What to expect from Netatmo

Tips, tricks and frequently asked questions
Flyer007
Posts: 24
Joined: 19 Oct 2020, 18:14

What to expect from Netatmo

Post by Flyer007 »

I am about to give up on this product. 2 Years of development and this is the best they could come up with? I have the doorbell now for 2 month and every day I am getting more irritated... Every new firmware upgrade is 1 step forward, 2 steps back:
- Homekit Secure Video still not available (Logitech is releasing its doorbell with HSV from day one)
- Apple Watch notifications not working most of the times
- Since last firmware upgrade, "answer doorbell" in Home app results in a failed connection (will reconnect by the time the UPS guys is gone)
- Generally the responsiveness of the doorbell is insufficient for its purpose
- Need to perform a hardware reset every other week. To the point that the security screw is completely worn out (Netatmo has provided a replacement doorbell free of charge which is nice)
- Video quality is super lousy! My Wifi network does 500Mbit/sec in speedtest (4 stripes signal), so bandwidth should not be an issue
- 1080P still not available
- Netatmo app sometimes takes 5 sec to show its first screen (my phone is a fresh iPhone 12, so hardware wise I should be ok)
- Motion Detection is way to slow. Typically the subject is already gone by the time the doorbell reacts
- Answering calls in both the Homekit and the Netatmo app is clunky at best. Not anywherre close to what was promised in the promotion video!
- Face recognition not usable due to the lousy video quality

I hope the beta testers on this forum have some promising news, otherwise I will have a slightly used Doorbell for sale and I will order the Logitech one... To bad, I really like the brochure...
eruberion
Posts: 5
Joined: 11 Nov 2020, 12:34

Re: What to expect from Netatmo

Post by eruberion »

Hi,

I can agree with Flyer007 in all points. I feel the same way.
I also expected much more. And now Logitech brings a camera directly with HSV.
Why does Netatmo not make it. This is all very disappointing.


Flyer007 wrote: 09 Dec 2020, 12:38 I am about to give up on this product. 2 Years of development and this is the best they could come up with? I have the doorbell now for 2 month and every day I am getting more irritated... Every new firmware upgrade is 1 step forward, 2 steps back:
- Homekit Secure Video still not available (Logitech is releasing its doorbell with HSV from day one)
- Apple Watch notifications not working most of the times
- Since last firmware upgrade, "answer doorbell" in Home app results in a failed connection (will reconnect by the time the UPS guys is gone)
- Generally the responsiveness of the doorbell is insufficient for its purpose
- Need to perform a hardware reset every other week. To the point that the security screw is completely worn out (Netatmo has provided a replacement doorbell free of charge which is nice)
- Video quality is super lousy! My Wifi network does 500Mbit/sec in speedtest (4 stripes signal), so bandwidth should not be an issue
- 1080P still not available
- Netatmo app sometimes takes 5 sec to show its first screen (my phone is a fresh iPhone 12, so hardware wise I should be ok)
- Motion Detection is way to slow. Typically the subject is already gone by the time the doorbell reacts
- Answering calls in both the Homekit and the Netatmo app is clunky at best. Not anywherre close to what was promised in the promotion video!
- Face recognition not usable due to the lousy video quality

I hope the beta testers on this forum have some promising news, otherwise I will have a slightly used Doorbell for sale and I will order the Logitech one... To bad, I really like the brochure...
Amha
Posts: 8
Joined: 02 Dec 2020, 19:37

Re: What to expect from Netatmo

Post by Amha »

I feel exactly the same, I give up - returning this piece of @#$%
Hemmik
Posts: 62
Joined: 28 Sep 2020, 21:37

Re: What to expect from Netatmo

Post by Hemmik »

I'm sorry to say I totally agree.. all of these issues are familiar. I expected more for 300 euros to be honest. I was quite shocked to see the Logitech doorbell yesterday, with HKSV from day 1, for 200 dollars. I'm on my third Netatmo doorbell because of the front not being attached correctly and am still using a faulty unit because of this issue. I have put a piece of tape on it now to make sure that it doesn't break down. Support told me that they would come up with a solution of this but I've heard nothing for over a month. On top of that my chime started buzzing after 2 months which is extremely annoying. If I was able to return it, which is not the case since I've had it for a few months now, I probably would.
Mouxy
Posts: 2
Joined: 05 Dec 2020, 14:36

Re: What to expect from Netatmo

Post by Mouxy »

That’s exactly why I sold it 1 day after installing it.
Should be getting my Logitech next week, happy to report back 😊
htims1989
Posts: 4
Joined: 07 Nov 2020, 03:36

Re: What to expect from Netatmo

Post by htims1989 »

Really have buyers remorse for both the Doorbell and Presence camera. The Presence camera night vision LEDs failed a couple of weeks ago and now today it appears to have died completely.

