Alternatives to Monocle?
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It seems like this service has been abandoned based off the forum activity. I was really excited to find this available and I was able to get my picky Reolink cameras to work by using a gateway. I’m not sure if I want to invest in a Raspberry PI if this service is dying. Anyone have any alternatives are insight in the subject?
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There is a Reolink app for Amazon / Alexa; this means you don’t need Monocle to display Reolink cams on an Echo show etc.
Works for me on Show 54 and Show 8 with 3 different Reolink cameras. -
Not sure why you would need a raspberry pi. I have been using this service for months without a proxy/gateway. Is it not working for you as just a skill? I don’t have a reolink camera so I can’t comment so much on if it does require a pi, maybe the question was rather whether or not you should have invested in a less picky camera?
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@G3ZDM It doesn’t work on cameras that are not cloud-based and on an NVR. Monocle works great, I’m just trying to prepare for the next year or so. For reference, I just bought the RLN8-410 model. There is no built-in Alexa/Google integration (yet).
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@rafale Ha, good point about the pickiness. There were many factors I was considering and working on the Alexa was a “nice-to-have” feature. The gateway is evidently needed on the Show 8/10 as discussed in this compatibility page: https://monoclecam.com/supported/alexa I have tried it w/ and w/o the gateway and only works with. I have it running on a laptop, but I want to move it to an a “always on” device, like a Raspberry PI. It is working pretty well (takes average of 10 seconds to come up), but I’m trying to future-proof the design.
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Sounds like Alexa integration may come in a future firmware upgrade then; I know I had to upgrade my firmware on all 3 before I could use them with Echo Show 5 and 8 (RLC510, 411 and 423.
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@rafale said in Alternatives to Monocle?:
Not sure why you would need a raspberry pi. I have been using this service for months without a proxy/gateway. Is it not working for you as just a skill? I don’t have a reolink camera so I can’t comment so much on if it does require a pi, maybe the question was rather whether or not you should have invested in a less picky camera?
What are you using then if not the Monocle gateway, BI one or something.