WIFI based remote walkie talkie

LuccianoLoco · April 4

Hi guys!

Need some advice from you... Basically I have CCTV full system around the house, but non of the cameras has speakers built in and I want to build something like walkie talkie, that if CCTV catches area intrusion that I could talk over the phone (or app on the phone) directly into the speaker (megaphone). I was thinking maybe some raspberry pi build and keep it connected to the house wifi or smth. Any ideas where should I start? Buying another camera with speaker not an option - they're not loud enough for my property, and changing the whole CCTV cost too much. Thanks in advance!

da na · April 4

A very simple solution would be having a phone, computer, etc. connected to the speaker system, and on it, sign into a Discord account and have that device always sitting in a call. Then, on your phone from another Discord account you could join the call whenever needed to speak.

Discord allows a user to sit in a call for seemingly forever (as in years). It'd be very easy to take advantage of that to hop into the voice channel from another device when needed - every other call app I can think of would need the device at home to pick up the call, Discord does not require that for VCs.

Need help figuring out the speakers, or just the calling aspect?

A compression horn would be an excellent choice for this purpose.

LuccianoLoco · April 4

33 minutes ago, da na said:

A very simple solution would be having a phone, computer, etc. connected to the speaker system, and on it, sign into a Discord account and have that device always sitting in a call. Then, on your phone from another Discord account you could join the call whenever needed to speak.

Discord allows a user to sit in a call for seemingly forever (as in years). It'd be very easy to take advantage of that to hop into the voice channel from another device when needed - every other call app I can think of would need the device at home to pick up the call, Discord does not require that for VCs.

Need help figuring out the speakers, or just the calling aspect?

A compression horn would be an excellent choice for this purpose.

Ohhh mate that's a brilliant idea and effectively probably the cheapest option all together!

What would you recommend from speakers for outdoors use? Need something quite loud, but budget friendly and capable to survive cold temperatures and some humidity as it would probably be hanging on the wall under the roof of the house

da na · April 4

12 minutes ago, LuccianoLoco said:

Ohhh mate that's a brilliant idea and effectively probably the cheapest option all together!

What would you recommend from speakers for outdoors use? Need something quite loud, but budget friendly and capable to survive cold temperatures and some humidity as it would probably be hanging on the wall under the roof of the house

You'd definitely want a directional horn. Compression horns take very little power to drive for a ludicrous amount of output power - the ratio is about 10x more efficient than a typical speaker. You'd only need a small amp to drive one.

Something like this would suffice nicely, you would want to make sure it angles downwards so water does not go inside the throat.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/235337072320?

Be very sure not to buy a horn tweeter instead of a PA horn. The former is designed for precision and high fidelity at low wattage, and would immediately blow if given the amount of power a PA horn would need.

If you see a small horn with a very long throat, like this:

They sound incredible for listening to jazz, but don't get one for your security system. You'd need a horn with a thick throat and a pole in the middle like the one I linked above.

So in short, look for "PA Horn" in online auctions and et cetera.

LuccianoLoco · April 4

25 minutes ago, da na said:

You'd definitely want a directional horn. Compression horns take very little power to drive for a ludicrous amount of output power - the ratio is about 10x more efficient than a typical speaker. You'd only need a small amp to drive one.

Something like this would suffice nicely, you would want to make sure it angles downwards so water does not go inside the throat.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/235337072320?

Be very sure not to buy a horn tweeter instead of a PA horn. The former is designed for precision and high fidelity at low wattage, and would immediately blow if given the amount of power a PA horn would need.

If you see a small horn with a very long throat, like this:

They sound incredible for listening to jazz, but don't get one for your security system. You'd need a horn with a thick throat and a pole in the middle like the one I linked above.

So in short, look for "PA Horn" in online auctions and et cetera.