Good Bye Blink. Hello Tapo.
I had already installed numerous Tapo devices (P125M plugs, C510W and C121 cameras, and D210 doorbells.) These were replacements for Blink devices. I have spent a number of years and a lot of dollars trying to get Blink devices to work. A very frustrating and marginally successful experience. If I had a dollar for every error message I got from Blink, I could have paid for this new system. Tapo equipment and software have been FAR superior to Blink in my experience. Blink sort of worked. Tapo just plain has worked. Your experience may vary from mine. The Tapo app is very smooth, doesn’t cost anything if you use local storage, and is almost glitchless. The one thing I haven’t liked is having to use a separate microsd card for each camera. The cost of the cards does add up and if someone steals the camera they also steal your record of them stealing the camera. I wanted to have centralized local storage. So that is the main reason I bought and installed this H500. It has worked flawlessly. I installed a Crucial MX500 two terabyte drive and achieved my main goal. The H500 detected all of my existing Tapo equipment without a hitch. Today I installed the excellent DL110 door lock (replacing a Sifely, which was a bit finicky) with no problem and intend to install a few of the Tapo smart bulbs. One important thing to do is enable “wifi backup” on your connected devices. I have had almost no signal problems since enabling — unlike Blink. This integrates well with Alexa, though image quality through the Tapo app is better than Alexa. I like using Alexa routines for controlling everything, since I have some non Tapo plugs and lighting that Alexa routines handle very well. In summary — an easy install and a good way to integrate the components of a very user friendly security/home monitoring/lighting system. One other thing I like about the Tapo app is that it works well with either a tablet or phone — it switches between landscape and portrait mode seamlessly. Wish the H500 had been less costly, but it is worth the price to me.

Good alternative to “the cloud”
I wanted to have good, central, storage for my camera’s photos and videos but didn’t want them off in some unknown cloud with a constant subscription fee. I recently switched over to Tapo cameras because of their compatibility with Home Assistant. I was happy to also learn that they offered this H500 hub for centralized storage, and it came in at a decent price.It is easy to set up, plug it in, adopt it in the app, and toggle camera storage over to the hub. Done. Storage is expandable, I had an unused ssd lying around, installed it easily, the app told me it needed to be formatted. Done. You can turn AI features on or off for individual cameras, augmenting models that don’t have any built-in AI recognition features.I have read about some issues with overheating, especially with an expansion drive installed. I put the unit on it’s “side” with the bottom facing up with the hope that the heat will rise up and keep the unit cooler, but I agree it’s a poor design to have heat radiating up through your expansion drive.Bonus, it works with the Tapo doorbell I purchased as a base, it can hook up to a TV to display your cameras there, and it can act as a fall-back WiFi base station for your cameras in case your main network goes out, or you don’t have one (though it is 2.4 only and doesn’t have the best range).Overall, I’m happy with this purchase and can recommend it. If Tapo could re-design it to eliminate the heat issue it would be a 5 star product.

Easy to setup, linked with the app and wifi with no issues. I already had a Tapo doorbell so I was similar with the app, but pairs easy to items that require a hub. Its a small device so you can hide it easy in a home server rack or shelf in the basement.

This hub works well. I was able to plug it into a router fairly far from my door bell camera. It still picks up the signal. I was pleased with this because other items have had trouble connecting.