Top positive review
39 people found this helpful
Works fine with vintage system
By G. S. Tipsword on Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2023
Thought I'd post this in case it might help others with the same or similar setup. House came with a Music and Sound (M&S) 223 Music-Intercom System with front and back doorbells, front 2-way speaker, and 5 room wall speaker units (pictured). Having run low on coal to power it, we purchased an Arlo Essential Wired Video Doorbell AVD1001. While waiting for delivery, I removed the front door speaker unit and discovered the M&S used 14VDC to the door bell...not the expected (and now more common) 24VAC. Bummer. Two story house with door bell wiring coming from the attic, so rewiring would be complicated (and in a 130 degree space at this time of year in Houston). And, unlike converting AC to DC, DC to AC is more complicated and expensive (and no, to those who aren't aware, there's no such thing as a DC transformer). Anyway, investigating the intercom 'Master Unit' revealed its primary power supply to be at 21.5VAC. Ah ha. Not needing the old front door speaker any more, I hijacked its wiring and spliced it into the AC power. I also left the master unit end of the door bell button wiring intact. So now there was AC present at the door, and the existing chime wiring, which had been connected to the door speaker button, was also available. There isn't a separate chime box on typical vintage intercom units, and it's my understanding that they (and older NuTone's?) don't close a button circuit per se. The voltage drop caused by pressing the button is actually sensed and it 'rings' because of that trigger. Hence no reason for a 'standard' button voltage. I specified "3 screw" & "mechanical" when the Arlo setup asked what type of chime I had. Now for an actual circuit addition: a 24VAC SPST (single pole single throw) relay which I mounted at the door cavity rather than in the intercom unit box (pictured) but all of the following could be done at the intercom end. One side (either) of the door's ex-speaker/now-AC wire goes straight to the Arlo. The other goes to either coil connection on the relay. The Arlo's other voltage-in connection comes from the remaining relay coil contact. The 'power kit' is also wired across the coil with its switch in the "O" position. Again - no polarity involved. The door bell button's wiring is then connected to the relay's two NO (normally open) switch contacts, either lead to either contact. Makes no difference. The relay I happened to use was an American Zettler AZ2280-1A-24AF chosen for its small size, but any device with compatible coil voltage requirements would work. Its contacts are labeled COM & NO, and the coil isn't marked. Pinout diagram is available on Amazon listing. When the button on the Arlo is pressed, the relay is energized and contact is made between the original door bell button's wiring, ringing the intercom 'chime'. Oh, and I had to grind down the lower mounting screw head which prevented the doorbell from snapping into the frame. Pretty lame considering everything else seemed well thought out. No problems with setup except for the unnecessary, beyond annoying, insecure two-factor authentication band wagon Arlo appears to have jumped onto. No opt-out available, apparently. Hope this helps someone with their 'vintage' installation. It works fine so far.
Top critical review
349 people found this helpful
WARNING: You May Not Enjoy All the Features That Make Arlo Systems So Expensive
By Ed Zapf on Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2021
The good: 1. Good video quality. 2. Easy mounting and setup. 3. Notification includes snapshot of what triggered motion sensor sent directly to my Apple watch. The bad: 1. Quite expensive compared to alternatives. 2. Paid subscription required for saving video to cloud ($15/month for 30 days 4k cloud recording or 10/month for 2k cloud recording. By comparison, Wyze gives you 14 days cloud recording for free). 3. Beware the 3 month trial subscription that comes with it. Nowhere does it say "free." I discovered that it is a 3 month trial - that you pay for! and at the end of 3 months, apparently, I guess, you get to decide if you want to CONTINUE paying? I'm only 3 weeks in now, so I'm a little curious what will happen at the end of three months. I suspect they just keep charging you. [UPDATE: Reading other reviews, it seems that the 3 month trial service is free? Not sure why they charged me, but I am done fighting with them and I will just cancel] 4. Apparently, if you have an Arlo Video doorbell and an Arlo hub or base station, the doorbell must be connected to the Arlo hub or base station, not directly to Wi-Fi, for the doorbell to ring a conventional chime. [UPDATE: this is not true. The doorbell will ring the chime connected to either Wi-Fi or base station. I discovered my doorbell transformer was under-rated for this application, which caused my original problem] And that leads me to customer service.. 