My house is a single-story home of almost 3,000 sq. ft. in Southern California. The current system has a Goodman 5-ton condenser, a Goodman furnace, and an Aspen coil.

I’m currently getting quotes to replace the entire system, remove the gas furnace completely, and switch to a heat-pump-only system. I’m specifically looking at newer systems with slim condensers, such as the ACIQ Extreme+ or AC Pro Z Series.

As I understand it, if I install one of these new systems, I have two options for connecting it to thermostat. First option is connect to my existing Ecobee thermostat. The first option is to use a standard 24V connection, but in that configuration, the condenser would essentially operate in only two stages: low speed and high speed.

The 2nd option is to get a thermostat specifically designed for ACIQ or AC Pro and use the two-wire HA/HB connection. This would allow the condenser and air handler to communicate with each other, enabling the system to operate at multiple speed levels. More importantly, the system could run long cycles at very low speed even after the desired temperature has been reached, helping maintain a more stable indoor temperature compared with a traditional central AC system.

By “traditional,” I mean that once the desired cooling temperature is reached, the AC shuts completely off. Then, when the indoor temperature rises again, the AC turns back on.

My main concern is whether anyone here has experience with these newer heat-pump systems and has actually compared the two operating methods: using a standard 24V connection versus using HA/HB communication.

If you have, which setup did you find more energy-efficient in terms of your actual electricity bill?

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I have a Home Hub Pro with several Reolink cameras connected, along with a Reolink Video Doorbell WiFi (White version) installed in wired mode and connected to my home's existing mechanical door chime, with the jumper installed on the mechanical chime.

Today I purchased the new Reolink Battery Doorbell 2nd Gen because I knew it supports a wired installation and can operate in Wired Mode instead of Battery Mode. However, I've found what appears to be a firmware bug.

With the latest firmware installed, if I add the Battery Doorbell 2nd Gen to my Home Hub Pro, there is no way to enable Wired Mode. It only operates in Battery Mode, even though it is physically connected to doorbell wiring.

However, if I set up the same doorbell as a standalone device (without connecting it to the Home Hub Pro), I can immediately enable Wired Mode with no issues.

Please fix this issue in the next firmware update so that the Battery Doorbell 2nd Gen can correctly switch to Wired Mode when connected to the Home Hub Pro.

I've attached several screenshots in the comments below to demonstrate the problem.

I have a 24V 40VA doorbell transformer, and I was using it with the Reolink WiFi Doorbell (White version) without any issues. It powered the doorbell perfectly with the jumper installed on my mechanical chime.

Today I upgraded to the Reolink Battery Doorbell Gen 2. I know it supports a wired connection and can operate in Wired Power Mode instead of Battery Mode.

However, after replacing the old doorbell, I can't get it to switch to Wired Power Mode. It only operates in Battery Mode.

However, in the Reolink app, it still shows that the doorbell is charging the battery, which makes the situation even stranger because it suggests that the wired connection is actually working properly.

Does anyone know why this might be happening? Could it be that my existing 24V 40VA transformer isn't compatible with the Reolink Battery Doorbell Gen 2?

I'll post a photo of the transformer I'm using and a few screenshots of the doorbell in the comments below.

I am looking to buy the Reolink WiFi Doorbell in white color, the wired version without a battery. It was released only a little over a year ago, but it is no longer available on the Reolink website. I also cannot find it on Amazon, although I could still see it listed on Amazon about a month ago.

I installed Scrypted from HACS in Home Assistant and have an active Scrypted NVR subscription. However, I'm having trouble finding the Scrypted Camera ID needed to add the Camera Card to my Home Assistant dashboard.

For example, when I click the gear icon on a camera, then go to Integrate → Home Assistant Card, instead of showing the Camera ID as shown in the Scrypted documentation, it simply opens this page:

https://docs.scrypted.app/home-assistant.html

How can I fix this?

Please see the screenshot in the comment below.

I have a Reolink Home Hub Pro with three MagiCam cameras and one Lumus Pro. One of my favorite features of the Home Hub Series is Scene Mode, which lets you switch between Disarm, Home, and Away modes, and even create up to three additional custom scenes.

