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Convert an existing wired doorbell into a smart doorbell using ESPHome

frenck.dev

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Re: Convert an existing wired doorbell into a smart doorbell using ESPHome

#51

Post by jaeckel »

gh02t wrote: post #47
jaeckel wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have a [local only, no cloud] doorbell with a camera that does person detection. Would you maybe share with us how you built it/which parts you used?

Amcrest AD110 doorbell connected over wifi to a recycled HP mini-PC (can be had cheaply on Amazon) running Frigate ( https://frigate.video/ ) with a Google Coral accelerator installed in one of the internal slots. The Amcrest doorbell does have a cloud video connection if you want, but I firewalled it off from the internet and use the local RTSP streaming over to Frigate. Frigate talks to my local Home Assistant inst…

Thanks!

Re: Convert an existing wired doorbell into a smart doorbell using ESPHome

#52

Post by EricE »

eadmund wrote: post #35

The only real advantage of this seems to be the ability to disable the chime during quiet hours. Otherwise it seems like a much more failure-prone doorbell (more components means more things to break). Why not go the other way entirely? Disable the chime, install a door knocker, and never worry about replacing outdated tech, dried capacitors, shorts or anything else for the rest of one’s life.

From TFA: "I hope you enjoy your DIY smart doorbell! However, now the time has come for me to come clean. This article was never about the doorbell! This article is about showing you how easy, fun, and cheap DIY smart home solutions are. ESPHome & Home Assistant are just amazing tools to allow everyone to jump in and create amazing things."

Re: Convert an existing wired doorbell into a smart doorbell using ESPHome

#54

Post by EricE »

jaeckel wrote: post #41
gh02t wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can know if someone rings your doorbell when you aren't there is one tangible advantage. Or you can add a remote bell if you're often working in a basement, shed etc. If you don't want to deal with maintenance then don't, but some people like to play with stuff like this. The author of this article is one of the maintainers of ESPhome and one of the biggest contributors to Home Assistant, so he definitely is the…

> I have a [local only, no cloud] doorbell with a camera that does person detection. Would you maybe share with us how you built it/which parts you used?

The Ubiquity doorbell also does local person and package detection in addition to standard motion detection. Indeed, it has a second camera aimed down specifically to detect packages: https://ui.com/us/en/camera-security/special-devices

You also need a Protect NVR to record video, manage the camera and provide notifications - the Cloud Key Plus works perfectly for up to a dozen or so cameras (uses standard laptop hard drive) - but they have a variety of devices that can run Protect from the UDM Pro (also will serve as a router/firewall) to larger dedicated Protect NVRs with four or seven disks depending on how much storage you want.

It can be a bit pricy for just a doorbell camera, but if you add a couple of other cameras then the value gets significantly better. Cloud is optional other than being required for initial configuration and is used for notifications, remote access and remote administration.

Re: Convert an existing wired doorbell into a smart doorbell using ESPHome

#55

Post by buescher »

alright2565 wrote: post #46
uxp100 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, this is good info. I’ve got the pictured Amazon seller kit, and it works really bad! For the task of connecting 2.54mm “pin headers” on boards you prefer mini-pv. A little hard to search for, but does this require a special crimper of its own? As a hobbiest you don’t recommend doing your own crimping at all, and I am willing to pay money, but I do kinda need specific lengths due to a tight enclosure without much…

> A little hard to search for, but does this require a special crimper of its own? The IWISS SN-025 works well for the Mini-PV too. Which makes sense, since the dupont connectors are a near-clone designed for cheaper production. > As a hobbiest you don’t recommend doing your own crimping at all I just don't find it very enjoyable, especially getting to the point where I have tools that are actually suitable! The IWIS…

> Except I don't think there's any services at that price point for cable harnesses.

I don't know of any either, but you can design around ready-made cables. Mouser and Digi-Key carry a pretty big selection.

Re: Convert an existing wired doorbell into a smart doorbell using ESPHome

#56

Post by alias_neo »

whazor wrote: post #37
alias_neo wrote: post #21

I think personally, I'd go with a simple Zigbee or Z-Wave push-button if (when) I were to re-do my doorbell setup. I use Home Assistant, with hundreds of devices in my home at this point. I spent so long looking for the right video doorbell and chime that I ultimately ended up with something both costly and somewhat unreliable. I use the Amcrest AD410 with a custom component that polls it (issue 1), with all of the c…

The benefit of using ESPHome is that the chime would still ring if your bridge/server is down.

