Can anyone suggest a cheap device with easy setup that can play a chime/doorbell sound triggered by HA? My current setup is HA installed on a Raspi 4, connected to most devices with a Zigbee mesh and a thread network. I also have a ESP32 as bluetooth proxy.
I’d like to be notified with sound when someone rings the doorbell (actually I have two doors I’d like to assign different sounds), audible in my kitchen, which is where my Raspi running HA is also mounted.
I do not need to play music or require a good audio quality, I do not want devices talking to the internet, I do not want to spend many hours with custom firmware flashing or fiddling with the setup of complicated solutions (VLC/telnet). I’m fine with something that can play a few different sounds (door 1, door 2, ack of door opened). I do not have any smart TVs, chromecast devices etc., all I have is a Homepod Mini which I currently use to play sounds but I don’t like the delay of ~1 second between the doorbell and the HomePod playing the sound. So is there any “plug&play” solution of a speaker or a dedicated doorbell?
I use a shelly button 1 as my doorbell button with my setup at this time to save on drilling into the brick in my block since I already have a camera setup above the door and use a usb speaker plugged into my NUC for audio out from HA via the VLC integration to play local as HA needs a media player installed to play audio files through it, in your case you could look into say an Aqara Video Doorbell G4 as it’s the more popular one for local only setups at this time.
Your automatons would just have the mp3 files assigned to each one for the doorbells pressed and for doors opened you would use door sensors on each one tied to the audio automatons on activation in HA.
Robert, thanks but I’m renting an apartment in a multi apartment house. The doorbell system is centralised, it’s for the door down at the street level. I connected a Ring Intercom so I can open the door from everywhere, the issue is that I don’t hear the doorbell from all rooms in my apartment.
As for the door at my apartment, I could place a zigbee button there, but then I’d still have the same issue, I need a speaker in my apartment.
PS: I don’t have a NUC. All my hardware is listed above. All I want is something for max. 30 US$/EUR that plays a chime and connects to HA.
Is there a physical bell anywhere? I have an old Victorian pull bell, I stuck a vibration sensor on it and when it rings it triggers the google speak out the back with a recording of it ringing, something along them lines maybe?
Andrew, the issue isn’t getting a signal into HA, that’s already working. What I need is to play a sound that alerts me of the doorbell ringing. My iPhone is always set to silent. I’m looking for a setup with a cheap speaker/chime/… that connects to HA via Bluetooth or Wifi or is directly connected to the Raspi 4 via USB. Some people report that HA as server should not ever have a speaker connected and one should get a chromecast audio, other say the only thing that worked for them was USB, others say only 3.5mm analog audio worked for them. And others report that they spent hours fiddling with the software side.
Unfortunately I know very little abut all the home pod stuff, sorry about that, however, I did find this, maybe you can use TTS to your home pod? Just a thought.
ok your best case is using the channels in the companion app with the commands to set the volume levels on alerts when the doorbell is rang:
This is something I am trying to figure out on the android side since I have the doorbell channel, the mp3 file will be saved to the phone and you have have a dedicated channel on the app for each door ie. doorbell-front, doorbell-back and just have that mp3 file set to that specific channel.
I have the channel working I just can’t get the volume controls automated on my android phone but it may be easier to setup on iphone in some cases.
The data field is how I have the channel created in the app as you can only do it this way you can’t make them directly in it, once its created by HA you can then go into notification channels in the app and assign the sound file saved to the phone.
that image line pulls a temp screenshot from the camera feed into the notification the moment the doorbell is pressed.
Andrew, thanks for you suggestion, but in my initial post I wrote: “all I have is a Homepod Mini which I currently use to play sounds but I don’t like the delay of ~1 second between the doorbell and the HomePod playing the sound.”
Nice idea. What sensor to you use, SW-420? I have wyze video bells but cannot get button press from API. I did not want to open them up, so this sounds like a good idea. Maybe I could use a magnetic pulse sensor too.
Hmm, in my case I’d be better off with a simple&cheap speaker/chime that can connect to HA. The doorbell should be audible for everyone at home (friends & family), not only people who have the companion app installed.
I can’t believe there’s no 20-30 US$/EUR device that HA can connect to locally and play sounds?
That’s why I linked the USB speaker that I use, any will do. I have it passed through to my VM install of HA via the NUC, the VLC integration just allows HA to play the mp3 file you assign in the automation directly through the speaker plugged in locally on the host device.
I have the windows volume on it set to 80% and its loud enough for me to hear it when it goes off.
Robert, thanks. Do you happen to have any experience with plugging that USB speaker into a Raspi 4? I’ve seen some reports online of people who experienced dropouts while playing audio files, which is why I decided to ask in here. I assume the digital-to-analog conversion happens in the Raspi and the USB cable transports an analog signal to the speaker, and this conversion might not work well on a Raspi (especially if it’s also busy with HA).
USB is all digital you only go from analogue to digital if you are going from old walkmans playing tapes and use the red/white or 3.5mm cable out from that into a system you are recording with.
If people are having drop outs then there is a general issue with the USB port they are using on the pi4 at the time usually power which can be resolved by using a dedicated powered USB hub since they would also be using usb adapters for zigbee and z wave networking.
I have a pi3 myself that I may be converting to a remote HA instance to monitor through my main that will be sitting at the parents place and will just add the IR hub to it, may buy another usb speaker like I have but they already have an alexa I can tie in at a later date.
Thanks for your feedback. I’m going to purchase a cheap USB speaker for the Raspi 4 running HA and will use it to play a chime when someone rings the doorbell.