The doorbell allows the postman to walk down my drive, post a letter and get half way back up it before it registers motion. The video is always of them walking away, completely useless. Further, the WiFi on it is so poor. I’ve had to put an access point almost beside it with line of sight and still it doesn’t get full signal when I can have other devices connected to that same access point through exterior walls.

I really hope people come and read this forum before purchasing any of their products, unfortunately I didn’t come across it until I started having issues.

As soon as the Unifi doorbell is available in the UK I will be replacing it with that and putting up some of their cameras.
Scotty
Posts: 1
Joined: 30 Jun 2020, 19:49

Re: What to expect from Netatmo

Post by Scotty »

Same problems as everyone here. Slow to connect, low quality image, constant disconnects and errors. I would be forgiving if it at least let me reliably answer calls when rung, but it takes far too long to connect after accepting, most of the time the delievery driver is in the process of leaving by the time it connects, if it can at all.

The last straw was only having the tail-end of an event recorded where someone was investigating my house. Missing the start lost valuable context.

This is neither useful as a security device, or as a video doorbell. I’ve contacted Netatmo about this and if they fail to provide a satisfactory answer I will be invoking the Consumers Right Act to get my money back.

Absolutely pathetic for 2 years of delays.
sybren
Posts: 95
Joined: 06 Oct 2020, 16:39

Re: What to expect from Netatmo

Post by sybren »

I can relate to all of the frustrations above. It is working as expected at the moment, but new features take ages. With this tempo HSV will arrive late 2021.

Person detection works slow, if it even works at all. The most frustrating is that they (support) say it is not build as a security camera. When I look at the product page, I see a lot of visuals related to burglars:
Schermafbeelding 2020-12-11 om 10.04.02.png
Schermafbeelding 2020-12-11 om 10.04.02.png (2.99 MiB) Viewed 3691 times
I have hopes that Homekit Secure Video fixes a lot of the issues (Person detection by Apple & Timeline), but maybe my hopes are false and I will get disappointed a lot when the feature finally arrives.
- Used to own Netatmo Outdoor Camera
- Used tot own Netatmo Video Doorbell (beta)
- Used to own Netatmo Smoke Sensors (3x)
- Invited to beta test Netatmo door lock, but declined because of (missing) features
- Netatmo Weather Station v4 + Rain Sensor
MattB
Posts: 10
Joined: 25 Oct 2020, 20:12

Re: What to expect from Netatmo

Post by MattB »

I managed to solve the frequent and lengthy disconnects on my doorbell by changing the DTIM setting on my wireless network from 1 to 3, as noted on https://forum.netatmo.com/viewtopic.php?f=143&t=19036. I've no idea why this made such a huge difference in my case. The DTIM change was made on firmware version 76, so I don't know if the latest firmware version of 80 also needs the DTIM setting of 3 in order to stay connected. I daren't change it back to 1 again.

However, the doorbell is still intermittently unresponsive through both the Netatmo Security app and HomeKit, although it seems to be a bigger problem with HomeKit.

It seems to me that Netatmo uses a very poor quality WiFi chip in their products, as the doorbell seems slow to respond to pings and the ping process also reports a high degree of packet loss. This is in spite of the doorbell have a very strong WiFi signal.

Assuming it is a hardware problem, sadly it would seem that we're stuck with these issues until we're in a position to replace the doorbell with a better model. Fortunately, the doorbell notifications seem to work most of the time. I've only had one instance where the doorbell chime hasn't sounded on my HomePods even though the doorbell was connected to the network.
Timo
Posts: 13
Joined: 01 Jun 2020, 20:48

Re: What to expect from Netatmo

Post by Timo »

Most of the comments are recognisable and at times I feel the same way.
A thing that could help a lot is communication. We, the consumers and users of the doorbell, are left in the dark.
A little perspective and a rough timeline on when to expect a new firmware update and what issues will be solved would go a long way.
More insight in what features they are working on/testing is also much appreciated and might take away frustration of some us.
Post Reply

Return to “General questions”