I'd like to share how I set mine up to avoid receiving too many notifications on my iPhone.

Currently, in Home Mode, I have Recording enabled but Push Notifications turned off. In Away Mode, I also keep Recording enabled, but Push Notifications turned on.

If I only relied on the Reolink app, every time I left home I would have to open the app, select my Home Hub Pro, and manually switch the scene to Away before I could receive push notifications.

Instead, I integrated my Reolink Home Hub Pro with Home Assistant (HA).

After adding the Home Hub to HA, all three MagiCam cameras automatically appeared along with a large number of entities, including motion sensors, person detection sensors, Scene Mode controls, and many others. What I really like is that I only had to enter the Home Hub's IP address, username, and password. Once connected, Home Assistant automatically discovered both the hub and every camera paired with it. Without the Home Hub, I would have had to add each Reolink camera individually by IP address.

I then created a couple of automations in Home Assistant.

• Whenever my Ring Alarm changes to Away (meaning I've left home), Home Assistant automatically switches the Reolink Home Hub to Away Scene.
• Whenever my Ring Alarm is Disarmed (meaning I've returned home), Home Assistant automatically switches the Reolink Home Hub back to Home Scene.

If you don't have a Ring Alarm, you can achieve the same result using your phone's presence. For example, if your iPhone has been disconnected from your home Wi-Fi for more than two minutes, Home Assistant can automatically switch Reolink to Away Mode. When your iPhone reconnects to your home Wi-Fi, it can automatically switch back to Home Mode.

At this point, you might ask: "If I'm at home and someone is standing on my front porch or in my side yard, how will I know if push notifications are disabled?"

Instead of receiving push notifications on my iPhone, I use Home Assistant to make voice announcements throughout my house.

Whenever I'm home (Ring Alarm is Disarmed) and one of my Reolink MagiCam or Lumus Pro cameras detects a person, Home Assistant automatically uses Text-to-Speech (TTS) to announce the location on every Amazon Echo device in my home, for example:

• "Person detected at the front porch."
• "Person detected in the backyard."
• "Person detected in the side yard."

I also configured Home Assistant so that the same announcement won't repeat for another 10 minutes, preventing constant notification spam if someone remains in the camera's view.

Before switching to Reolink, I used both Eufy and Tapo cameras. From my experience, the Reolink integration with Home Assistant is significantly better than either of those brands. I spent a lot of time trying to integrate my Eufy and Tapo cameras into HA, but their integrations were much less reliable. Occasionally they would stop working, causing my automations to fail as well.

I'll also attach some screenshots showing my Home Assistant automations and the entities that become available after adding the Reolink Home Hub.

Overall, I'm extremely happy with the Reolink Home Hub Pro, the MagiCam cameras, and the Lumus Pro.

The only thing I'm disappointed about—and I really hope Reolink changes in a future firmware update—is the recording limitation on the MagiCam.

Even though the MagiCam can run entirely on AC power without a battery installed, Reolink still does not allow it to record 24/7 directly to the Home Hub's storage. Instead, if you want continuous 24/7 recording, you're still required to purchase and install a separate microSD card in each individual MagiCam.

I really hope Reolink will enable 24/7 recording to the Home Hub storage for AC-powered MagiCam cameras in a future firmware update. I believe many Home Hub users would appreciate this improvement.

UPDATE: In addition, I use Reolink's Person Detection sensors entities in Home Assistant to create an automation. For example: Every day from 7:00 PM to 5:00 AM, if any Reolink MagiCam on either side of the house or in the backyard detects a person, the backyard and side yard lights (kasa smart light switch) automatically turn on for two minutes. Once no person is detected anymore, the lights automatically turn off.

It's amazing to use Reolink with Home Assistant—I can build so many custom automations exactly the way I want.

I feel misled by Reolink.

As you may already know, Reolink currently has three models in its Home Hub Series: the Home Hub Mini, Home Hub, and Home Hub Pro. For simplicity, I’ll refer to them collectively as “HH.”

Once you have an HH with either a microSD card or the built-in 2TB storage in the Home Hub Pro, you can only save 24/7 video footage to the HH storage if the Reolink video doorbell or camera is a non-battery model.

