I have been trying to find a smart doorbell without a camera, or a smart button that will work out doors and in the cold (we have weather from 110°f in summer to -30°f in winter). I have not found any doorbells or buttons that meet this criteria. Is there one I have missed? If there are none, is there a way to turn a normal doorbell into a smart one.
My goal is to have a button that can be pushed as a doorbell that then chimes through my Google home minis throughout my house, and send notification to my phone. I already have wyze cameras for security outside and have one that faces the door, and close enough for speaking through if need be.
Any battery operated device in the typical smartthings price range will probably say that it works down to freezing but not below.
It’s quite easy to add a device inside the house, though, which can pick up the vibrations and/or electrical signal of the existing wired doorbell and that’s what most people use in those kinds of climates.
If you are in the US, Nexia has a zwave doorbell sensor made for exactly this purpose.
People also use a number of DIY approaches which typically involve a vibration sensor or a dry contact device. You can read about those on the quick browse lists in the community-created wiki. Go down near the bottom of the page for the “project reports“ section and choose the list on “doorbells.“
All of that said, at present I don’t think there’s an easy way to make your Google minis chime. That will probably come next year when they expand the capabilities of the Google assistant routines.
You can do it now easily with echo dots, but it sounds like you’re already invested in the other system.
There’s a method for the Google devices using chrome cast, but it requires having an additional device as a “man in the middle“ server and it’s pretty complicated to set up.
You might also want to take a look at the door chime article in the community-created wiki. It’s written for people who want a chime when the door is opened, but if you use the Nexia doorbell sensor or one of the other doorbell project sensors, you could use the same approach for when the doorbell is pressed…
Do you have a traditional wired doorbell? I use the Nexia that @JDRoberts mentioned above. It does require a customDH to incorporate into ST (installation instructions found here) . This will allow you to incorporate into virtually any automation.
Announcing via Google Home requires a bit more work. I use cast-web-api which for the purposes of this project, turns any google home into a speaker. It does require a local node server.
From here, I use the built-in speaker companion app to play a sound to select google homes in remote areas of my home.
I use a simple Xiaomi switch button outside my main door.
When the button is pressed my Google Homes chime and my Hue lamps blink. After 20.00 (when the kids sleep) only the lamps blink.
I use webcore to play a locally stored mp3 via cast-web-api (https://vervallsweg.github.io/cast-web/). So you need a local always-on computer.
Works well, but theres a couple of seconds of lag between button pressed and chime sound. Also if I listen to music on my Google Home the music is stopped.
I live in Sweden (albeit not in the north) and I must have had at least -15 C so far since last year. The button works and the batteries haven’t been replaced yet.
I saw that and it looked promising, specifically the fact I could get just the doorbell button for $15, however after researching it appears the button only works if connected to the chime as the button isn’t zwave/zigbee, just the chime is. And I am not wanting another hub/chime
This sounds like what I am looking for. I will have to get one and try it out. Did you use a custom device handler or does Smartthings already have one?
I do have a traditional doorbell and chime. The wireing is bad so I would have to rerun the wire through the walls to get it working again. Which I could definitely do, but looking at other options first.
With this set up does it have to have the chime connected? Could I run it to just the sensor? I would like to just have the Google homes be the chime which I can do with ifttt if I can get something to signal when a button is pressed outside.
I did this using a cheap Amazon (£10) remote doorbell - but wired up the chime device to a Fibaro door sensor (it has binary switch inputs) with a small circuit board (transistor and a few other bits). There was an article on here a while ago about this.
Works fine, down to very cold temperatures (the button is simple/cheap and still remote).
The smart app on ST then triggers a message to say doorbell has rung (for audit purposes) and my Alexa devices (one in every room) are triggered by a Routine to say “The doorbell is ringing” - you really can’t miss it now.
Whilst its a cheap home-made solution, its partner friendly - just looks like a normal doorbell - and its never failed on me yet - unlike just about everything else on ST !
Does it work with smartthings? It’s not on the official compatibility list, unlike several of their cameras. And the Arlo forum says it doesn’t work, it’s listed as an engineering request.
@JDRoberts
Yep I just independently found the same Arlo forum article. Amazingly it unlike their other products is not compatible with Smartthings at least yet.
IFTTT might be an option but I tend to boycott unsupported options.
I ended up modifying a cheap wireless doorbell and a smartthings door sensor, so when the doorbell button is pushed the doorbell sensor is activated.
I am now attempting to use cast-web, and webCoRE to get my google home minis, to act as the chime. I have everything working except the cast-web to get my speakers to make a sound.
You can use the play track feature in cast=web. The only catch is that the file has to be hosted on a web server that your cast-web node server will have access to with a direct link. So, you open the link, you get the file. And it can’t be a Samba share or FTP server. It has to be a web (http) link. I host all my audio files for cast-web on a git-hub repo. You want to use the “raw” file in order to play it automatically on your mini. If you want, try using a link from my repo, PM me and I’ll send you a link to it.
You’re welcome to use it or to fork the repo. If you use mine, I make no promised that it won’t just disappear on you one day when I decide to use something else though. But at least you can try and that see if it works.
You can also use dropbox, but you can’t use the link to the file directly. That is because that link doesn’t present you with the file but instead with a webpage asking if your want to save the file to your dropbox or download it directly. In order to get the “raw” version of the file you have to add ?dl=1 to the end of the link. That’s “Question Mark D L Equals 1”, just in case the font is screwing you up. If you do that, a link from a dropbox file should work as well.
But at least you can try and that see if it works.