Cheapest DIY semi-smart doorbell suggestions?

[y3llowduk]

I'm after a really basic smart doorbell solution. No need for a camera, literally just after a button which can send a notification to my phone or PC in the house. Only needs to work on the LAN not internet. Would be useful to have a ringer too.

 

Looking to do this as cheap and as hacky as possible - raspberry pi maybe?

 

Looking for suggestions

[HanZie82]

I've been looking into this as well.

The problem lies that you would need to program the device that connects to the doorbell. (Altho i was thinking of using a ESP-01S instead of R-Pi.)

But also the app on the phone. And there lies a problem for me. I cant. Specialy since you want it fast and always on.

So i will keep an eye out for this topic.
I wish you best of luck!

[Levent]

I do that. We got one of those systems with cameras and it is powered by 220VAC and board thankfully runs on 12VDC. I got a NodeMCU, single 12v relay and a buck converter (connected to 12v of the board and outputs 5v to nodemcu) I connected D6 and GND of the nodemcu to the relay and once door rings and it triggers a notification on hassio app on my phone until speaker has no sound (meaning someone answered the door). It was the easiest solution do with little time I got, its not particularly the best solution for everyone but might give you some idea.

[helfisk]

1 hour ago, y3llowduk said:

I'm after a really basic smart doorbell solution. No need for a camera, literally just after a button which can send a notification to my phone or PC in the house. Only needs to work on the LAN not internet. Would be useful to have a ringer too.

 

Looking to do this as cheap and as hacky as possible - raspberry pi maybe?

 

Looking for suggestions

Step 1. Get a cheap, basic but somewhat smart girlfriend

Step 2. Have girlfriend hold a button

Step 3. Girlfriend sends text when someone presses the button

Step 4. Put a ring on it, upgrade to wife

[HanZie82]

1 minute ago, helfisk said:

Step 1. Get a basic but somewhat smart girlfriend

Step 2. Have girlfriend hold a button

Step 3. Girlfriend sends text when someone presses the button

Step 4. Put a ring on it, upgrade to wife

That sounds hella expensive tho.
(lets hope the door answering machine doesnt read this... )

[helfisk]

7 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

That sounds hella expensive tho.
(lets hope the door answering machine doesnt read this... )

If he absolutely must have a ringer, costs go up significantly.
Guess a raspberry Pi will have to do then.

Thing is, what @y3llowduk is looking into, gets complicated quickly.
You want it to send a notification - 2 options come to mind;

a) get a GSM module for the raspberry, use a prepaid SIM or
b) use some sort of message relay service for an app on your phone, like Notify17

However, I seem to recall Notify17 sending mails that they were ending their services

[y3llowduk]

Hmm I'm guessing there isn't going to be any semi-easy ways round this. Would be nice if you could get cheap non-wifi wireless doorbells but with little vibrating receivers you could just leave in your pocket, or wife's underwear. I've found one such product on amazon but it's 3x the price of a regular wireless, non-plugin doorbell set. Boo.

 

Just want to listen to music without missing every parcel and without spending £50 on a ring...

[HanZie82]

3 minutes ago, y3llowduk said:

Hmm I'm guessing there isn't going to be any semi-easy ways round this. Would be nice if you could get cheap non-wifi wireless doorbells but with little vibrating receivers you could just leave in your pocket, or wife's underwear. I've found one such product on amazon but it's 3x the price of a regular wireless, non-plugin doorbell set. Boo.

 

Just want to listen to music without missing every parcel and without spending £50 on a ring...

Yeah you either spend a lot of money, or put in a lot of time.
No easy solutions for home-automation unfortunately.

 

I have also not found an easy solution yet. heheheh

[RAS_3885]

23 minutes ago, helfisk said:

Step 1. Get a cheap, basic but somewhat smart girlfriend

Step 2. Have girlfriend hold a button

Step 3. Girlfriend sends text when someone presses the button

Step 4. Put a ring on it, upgrade to wife

Haha, I was going to suggest a dog that likes barking at people.

[HanZie82]

Just now, RAS_3885 said:

Haha, I was going to suggest a dog that likes barking at people.

But that would ruin the music experience.

Unless (s)he can bark on the beat.

[mtz_federico]

I would use an ESP and do something like what @Levent did but without Home Assistant. You could have two ESPs talking to each other with web requests. One connected to the doorbell with a relay and the other with a relay connected to a lamp.

 

Or with some service that can send notifications to your phone from the ESP. Doing some quick googleing, I found simplepush.io. I already has an ESP integration and it's free for a limited amount of notifications. But I have never used it

 

EDIT: they have an example article for the ESP8266