5. Customer service is horrendous!!! Can't stress this enough. Here is what I am currently going through: I ordered this 2 camera system and an Arlo doorbell at the same time. The doorbell arrived first, so I installed it. Worked great. A few days later the 2 camera system arrived, so I installed it too. Worked great too. A few days later, I discovered that the doorbell was no longer ringing the mechanical chime. Doorbell worked fine when it was the only Arlo device and it was connected to Wi-Fi. After using it for a few days, I added an Arlo base station with 2 cameras. The doorbell was still connected to Wi-Fi and it stopped ringing the mechanical chime. I read somewhere, I though in one of Arlo's documents but maybe not, that if a system has a base station, the doorbell must be connected through the base station or it will not ring a chime. Well, that's annoying! So, I deleted the doorbell from the Wi-Fi and added it to the base station as directed. It still did not ring the chime. So, I deleted it and tried to add again but I can't. Now I am unable to add it to the hub and I am unable to add it directly to Wi-Fi. The doorbell is not discoverable, as if it's already connected to some system but it's not. So I went from having a working video doorbell to a doorbell that would not ring the chime after I installed the base station and 2 cameras to a doorbell that does nothing. I feel like I'm of average intelligence and somewhat tech savvy. I can usually get most things working. Why can't I figure this out?? I went to Arlo support for help. I searched all Arlo's relevant documents. I searched google for any assistance. I tried all the troubleshooting tips and tricks I could find. No luck. I want to call someone and start shouting. There is no phone number to call; there is no email address to ask a question; you have to submit a trouble ticket from the Arlo app. So, I did. After 3 days, I received a response from Arlo suggesting that I try some of the troubleshooting aids that I had already tried. I am losing faith in this company very quickly. The response also asked for lots of information including proof of purchase, screen shot of internet upload/download speed, and screen shot that the device really is not installed on my account. I answered all the questions and provided all the information requested. The app only allows 1 attachment, so I attached my sales receipt and had to send the screen shots separately. Odd, why would they tell me to attach 3 things but only allow one attachment? I am questioning my own sanity in purchasing this company's product. I pressed save, and the app crashed. I lost all the information I typed in. I am now losing my will to live. So I redid it all, saved it to a Word document, pressed save, and the app crashed again. Third try: I copied my information from Word, pasted into Arlo support, pressed save - success! Hooray! Small victory in actually sending my request for service. I am now waiting 3 days for a reply that I expect to be totally useless and unhelpful. Wait, there's a weekend included, so maybe I'm waiting 5 days. Either I will get this stupid doorbell working in the next week or I will return everything and buy something else. Update to follow. UPDATE: I have now been in contact with Arlo 5 times over the last 3 weeks. They have been sending me very similar messages with minor additions or deletions to the troubleshooting tips and tricks. I have dutifully complied with all suggestions. I never got the doorbell connected to the base station, but it did finally connect to Wi-Fi again after about 30-40 tries, no exaggeration, just doing the same thing over and over. Also, I discovered that my doorbell transformer was under-rated for the Arlo video doorbell, which caused the original problem of not ringing the chime. It needs to be 16-30V. Mine read 15.6V - I assume just enough to ring the chime when I first installed the doorbell, but not enough to sustain. So, I replaced the transformer and now I've got a working video doorbell again. However, it is connected to Wi-Fi, not to the base station. I really would like to connect to the base station to record to an SD card and to eliminate the bandwidth used on Wi-Fi. My fifth and latest message to Arlo included the question, "I am reluctant to delete the doorbell from the Wi-Fi to attempt connecting to the base station again because of all the trouble I had connecting it at all. It honestly took about 30-40 tries. So, if I do disconnect from the wi-fi and can never get it connected again, what recourse will I have?" Awaiting response. UPDATE-2: After about one month and eight replies to-from Arlo support, video doorbell still cannot connect to Arlo Base Station. Arlo support’s final determination is that my internet service is too slow to connect the doorbell to the base station. They want me to upgrade my internet service and try again. I’m not sure I believe that. If it is the case, then I don't understand why I wasn't told that one month and seven replies ago when I sent my first internet speed screen shot - could have avoided 20-30 frustrating hours of failed attempts to connect the doorbell to the base station. Also, based on their numbers, my other cameras would not work, but they do. Why would my internet connection prevent a low bandwidth video doorbell to connect when two higher bandwidth cameras work with no trouble? I am not in a position to upgrade my internet connection at this time, especially not as a troubleshooting aid that may not help. I prefer to cut costs, not take on extra costs. Following that intent, I will now cancel my Arlo subscription. Anticipating any potential future problems will not be supported, I have no reason to continue subscribing to any Arlo service. So, my goal here is to warn everyone to do your research thoroughly. Otherwise, you may not enjoy all the features that make Arlo systems so expensive. I now know that I am not knowledgeable enough to have asked the right questions or to have conducted the proper research to ensure that an Arlo system fits my need. I could have saved hundreds of dollars by purchasing a competitor's system that would have given me the same reduced features that I get from my current Arlo system. Also, beware Amazon and other places advertise Arlo as compatible with Alexa. From what I can tell, it is NOT! There is no Arlo app for Kindle Fire. There once was but it is now defunct. In all, this was a very expensive, time consuming, frustrating learning process.
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