 recording? It's some BS. Here I come ubiquity
I'm neither defending Flock nor suggesting 24/7 recording is an unreasonable ask, but putting on my software architect hat for a moment, the economics of the two use cases, and the architectural challenges to providing for them, are very different. The fact that Amazon can be incentivized to provide feeds to Flock, using funds from some extremely deep pockets, does not necessarily imply that the data is available in a form that can be easily or economically provided to a much larger public audience on demand at a price the average consumer is willing to pay.
Frankly, there are just some applications it makes way more sense to host locally. Cloud-hosted NVR is kind of a stupid idea that needlessly complicates a problem that's far easier to solve, from the standpoint of the customer's needs, with a decentralized approach.
I don't need police getting my camera feeds without me providing them.
Some devices support 24/7 recording. Problem is some people like myself still have crappy upload speeds (thanks, Xfinity) so multiple cameras begin to saturate the connection. I see a difference in quality when I toggle 24/7 vs event based recordings on my Ring device.
Points 1-5 are the improvements, anything else is a bonus I'd say!
I was a long-time user of Ring products, got the itch for Unifi from Reddit, and here we are, skint lol but in all honesty I wouldn't go back. I will be installing the Unifi Doorbell Lite today as well!
I just did the exact same thing a few weeks ago I replace my ring with a unifi doorbell lite.
A few of the improvements include (and there are more):
24/7 recording. Never worry about missing something because it wasn't picked up by motion.
Local integration with home assistant and more opportunities because its streaming 24/7 unlike ring where it only streams when you open it in the app to save battery.
No battery to charge
Easy to use a shelly relay to connect to a old doorbell chime (like a $15 smart device)
Smart Detections
The overall user experience of the app
image quality
There is much more
Edit: Forgot one of the most important Ubiquiti Doesn't share your camera footage with the police (and who knows who else) like Ring
How do we know ubiquiti can’t access it and share with 3rd parties if legally requested to do so?
They have lots of tools that can access your network…
Because the video is not stored in the ubiquiti cloud it is stored locally in your home and ubiquiti has no access to it. Also they explain this clearly at ui.com/trust-center
If you can access it through Ubiquiti's web portal, Ubiquiti can access it.
If you don’t trust Ubiquiti you dont need to use their cloud as they clearly state on the trust-center. Everything can be offline and airgapped different than solutions that store data in the cloud
If they took secret backups of everybody's storage, where would they store it and how much would it cost? That's a lot of risk and cost but for what reward?
They don’t have lots of tools to access your network…
unifi.ui.com
that is optional though you can turn off remote access in settings and you can still use it locally. that option doesnt exist for ring
Put your tin foil hat on for a moment - nothing stopping them enabling that option for you and then accessing, or using the same technology in an admin style tool.
Not saying they have these tools or access regularly, but they could if they wanted to and I dare say it wouldn’t be that difficult technically.
Most noticeable would be no ability for a flock to have access to my video feed intentionally or unintentionally.
And better yet, your new doorbell isn't a mandatory participant in a privatized state surveillance apparatus!
Thanks for the picture it really helps to show the size difference. The unifi one is half as wide as the ring one.
I’m not sure what all the hate for the low volume on the unifi chime is about, I find it plenty loud. I put the POE chime where my old doorbell chime was and can hear it fine in my whole house.
I’m also very happy with the doorbell lite. I think it looks great and imo is more appropriate aesthetically in a residential setting than the G6 doorbell.
I haven’t looked into it, but it would be interesting if you could use multiple chimes paired to one doorbell.
You definitely can do it:) Even wifi chimes are no problem.
I have two PoE chimes at both ends of a large home and it makes a huge difference
Good riddance!!! These are way way way way better anyways.
I changed the ringtone to an mp3 that had the volume adjusted on it and it works way better. Nice and loud and very distinct as I use the chimes for other sensors too with different sounds.
Did you have to install the chime as well or could you connect to an existing chime?
I just bought the UniFi chime. It has no provisions to hook up an external doorbell.
Got the G4 WiFi cheap and am good with it for now. Use webhooks and HA for the finger and NFC card reader and can’t complain.
How and where? This is what I'm wanting.
With Home Assistant and some connected speakers in the house... you can use whatever you want as a chime sound. Even TTS
No chance it works with HomeKit? Huh
My G4 instants work with Homekit via Homebridge, so I would say there is a chance.
It does via HomeAssistant>HomeKit
Not a clue. I don’t have any experience with anything HomeKit
I did the same last week. Said good bye to Ring Doorbell , and installed Doorbell lite
Congrats! Get the “flock” out of that.
Much nicer doorbell but you should have bought a white one.
Those are all of the data points I was looking for. I think I will try running a cat5 down there and if I can, swap out for one.
How does connecting it to the chime work? Glad to hear there is very little delay.
Initial adoption took about 1 minute with the wifi one. Once you ring the doorbell its almost instantaneous to the chime. It's loud enough, but if you're blasting music or watching a bass-heavy movie, you may not hear it.
Good. They partnered with flock.
What is the point of a smart door bell? I can’t think of why I would want to see who was at the door unless I was selling drugs?
Biggest win for us is having the video show up on our Apple TV and phones when someone rings the doorbell. I used HA to integrate with Apple HomeKit.
The kids love snooping to see who’s at the door
I have windows