Alright, so I wanted to get my Eufy cameras working with SmartThings. It wasn’t super straightforward, but I finally figured it out, so I thought I’d share my experience.
Getting Started
First, I made sure everything was up-to-date. Updated the Eufy app, updated the SmartThings app, made sure my camera firmware was current. You know, the usual drill. Gotta have all your ducks in a row before you start messing with this stuff.
IFTTT: The Middleman
Turns out, you can’t directly connect Eufy and SmartThings. They just don’t speak the same language natively. So, I had to use something called IFTTT. Think of it like a translator. It takes actions from one app (Eufy) and tells another app (SmartThings) what to do.
I downloaded the IFTTT app and created an account. It’s free, so that was nice. Then I looked for the Eufy Security service and the SmartThings service inside IFTTT and connected both of them. It asks for your login info and stuff, pretty standard procedure.
Setting Up the “Recipes”
In IFTTT, they’re called “Applets,” but I like to think of them as “recipes”. You’re basically telling IFTTT, “IF this happens in Eufy, THEN do that in SmartThings.”
For example, I wanted my SmartThings lights to turn on if my Eufy camera detected motion. So I created an Applet like this:
- IF: Eufy Security – Motion detected
- THEN: SmartThings – Turn on lights
I went into setting to specify my camera and lights.
You can create different recipes for different things. Maybe you want a SmartThings notification when your Eufy doorbell rings. You can set that up too. It’s pretty flexible.
Testing and Tweaking
Once I had my Applets set up, I did some testing. Walked in front of my camera, made sure the lights turned on. Rang the doorbell, checked for the notification. You know, just making sure everything worked like it should.
It took a little bit of tweaking, to be honest. Sometimes there’s a slight delay, so I had to adjust my expectations a bit. But overall, it works pretty well!
Final Thoughts
It’s not perfect, and it would be way better if Eufy and SmartThings just worked together directly. But using IFTTT is a decent workaround. It lets you add some basic automation and get your devices talking to each other, even if they’re not naturally compatible.
Hope this helps anyone else trying to get their Eufy cameras working with SmartThings! It’s a bit of a process, but definitely doable.