Author Topic: Doorbell with iOS alert  (Read 2434 times)

Beardy

  • Shedist
Doorbell with iOS alert
« on: 29 August, 2019, 09:19:41 pm »
I need a new doorbell since next door got the same one as us and their front door bell,ouch rings our door bell. But I want one with iOS connectivity so that I get an alert when someone comes to the door. I’m not bothered about a camera and I’m particularly keen to avoid 3rd party server solutions.

The question is, Kim or anyone else, what have you got? Is it good? Is it commercially available or am I going to that to go home brew?
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

Kim

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Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #1 on: 29 August, 2019, 09:59:46 pm »
FWIW check your doorbell doesn't have a way to change its ID.  Probably some jumpers or DIP switches or something in the battery compartment of both parts.

Ours is extremely homebrew, and is part of a complex interconnected system with a squillion other non-doorbell features[1] (and at least one major bug I haven't been able to work around satisfactorily), represents a huge number of Kim-hours of work, a four-figure hardware cost, and wouldn't be much use unless you're already heavily invested in IRC[2] as a user interface.

But more generally, this is the sort of thing Arduinos are good at.  There seem to be various solutions to generating push notifications from an internet-connected Arduino, although the first three I clicked on seem to involve some third-party service that I've never heard of.  You could always do something standards-based like send an email, or low-tech and real time like a phone call[3].


[1] Everything from a gentle message if the computer thinks someone has fallen asleep in the bath, to re-enacting the Nostromo's self-destruct sequence when the fire alarm goes off, via telling you what it was you came upstairs for.
[2] Mainly this shows the age of our original system, but the great thing about having missed out on the cloud computing IoT revolution is that it all still works without an internet connection.  You can still just about get an IRC client for smartphones with a working highlight function.
[3] Back in the days when SMSes could take a several of minutes to be delivered, I used to have a Nokia wired to the Fiat Of The Apocalypse's alarm system via a PIC.  It would generate the appropriate AT command string to attempt to make a HSCSD modem call to my phone when the alarm went off (at which point I'd recognise the number and immediately reject the call).  I thought this was pretty clever until I saw Postman Piers's version based on a relay shorting one of the speed-dial buttons on a much older and less impressive Nokia.

Beardy

  • Shedist
Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #2 on: 29 August, 2019, 10:44:30 pm »
I could fall back on IfTTT but that would fail the 3PS criteria.

If I was going to go old skool then I could rig something with relays and a bastardised mechanical digit regenerator, but it would take an age to find the parts and I’d have to build a 50v power supply.

I’ll probably look at a Wi-Fi connected Arduino or RaspPi, because, as OTS IoT kit suppliers are all obsessed with using their own servers to provide a service at a cost.
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #3 on: 29 August, 2019, 11:09:04 pm »
Push notifications on iOS pretty much require a third party server of some kind or another, unless you’re going to homebrew your own push server and receiver app.

ian

Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #4 on: 30 August, 2019, 09:26:30 am »
I use my Arlo for free – the camera on the driveway activates when there's motion and triggers the one in the porch, so I get a notification and a video of what they've been up to along with a mugshot. I'm not sure I'd put more effort into a doorbell, when we had an actual doorbell that worked and I was at home, it's was a rarity to get there before the ringer was at the bottom of the drive and hopping back into the van to speed away.

Kim

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Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #5 on: 30 August, 2019, 12:53:25 pm »
when we had an actual doorbell that worked and I was at home, it's was a rarity to get there before the ringer was at the bottom of the drive and hopping back into the van to speed away.

This is true.  Not sure if it's always been this way, or the behaviour has evolved alongside the rise of mobile phones (people don't let a phone ring for longer than it takes to get one out of your pocket and answer it these days - if your hands are dirty or the phone's in another room, you're unlikely to make it in time).

Our doorbell plays a 10 second sample of Rod Hull and his finest drama students[1].  If I'm sitting at my desk and not entangled by headphones or anything, I can just about get to the front door within a second or so of it stopping playing.  I then have to get some keys and open the door, to typically find the ringer in the process of walking away having given up.


[1] Everyone who isn't: Ask someone around the age of 40 who had a telly as a kid.

Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #6 on: 31 August, 2020, 04:57:09 pm »
Anyone else have a recommendation of a good video doorbell?


Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #7 on: 31 August, 2020, 06:26:14 pm »
I then have to get some keys and open the door

You need to find keys to open your door from the inside?
That doesn't sound safe.

frankly frankie

  • I kid you not
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Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #8 on: 31 August, 2020, 06:43:40 pm »
FWIW check your doorbell doesn't have a way to change its ID.  Probably some jumpers or DIP switches or something in the battery compartment of both parts.

Or tell your effing neighbours to change theirs.  You were there first!
when you're dead you're done, so let the good times roll

Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #9 on: 31 August, 2020, 06:54:26 pm »
Perhaps start randomly pressing your bell until it drives your neighbour crazy. 

Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #10 on: 31 August, 2020, 08:19:45 pm »
Anyone else have a recommendation of a good video doorbell?
No.
But I've got a cheap one that's compatible with the rest of my Tuya Smart set up. It works well and does what it promises. Battery life is excellent, image quality is very good, two way audio is acceptable. So what's not to like?
The biggest problem is the lack of timeout - if I'm driving and the doorbell rings on my phone, it'll keep ringing until I 'accept' or 'decline' the caller.
Next - it relies on good, permanent data connection. Say no more.
Finally, as pointed out up thread, by the time I get to answer the doorbell on my phone, the caller is already walking away.
Great idea, but.
Too many angry people - breathe & relax.

Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #11 on: 31 August, 2020, 09:09:59 pm »
Perhaps start randomly pressing your bell until it drives your neighbour crazy.

At unsocial hours ...

Kim

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Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #12 on: 31 August, 2020, 09:30:33 pm »
I then have to get some keys and open the door

You need to find keys to open your door from the inside?
That doesn't sound safe.

Not any more.  I replaced the euro lock thingy with one that has a knob on the inside rather than a keyhole.

(Leaving your keys in the internal keyhole is apparently vulnerable to fishing attacks.)

Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #13 on: 31 August, 2020, 09:50:05 pm »
If you have a deadbolt lock on an external door then you should have a thumb lock (or thumb bolt) on the inside rather than a key if there's a chance that you can deadlock the door whilst someone is inside.

We don't use the deadbolt lock on the outer external door (that's shared with the upstairs flat) as it's key operated both sides. If/when we replace the door we'll replace the locks with suitable ones that can be opened from the inside without a key.

Banham stuff is expensive, but still less than a fifty of the price of a brand new wooden front door.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #14 on: 31 August, 2020, 10:23:23 pm »
Anyone else have a recommendation of a good video doorbell?

I have a Ring doorbell video camera that works fine on OS and iOS.
Never knowingly under caffeinated

Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #15 on: 01 September, 2020, 07:10:28 am »
Ring consider the camera and the footage from it their own and are doing all sorts of crazy distopian stuff with police.

Smash that thing with a hammer.

Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #16 on: 01 September, 2020, 08:18:26 am »
Ring consider the camera and the footage from it their own and are doing all sorts of crazy distopian stuff with police.


Such as?
Never knowingly under caffeinated

Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #17 on: 01 September, 2020, 09:31:19 am »
There are many informed articles on the Internet regarding data security and integrity issues with Ring which is owned by Amazon.  It makes interezting reading and Iwould suspect that any similar product attached to the Google Nest has similar issues too.

Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #18 on: 02 September, 2020, 12:45:39 am »
Ring consider the camera and the footage from it their own and are doing all sorts of crazy distopian stuff with police.

Smash that thing with a hammer.

Before someone in a balaclava steals it from your wall.

(They've been spates of smart doorbells being nicked round here in the 'burbs of London. Either as a precursor to burglary attempts or just stealing for parts/resale.)
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

ian

Re: Doorbell with iOS alert
« Reply #19 on: 02 September, 2020, 09:31:59 am »
Ring consider the camera and the footage from it their own and are doing all sorts of crazy distopian stuff with police.


Such as?

They have a partnership with various US police forces to access video. You can turn it off. Or not live in the US. I believe they now state they won't share unless you make it publicly available or there's a court order.

Of course, any footage online is hackable, or just use an pwned or default password. How much value that has, I'm not clear.

There might be a wider issue with the obsession with seeing everyone and general oh-my-god-there's-someone-at-my-door paranoia but we live in a country of ubiquitous CCTV, so I think that ones out of the bag.