How to integrate with wireless doorbell?

Hardware
1

Hi,

I’ve got a wireless doorbell and I want to hook it up to HA so that I can get phone notifications when the doorbell rings. There’s a (battery powered?) button on the front of my house and a receiver with a speaker that plugs into an outlet in my foyer.

It seems like the recommended way to do this is to receive the wireless signal. I couldn’t verify that mine is 433MHz, since the button seems to be truly adhered to the front of my house. The receiver is labeled “Intertek 5010856” and “Model: WL-1B-A”.

Assuming it is 433MHz, I would need a receiver. The recommended one I saw was the Sonoff RF Bridge, but in reading into it it seems as though there’s a new version of the device that prevents loading new firmware on the RF radio chip when using Tasmota? Is that right? Would that be a problem for my intended use case? Is there another device? Am I barking up the wrong tree entirely?

Would love to hear your thoughts!

2

How about a vibration sensor on the receiver/bell unit?

3

You could build an ESP device that triggers on voltage getting to the doorbell itself that could raise a signal in HA. I’m pretty sure that a standard doorbell is 16-24v and is live all the time (on the wall), so it would be self powered with a power reducer to it, then when the ringer gets a high signal it can open a relay to the ESP.

Just a spitball.

4

Do you have a way to run wire to where the doorbell button is? If it were me, I’d make something simple up in ESPHome (just Google ESPHome doorbell, you’ll find tons of inspiration beyond just a simple button if you like). Could even do the same with the chime portion. A simple speaker, bells, etc.

In my case, I have a typical 24V wired doorbell and just wired something up (pre HA days for me) to sense when the button got pressed and now have it send a MQTT message to HA to notify me, etc.

5

I’m using a Sonoff RF Bridge that is not flashed with portish (the firmware on the RF radio chip you are talking about) and it picks up my doorbell just fine. YMMV.

6

You might be best to use a current sensor like this if its connected by direct power https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000434009123.html on the button side as per this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p596PnCCIX0&t=209s

Else you can try open up the wireless chime side to try fit it there with the esp board and get it working like shown here: https://youtu.be/ZrkAWSemDC8

7

That might work, but it’s definitely an indirect measurement so I’d like to find something more direct.

8

That seems like a good idea for a standard wired doorbell (which might be my next project) but I’m looking for ideas for my cheap wireless doorbell. Unfortunately I can’t change it and need to make it work.

9

Awesome, seems worth a shot!

10

It seems like the suggestion might still work, even if it had no power at all you could add an ESP with a sensor to detect a change in voltage to the bell itself so long as the ESP has a battery. Of all the ESP projects this sounds like the most fun because the risk is minor for such an inexpensive device to crack it open and tinker with triggering an ESP. I’m no expert with complex electronics but I’ve built devices like this that just trigger from a voltage reaction rather than some of the more complex ESP projects where you are trying to take control of an otherwise dumb device.

11

That does look like a good method. I’m a little hesitant to experiment in the speaker box since it does use mains power. I’ll save that for a backup method :slight_smile:

12

Which suggestion? I’m not sure where you’re picturing the ESP. It can’t go outside and there are no wires to the button. It could go on the speaker box if I figured out what signal to read in there, but as I mentioned, I’d like to stay away from the 120V.

13

Found this post that mentions the 433 method and how they set it up, may be worth a read https://lukebrowning.com/home-automation/dumb-wireless-doorbell-notifications-with-home-assistant/

14

Thanks! That is a good read although I imagine I’ll have to do something slightly different as he has the fancy 433MHz doohickey.

15

Yup, just adjust to how your setup needs are based on the options in the various guides already out there.

16

How about using OpenMQTTGateway with an ESP8266/ESP32 and a cheap 433Mhz receiver ?

There are preconfigured binaries now so you can flash the Esp straight from a Chrome browser. I have been running the previous IDE version on a NodeMCU for years and its rock solid.

17

That sounds awesome, any good write-ups you can recommend? What are these devices called so I can duck-duck-go them?

18

The ESP’s are micro controllers with built in wifi, the ESP32 also has Bluetooth built in. They are cheap to buy even from Amazon and the 433 Receivers are pennies to buy. Most are Arduino compatible so will work with a multitude of devices.

You can find reviews and guides online or on YouTube to guide you. For the price of an ESP board, some jumper wires to connect the receiver to the board you are looking at less than £10/$12.

The board can be powered from an old USB phone charger and a microsub lead.

The board connects to your home WiFi network and the 433Mhz receiver will pick up all unencrypted 433Mhz signals which are sent to an MQTT broker. You can easily create an automation to look for the code from your doorbell switch to send you an alert in HA.

19

I have the model 100A-A and not only does it annoyingly not disclose any frequency it uses but, I also tried using a 433mhz rf receiver with no luck.

The frequency is also annoyingly not listed on the manufacturer website but, after doing some Google-foo I found another seller and they had them listed as 315mhz.

I ended up just taking the stick on wireless doorbell apart and it uses 3.3v power which is convenient.

Pull the battery out and solder a wire onto the batter + terminal and aa wire on the ground side.

Next, flip it over and on the push button, find the positive leg and ground leg. Just like before, solder a wire to each

Battery+ to esp8266 3.3v
Battery - to esp8266 Gnd
Button + to gpio
Button - to esp8266 gnd.

switch:
  - platform: gpio
    name: "Doorbell Switch
    pin: 
      number: D6
      allow_other_uses: true 
      mode:
        output: true    
    inverted: true


binary_sensor:
  
  - platform: gpio
    pin:      
      number: D6
      inverted: true   
      allow_other_uses: true    
      mode:        
        input: true
        pullup: true
    name: "Doorbell Button"
    id: test_doorbell