Even the Reolink Battery Video Doorbell, despite having a 24V wired connector on the back, is still treated by Reolink as a battery doorbell when connected to 24V power. The same applies to Reolink battery cameras.

This is different from Tapo and some other brands. For example, although the Tapo Video Doorbell D225 has a battery, once you connect 24V power to the back of it, Tapo treats it as a wired doorbell instead of a battery doorbell. As a result, you do not need to install a microSD card in the doorbell, and you can still record 24/7 footage directly to the HDD storage inside the Tapo H500 Hub.

Meanwhile Reolink explains that the 24V connector on the back of the Reolink Battery Doorbell is only used to charge the battery, not to power the doorbell continuously 24/7. Fine, I can accept that explanation.

However, I truly feel misled after finding out that the Reolink Magicam can operate completely on AC power when connected through the USB-C port on the side, without installing the two lithium batteries included in the box. Even during setup in the Reolink app, it asks whether you are using the Magicam with battery power or wired power. Yet even when the Magicam is powered by AC through USB-C and no batteries are installed inside the camera, Reolink still forces it to be treated as a battery camera.

Reolink’s own instructions clearly state that when AC power is connected through the USB-C port on the Magicam, it does not charge the lithium batteries. It only allows the Magicam to operate on AC power instead of battery power. In that case, I do not think it should be considered a battery camera anymore. It is fully capable of operating like a wired camera.

The worst part is that even if you have a Home Hub with large storage, you still cannot save the Magicam’s 24/7 footage to the HH storage. Instead, you are forced to buy a large-capacity microSD card for each Magicam. With current tariffs, each 512GB microSD card costs around $100. You can only use the HH to store motion event video footage.

For example, in my own home, I have one Home Hub Pro and four Magicams.

I already spent nearly $400 on the Home Hub Pro to get 2TB of storage, yet I still have to spend another $400 on four 512GB microSD cards for my four Magicams. Reolink could clearly adjust the firmware so that the Magicam can save 24/7 footage to the Home Hub storage when it is not using batteries and is instead powered through the USB-C port. It feels like Reolink is intentionally making things difficult for users and forcing them to spend much more money.

Think twice before buying a Reolink camera or video doorbell if your goal is 24/7 recording.

In short, be very careful before buying a Reolink battery-powered doorbell or battery-powered camera. You could end up spending far more money than necessary on additional storage and accessories, even though you shouldn't have to.

Updated: Another user just commented below and pointed out something very valuable. Reolink now even sells its own branded microSD cards. At this point, I no longer have any doubts. It seems clear that this decision is driven more by business interests than by what's best for users. As I mentioned above, they could easily have helped users like me save a significant amount of money on microSD cards, but instead they chose to go in the opposite direction.

Since the MagicCam doesn't come with enough USB-A to USB-C cables when purchased as a bundle with the Home Hub Mini, where can I buy additional cables?

I purchased the bundle that includes 4 MagicCams and 1 Home Hub Mini, but the package only came with one USB-A to USB-C cable instead of four.

The reason I'm asking is that this is a special waterproof USB-A to USB-C cable. When plugged into the MagicCam, it completely seals the USB-C port on the camera body to prevent water from getting inside. Because of this design, I can't simply use a standard USB-C cable from the market.

However, I checked the Reolink website, and I couldn't find this cable listed anywhere in the Accessories section. Is there a way to purchase additional replacement cables?

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I know that although UGREEN does not officially support Docker on the DH2300, it is still possible to download and install Docker from the app store; however, we can also download Docker and install it manually. What about the VM (Virtual Machine)? Is there any way to download and install it on the DH2300? Thanks all

Hi, i have Firewalla as a Router.

Im gonna use my Deco B11000 in AP mode with wired backhaul.

When using Deco in AP Mode can i connect all Deco Main and Deco Node (Sattelite) behind an unmanage switch. It would be

Internet -> Firewalla Router -> Switch -> 1 main Deco and 2 Node (All wired ethernet to the switch)

What should i choose? Someone told me 9.9.9.9 for Primary and 1.1.1.1 for Secondary

Another one also say 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Any advice? Thank you