I want a Video doorbell that can chime multiple Alexa dots when door bell pressed

[TimG]

As usual, my list of requirements grows and changes, so it's time to create my own video doorbell thread. Clearly I want it to work with BI5, but I'm not interested in two way speech or an app.

What I do need is:

1. Works well with BI5. Onvif preferred but RTSP will do.
2. Mains powered not batteries. I'm not swapping out batteries and don't want limited video recording time.
3. POE, wifi whatever. I will sort it. My cameras are on a second LAN with no internet access, hence no app !
4. I like the functionality of somebody knocking on the door being used as a doorbell trigger.
5. Can ring the old mechanical ding dong doorbell. This means the doorbell will work even if the internet is fubar, and allows me to fit a Sage Zigbee device to trigger Homeseer. I can't do the Alexa alert directly from Homeseer, as my VoiceMonkey Alexa skill keeps "expiring" so you don't get voice alerts and there is no warning. Grrr.
6. Has an Alexa skill that allows doorbell presses to make sounds on multiple Alexa dots (Most of the doorbells that state "Alexa compatible" seem to ONLY send video to Alexa show devices, rather than ding/dong all of your Alexa dots. That includes the Foscam DBW5).

Don't tell me that the Reolink (Not available in the UK) is the only one

[PaulDaisy]

OMG, what a list! I feel retarded, I have no Homeseer or Alexa, or Zigbee!

If you do end up discovering that (yelp!) Reolink (Yelp, yelp!) is the only one and don't mind that its possible time lag might mean that it will ring the door bell a few minutes after the visitor had left, one of the US folks could probably mail you one. It is an integrated world these days

[TimG]

Reolink cameras are known to be "interesting" devices with BI5 and they will keep you busy.

Can anybody here with the Reolink doorbell camera tell me if it can "ring" via Alexa dots when the doorbell is pressed ?

Oh, and the UK mains supply is 250VAC @ 50 Hz, so it would let the magic blue smoke out of a USA sounder

[PaulDaisy]

Oh, and the UK mains supply is 250VAC @ 50 Hz, so it would let the magic blue smoke out of a USA sounder

I can attest to the fact the original problem usually disappears once the magical smoke is emitted. The next problem then usually surfaces...
Those things are all usually DC, can probably be made to work with some creative rewiring.

[TimG]

Most of the mains powered video doorbells work on 12-24VAC, and some of them on 24VDC so they are basically international, but the battery ones will time out after a minute to save battery power - even with a trickle charger attached - so are of little use with BI5. The actual sounder plugs into a wall socket inside the house, so the 120VAC sounders would only sound once here ***BANG*** just as it was plugged in

I did try an old mobile phone as a doorbell camera for BI5 a couple of years ago. Nice thin form factor, good camera with audio, built in battery and wifi, sounds almost perfect ? Well no, that was a Samsung Galaxy S5, and it simply overheated and crashed if the camera was powered up 24/7.

On a different subject, I figured out what was wrong with my home automation Zigbee doorbell sensor, so now I have fully automated doorbell alerts all around the house. Maybe I don't need to spend £150 on a doorbell that may or may not do what I want

[PaulDaisy]

I am actually thinking about the entry door system too. But I am leaning towards a separate camera and doorbell: looks simpler and easier to find components that each do their own thing. Right now I just stood up a Wyze Pan cam inside the house by the side window pointing at the entrance, and it catches not only visitors but also the neighbors' dog who comes to visit. I considered looking into the Ring-type cameras but I don't have PoE outside at that spot and like you, I refuse to use a battery powered anything on these systems. So I will keep it this way for now until a bright idea pops in my head.

[PlayedIn]

I just installed an Amcrest AD410 where my existing doorbell was. It powered up using the existing doorbell's wiring. I added the camera to Blue Iris 5 with no problem. I use Home Assistant with the built-in Amcrest integration so a AD410 doorbell button push is picked up in Home Assistant.

For me, that triggers a Home Assistant automation to send the doorbell's camera stream to a popup card on all the wall mounted Home Assistant dashboards (on Android tablets) in the house and plays a doorbell chime sound on all the tablets.

Home Assistant also has a (custom) Alexa integration so you could easily get the automation to chime (or say whatever you want) on all or some of the Amazon Echos in your home upon a doorbell push instead of the way I'm doing it with the wall mounted tablets.

Edit: Also forgot to mention, the AD410 allows your existing mechanical doorbell to work in most cases, but depends upon the output of your existing doorbell transformer. Some people have had to replace their little doorbell transformer with something a little stronger, but that's easy and relatively inexpensive imo.

[TimG]

Thanks for that. I do have Home Assistant running on a RasPi, but Homeseer is my preferred automation. The zigbee Sage sensor wasn't supposed to work with my weedy 8VAC doorbell, but so far so good. My favourite Raspi runs PiHole. That is a good use for a Pi