Home Assistant smart wireless doorbell
Components
- Wireless doorbell using the 433MHz frequency
- ESP32 board
- RF Receiver for 433MHz
- Home Assistant
- MQTT broker
The exact components that I use are in the links below, but the process and code should is the same.
Short story and motive
I want to have a smart doorbell in order to receive notifications on my phone/watch when someone rings it, but it's not legally allowed record public areas in my country of residence, that means that I can't place a smart doorbell like the Eufy Doorbell, or Ring, because all of them come with integrated cameras. So I embarked on a quest to use a regular wireless doorbell (as I don't have any wiring there) and make it smart.
Tutorial
In this tutorial I'll explain the steps and configuration that I've setup. If you choose to use a different board, or a different pin, then some of the steps will need to be modified based on your use-case.
Setup development environment
- Download and install Arduino IDE
- Go to Tools -> Manage Librarires... (Ctrl + Shift + I)
- Install ArduinoMqttClient
- Install rc-switch
- Go to Tools -> Board: and set the type of your board. In my case it is ESP32 Dev Module
Connect the ESP32 board with the RF Receiver
Determine the payload of the button
Every wireless doorbell comes pre-configured to send a specific payload over the 433MHz frequency and what you first need to do is to decode the payload that's transmited by the doorbell button.
Use the code for the ESP32 board to determine the payload that your wireless button transmits on the 433Mhz frequency.
Configure your ESP32 to listen for doorbell rings
After you discover the payload, copy the code for the ESP32 board, fill in the blanks, and upload it to your ESP32.
Create a sensor in Home Assistant
Add the binary sensor and Home Assistant restart automation in your configuration and in your MQTT sensors accordingly.
Note: The Home Assistant automation is neccesery in order for the sensor to reliably work. Without the automation, each time Home Assistant restarts the MQTT connection will be lost in the ESP32 and no updates will be published.