(Po)-Ethernet Doorbell without Video?

Hardware
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Hi everyone,

I am renovating my house and the old doorbell solution was not pleasant (battery powered, annoying sound, non-smart), so I want to make an upgrade there.

So what I want is:

  • notification if the doorbell is ringing (e.g., if I’m in the garden), should be muteable
  • hard-wired power supply, no batteries necessary
  • wired communication solution preferred, but wireless would be okay (as long as the power supply is hard-wired)
  • optional: multiple chimes
  • optional: being able to control volume level of the chime (or being able to turn it completely off)
  • optional: two-way audio / intercom with my phone

I did some research and naturally thought a video doorbell would be a great idea. However, the combination of the given cabling (CAT6 Ethernet would be available), the design of the plot of land (when you step out of the door, it’s just a couple of steps to the sidewalk), and the German regulations (you’re not allowed to film public areas like sidewalks - to avoid legal trouble, I would need to blacken everything despite the feet of visitors :sweat_smile: ) allow no meaningful operation of a video doorbell. I could of course add a network camera from a completely different angle, but that does not fix my doorbell problem.

So I found three different options that could be viable. I’d love to hear your thoughts, maybe someone has another option in mind?

  1. Using a PoE video doorbell (e.g., Reolink PoE doorbell), but deactivate the video (e.g., build a housing that covers the whole camera lens or blacken out nearly the whole image). This is seems so counter-intuitive, as it takes away the main features of the product, but it still fulfills my requirements.

  2. Using a “dumb”/classical doorbell with a relay. This allows separately muting the mechanical chime and notifications. The hardware necessary would be a classical doorbell button, a mechanical chime, a doorbell transformer, and some kind of smart relay. If I get this correctly, it would also be possible to use two or more chimes by using a respective multi-channel relais. Intercom would not be possible with this.

    1. A solution based on a ready-to-use smart relay, e.g., homebridge-shelly-doorbell with Shelly 1
    2. An ESPHome-based solution, see e.g., the solution with some tinkering in the Blog of frenck or this purchaseable solution by Marcel Zuidwijk. (There is also this solution, but it is inferior, as you can not mute the chime.)

  3. An SIP-based solution, e.g., with the suggested add-on here. This seems to be a extremely complicated solution to me. Does this even solve the ringing-part or is it just intercom? I would have to dig deeper to even get a list of necessary hardware.

My tendency goes to solution #2, but I’m open for any insights.

Thanks for your insights! :slightly_smiling_face:

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#2 I like but size is real issue. I would want to install the esp device indoor but have speaker, mic, and button mounted outdoor.

You could use ethernet wire for mic, speaker and button but they may be a little thin and volume ultimately will depend on speaker size with 3” or 4” being in my optimal.

You could seperate the components. They do not need to be housed together. Can you run additional wire?

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Double-check that… perhaps only recording is not allowed, while live picture (not recording) is allowed…? In this case you don’t insert SD card and you’re a winner.