Pi zero doorbell camera

Hi all, have written up version 1.0 of a project to create a doorbell triggered pi zero camera that was developed from this thread. Currently have the core functionality down, but need to clean up the code and then mount the pi zero on the door. My idea is to place the camera behind the view-hole on my apartment door and design a 3D printed case to house the pi/camera. Any comments/feedback welcome! Cheers

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Well done tutorial and worth reading for just the explanation of how to send the image notifications alone.

Nice job!

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Nice project. I’ve got a pi zero that’s been sitting on my desk at work for a few months waiting for me to come up with something to do with it. Do you have an in-situ photo of it on your door?

Thats the plan for the weekend, ready to mount

First effort not very satisfactory, and not helped by the fact my zero W died so this effort is a standard zero with a dongle. Also taking images through the barrel is a challenge but I know from previous effort that usable images are achievable. If I were only taking an image through a glass window life would be much easier :slight_smile:

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This is how I did mine I poked the camera cable trough the hole that the spy hole was in.

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I know that the CCD module can be removed from the main camera board so could potentially have a very tidy little unit on the outside. Will have a play with that as imaging through a hole is really not ideal

That would make it very neat. I am quite happy with mine as is at the moment. I have it set up with a Broadlink RM Pro that sends the RF signal to the door bell and pauses the TV or DVD if we are watching it. Also get a notification on my phone if it picks up movement or the doorbell rings.

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Could have found what I need

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Hi Rob,

Nice project! I got a Pi zero today and orderd everything.

Were did you place the RX receiver etc on the Pi?

Hi, nice to hear its inspiring :slight_smile: I actually have the receiver on a separate pi, see here. However I imagine you can mount in on the pi zero too somehow… Let me know what you do!

Aaa cool!

So the pi zero with camera is just a other component not physically connected to the doorbell? And you use mqtt to make them “talk”?

Well my setup now is:

Pi3 with HASS
Pi3 (no purpose yet)
pi Zero (non wifi)
Cheap RF doorbell (I dont know if it will work)

I orderd:
Pi zero case
Pi zero camera (cheapo)
433Mhz Wireless RF Transmitter Module+ Receiver
Cables to connect wifi dongle and other stuff.

Maby need to buy an other doorbell because this one is not that good.

Do you have HASS installed on a RPi? And is this also your MQTT server and RF?

HASSIO for MQTT server. You could use my serial solution for RF, or you could run on a separate thread on the Pi directly (not HASSIO). I went down the route of arduino as using Hassio

So you use Mosquitto on the Hassio?

I’m running a generic broker in Docker on a NAS, but I’m sure the Hassio broker is ok :+1:

New to MQTT, will wait till all the stuff gets here. Then ill start building! Ill post when i have all the stuf

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@robmarkcole

Received the RF transmitter set today. Unfortunately i don’t have wiring yet/

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