My gate is about 100 meters away from the house and is equiped with IP webcams, vera lite and some devices for the doorbell, temp sensor, wallplug, fibaro relais. ( Got Internet cable and 230V).
I can see someone is at the gate I can also hear when someone is pushing the doorbell, but no way (yet) to talk to them, unless I put on my shoes, walk uphill to my gate, most likely the visitor has allready left.
I am looking for something, 2-way communication from the gate , to wherever I am.
It is not really vera related , but I am sure the knowledge is here in the forum :
What about skype phones or so? (haven’t seen one yet), or is there something with a bit of DIY, to get the mic and speaker on the gate and 2-way communication is possible ( i don’t want push buttons at the gate for the 2-way communication, activation of the 2-way communication must be initiated by “me” ).
Why not swap out the IP camera with one with 2 way audio. Then connect a outdoor powered speaker to the camera so they can hear you (the cameras usually have built-in noise cancelling mics).
You could have a cheap android tablet with the camera app open on it all the time so when they push the bell you go to it and talk to them.
Have you thought about using a normal IP phone ?
(The options there for devices are endless, from desk sets to door intercomms)
If you have power and a switch there, you could set up a POE phone, which if connected to a PBX (such as Free PBX) it could then call you where ever you are (set up an IVR, route to a smartphone etc.)?
I have FreePBX running at home, it’s pretty cool (I have SIP set up and I had it working as an IVR that says press 1 for me, 2 for the misses, 3 or 4 for the kids (it also has voice mail and TTS functionality!) Sadly I do not have the knowledge, skills or time to exploit it to it’s full potential, but considering what it could do it has the potential to fit in to the HA (Vera) world.
@ Parkerc: Thanks you gave me some keywords I could use to google
An iphone and with some DIY will work , programm a phone number in a button and mount it on the gate … The other thing I found was this device:
[url=http://www.cyberdata.net/products/voip/digitalanalog/intercomv3/specs.html]http://www.cyberdata.net/products/voip/digitalanalog/intercomv3/specs.html[/url] That would be exactly what I want ( think) … but after googling , I can nowhere a shop where to buy it … the search continues
Including somthing like that into vera would be very nice…
I’ve been thinking about doing something similar–hopefully more along the lines of a Doorbot. I was thinking if there was a way of mounting an IP cam with 2-way audio and have that “call” me on my cellphone when someone rings the bell, that would be great. If I could use Skype or Facetime, that may even be a bonus. Sadly, I’m still just researching on the feasibility of this concept.
Yes been looking at this myself but the price for off the shelf hardware is to high.
Here are two: -
Mobotix IP Video Door Station T24.
Helios IP doorphone SIP.
As Da_JoJo posted I am also open to idea’s (cheap).
Minimum: -
SIP Audio/Video for connection to PBX (e.g. Asterisk) etc.
Hard button for door bell.
Relay for Door strike etc.
Extra: -
Alarm output/input.
I would avoid closed systems (facebook and skype) they limit your choices on the client side. Currently I am using an embedded Asterisk called Askozia (non-free) on a VM for my gateway which was fairly straight forward to set up. I would be connecting a SIP doorbell to this if/when I get one
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