Ding Dong Ditch is a project to convert a traditional wired doorbell into a newfangled "smart" doorbell, without changing the external appearance of the house.
Whenever someone rings my doorbell, a 16V AV circuit is connected, which powers a solenoid that strikes a metal bar to produce a loud "DING DONG" inside my home. The chime prompts my dog to bark wildly, and wakes my sleeping baby. This simply will not do.
Ding Dong Ditch was presented at PyBay 2017. The talk was recorded, and the slides have been published.
- Watch the presentation
- View the slides (with detailed notes).
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Raspberry Pi (rev B) that I got for free at PyCon years ago.
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An
oldtraditional wired doorbell (powered by a 16V AC 10VA transformer). -
A custom circuit to hook up aforementioned power source to the Raspberry Pi's GPIO pins without frying the Pi (which accepts 3.3V DC).
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A Python client, running on the Pi.
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A Node JS server, to power the voice UI.
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Replace the chime with a custom circuit that can safely trigger a GPIO pin on a Raspberry Pi.
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When the pin "pulls up," this fires off a request to Twilio.
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Twilio calls a user-defined set of phone numbers.
There are two parts to getting Ding Dong Ditch running.
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Set up the client on your Raspberry Pi.
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Set up the server with Google Firebase.
Sure, I could spend $200 on a fancy, Internet-of-things connected doorbell. But, I don't really need that:
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We already have a doorbell built into our front gate. It matches the rest of the building, it's simple, and it looks fine.
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I have a Raspberry Pi collecting dust. Even if I didn't, one can be had for ~$30.
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$200 seems steep for a doorbell. I'd rather spend $200 on beer.
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I like to tinker.