Like many others in the Raspberry Pi community, Alex Sherby is using the quarantine as an opportunity to start a new home DIY project. This week, he shared a Raspberry Pi-controlled smart doorbell with a handy feature for people who work at home. Instead of chiming with a ring, this Pi doorbell notifies your phone when someone is at the door.
Sherby built the project on top of an existing doorbell. The maker emptied the original ringer box to make space for the smart doorbell hardware—in this case an ESP8266 Wi-Fi module and Piezo Buzzer.
Wiring up the new hardware required some modification, as the new doorbell system only needs 5V of power to operate. With the new doorbell assembled, Sherby programmed a notification system using a Raspberry Pi Zero W.
The ESP8266 chip sends a message to anMQTT server when someone activates your doorbell. The Pi Zero W monitors the MQTT server, and the Pi uses the Pushover notification system to send notifications to a phone.
Sherby said that he created the project exclusively with parts he had on hand. There are already a few upgrades planned for the future, including an MP3 module and speaker.
Check out the full post on Reddit, and be sure to follow Sherby for more updates on his smart doorbell project.