Can you tell me some more about that? I currently use ESPHome for a bunch of devices, but the automations they use are all driven through Home Assistant.

Is there a way to link devices directly over the WiFi with ESPHome?

EDIT: I think I understand what you meant now; not specifically ESPHome, but the nature of the deployment in the OP takes the "smarts" out of the critical path, allowing it to fall back to being an electro-mechanically actuated doorbell. This is certainly ideal, but I don't have anywhere I can place/power a chime near the doorbell hence the desire for a wireless connection between them. Would be great if I could somehow link two ESPHome devices wirelessly without the server so they can communicate if it's down (I suppose I could with an REST API if nothing else).

Re: Convert an existing wired doorbell into a smart doorbell using ESPHome

#57

Post by buescher »

alright2565 wrote: post #18

I wouldn't recommend crimping your own hookup wires as a hobbiest, especially not dupont. The unofficial tools for dupont mostly all suck, and the official tools are $400+[1]. [1]: https://www.mattmillman.com/info/crimpconnectors/dupont-and-... For my own crimping of dupont, I'm using the Iwiss SN-025 which works OK, but even then I've mostly switched to Mini-PV because I was tired of the dupont receptacles wearing o…

Not only are most third-party crimp tools kind of marginal, but if you're buying connector kits of Amazon/ebay/Aliexpress etc you're getting knockoffs too, so you have a lot of degrees of quality freedom between your crimp pin and your tooling.

And you're probably getting your connector and its mate from different manufacturers, too, which can have its own set of issues.

Re: Convert an existing wired doorbell into a smart doorbell using ESPHome

#58

Post by gregmac »

I did a very similar hack a while ago, but in my case, I have a Ubiquiti video door bell, and I was having issues with it sometimes rebooting when it tried to ring the chime (after a specific software update, but only when it was cold out. I still have no idea if this a hardware or software problem, but I got tired of trying to diagnose).

Anyway, I also realized my chime wasn't audible in some parts of the house, so what I did instead was disable the hardwired chime completely, then get a fairly cheap wireless doorbell with 3 plug-in receivers scattered around the house. An esp8266 module (Wemos D1) is wired directly to the doorbell button, supplying 3.3V to ring it.

I use Home Assistant to send the signal from the Unifi doorbell to the esp8266. The biggest downside is the need to have Home Assistant, Unifi Protect and Wifi all running for my doorbell to work, but at the same time, I have a lot of automations that stop without those, the doorbell is not that high on my list of critical priorities. People can knock.

Kind of wish I had this when I had a baby that slept during the day: it would be trivial to schedule the chime not to ring at certain times of day.

I did a write-up: https://imgur.com/gallery/wifi-doorbell-chime-QTYYQs4

Re: Convert an existing wired doorbell into a smart doorbell using ESPHome

#59

Post by ta1243 »

gregmac wrote: post #58

I did a very similar hack a while ago, but in my case, I have a Ubiquiti video door bell, and I was having issues with it sometimes rebooting when it tried to ring the chime (after a specific software update, but only when it was cold out. I still have no idea if this a hardware or software problem, but I got tired of trying to diagnose). Anyway, I also realized my chime wasn't audible in some parts of the house, so…

> The biggest downside is the need to have Home Assistant, Unifi Protect and Wifi all running for my doorbell to work

It's no wonder delivery people just knock and leave nowadays.

Re: Convert an existing wired doorbell into a smart doorbell using ESPHome

#60

Post by whazor »

nagisa wrote: post #32

Not specifically a recommendation for doorbells, but if all you need is a relay with an ESP inside that you can flash to ESPHome et al., Sonoff or Shelly products are pretty neat ready-made options that incorporate a power supply from mains (and sometimes have some DC powering support too), a relay and a case. Some models have an option of measuring temperature and/or power consumption as well.

Unfortunatly, the chime transformer provides 12V AC and a Shelly requires 110-230V AC or 24 – 30V DC.
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