> So. Someone pushes the doorbell. That sends a signal to a machine that's bridged onto that network via an access point. That machine then sends a protobuf command to speakers on a separate network, asking them to stream a sample it's providing. Those speakers call back to that machine, grab the sample and play it. At this point, multiple speakers in the house say "Someone is at the door". I then say "Hey Google, activate the front gate" - the device I'm closest to picks this up and sends it to Google, where something turns my speech back into text. It then looks at my home structure data and realises that the "Front Gate" device is associated with my Home Assistant integration. It then calls out to the home automation machine that received the notification in the first place, asking it to trigger the front gate relay. That device calls out to the Doorbird and asks it to open the gate. And now I have functionality equivalent to a doorbell that completes a circuit and rings a bell inside my home, and a button inside my home that completes a circuit and opens the gate, except it involves two networks inside my building, callouts to the cloud, at least 7 devices inside my home that are running Linux and I really don't want to know how many computational cycles.
All this to replace dry contacts and getting up, walking to the door, being polite and greeting your guests.
I suspect that the majority of people turning up at my front gate just want to drop off the package they're carrying as quickly as possible rather than waiting for me to put on a mask and walk down two flights of stairs for the sake of politeness?
I don't know if I'm an outlier, but Amazon couriers put my packages on my doorstep, ring my bell and walk away. By the time I've got to the door, even if it's only a few seconds later, they are already in their vehicle ready to drive off. I'm guessing their delivery windows are so narrow now, that they don't have time for politeness.
Doordash and UberEats drivers LOVE doing that. Nothing better than having your hamburger, wrapped in a thin sheet of paper, inside a thin plastic bag, sitting on the cold dirty ground outside lol.
I think the point is that you're intentionally distancing yourself from them before the interaction even begins.
You're treating them as a threat to your life that interacts through a screen.
I have a camera and doorbell but it doesn't replace the actual interaction, it just means I'm a bit more prepared for who it is and how urgently I need to be there. Zigbee button and a relay switch I can just turn on/off triggered from it.
If you don't have an appointment, I won't come to the door. I live on the second floor ( that is 2 stairways ).
Experience has learned me that people who show up without an appointment usually want money or something else I don't want. Think solliciting for donations, the police, the IRS or a debt collector.
I'm more concerned re: police. Is that an American thing?
If the police show up at my door, I'm better off opening it regardless.
Whether they're here to ask questions about something I may have seen, to warn me of a situation, evacuate the building, or to arrest me, I need to know and it's in my interests to cooperate.
I can do this when away from home as well (as in opening the door to some trusted person/friend/family member), after checking through the camera who they are and speaking to them. Or I can tell the Amazon courier to just toss the package over the fence since I know it's not a fragile item (yeah in Europe we usually have fences around houses, no free access to the front door even in suburban settings). I know being a Luddite is the new cool thing on HN but hey, there are nice possibilities in home automation.
Anyway as a Doorbird owner myself, I'm a bit scared about the possible findings of mjg59, I only hope that they can be fixed if a CVE is eventually raised and that they are not architectural.
Not sure luddite is what I would call it in this instance? I think practical is a better term. My parents have a 70+ year old house. The bell on it, is whatever the builder put in. Still works. Adding complexity adds maintenance. Some people like that. Some dont. I could whip up some very nice decent IoT system for my doorbell, camera and all. But I leave it as a button. The next person to own this place will be glad I did.
I'm not saying this is something everyone should have, mandatory. But I'm a bit tired of the "no one should have it, ever" camp.
And the next person that will own my house, if I ever sell it, can refurbish it to their own tastes, if they want.
My old analog doorbell/intercom broke last year, I only got around to replacing it with a smart wifi doorbell last month (when the sticky note saying "doorbell broken please knock" blew off again).
It turns out the chime signalling (EV1527 433MHz) is the same as my home alarm, and when I went to open the door to pair it with the newly mounted doorbell it paired with the front door sensor first. Now I get three chimes (motion, doorbell, door). I have not yet been able to unpair the chime, there is no reset, and it accumulates devices rather than overwrites.
I'm not sure if the ability to answer the door while away is a good trade off given the complexity, and potential security issues.
For comparison: When a car comes within a mile of our house, the dogs bark about it. If they turn into our driveway, they shift cadence and tone to let us know that. If someone comes all the way down the driveway to the point they can be seen, it gets very loud.
Then we go deal with whoever it is before the hounds climb the fence and eat them.
This alert system works in all weather conditions, without electricity; and no computers are involved anywhere. The neighbors can hear the howl (they're a mile off but senior hound is a bluetick), but otherwise no one else is notified. I seriously doubt any clouds take cognizance of these events.
Wired doorbell broke (a semi fancy one, with a gate opener and a camera, but totally proprietary and old). I don't have the will to troubleshoot what/why. I don't want to pay someone to fix it either. To me it's not worth getting it fixed.
Not too sure what we'll settle on eventually but meanwhile I put one of these cheap doorbells you can find on Amazon: a button (with a little battery) at the door/gate and then, inside, something you plug into an electrical outlet.
They work but they're not that great. It's only approx 20 meters / 65 feet and yet it regularly fails (one time out of five?). People who "know" know they have to press long and hard on the button, and try, say, three times (if it fails 20% of the time and you press three times, there's only a 0.8% chance it won't ring even once).
I should probably add a little message below the button: "Please ring three times". Low tech way to fix the brittle system I guess.
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[ 0.89 ms ] story [ 45.9 ms ] threadAll this to replace dry contacts and getting up, walking to the door, being polite and greeting your guests.
You're treating them as a threat to your life that interacts through a screen.
I have a camera and doorbell but it doesn't replace the actual interaction, it just means I'm a bit more prepared for who it is and how urgently I need to be there. Zigbee button and a relay switch I can just turn on/off triggered from it.
Experience has learned me that people who show up without an appointment usually want money or something else I don't want. Think solliciting for donations, the police, the IRS or a debt collector.
No thanks.
If the police show up at my door, I'm better off opening it regardless.
Whether they're here to ask questions about something I may have seen, to warn me of a situation, evacuate the building, or to arrest me, I need to know and it's in my interests to cooperate.
Anyway as a Doorbird owner myself, I'm a bit scared about the possible findings of mjg59, I only hope that they can be fixed if a CVE is eventually raised and that they are not architectural.
I'm not sure if the ability to answer the door while away is a good trade off given the complexity, and potential security issues.
Then we go deal with whoever it is before the hounds climb the fence and eat them.
This alert system works in all weather conditions, without electricity; and no computers are involved anywhere. The neighbors can hear the howl (they're a mile off but senior hound is a bluetick), but otherwise no one else is notified. I seriously doubt any clouds take cognizance of these events.
The debugging process is similarly endless, tho.
Monthly preventatives make that pretty easy, though.
Not too sure what we'll settle on eventually but meanwhile I put one of these cheap doorbells you can find on Amazon: a button (with a little battery) at the door/gate and then, inside, something you plug into an electrical outlet.
They work but they're not that great. It's only approx 20 meters / 65 feet and yet it regularly fails (one time out of five?). People who "know" know they have to press long and hard on the button, and try, say, three times (if it fails 20% of the time and you press three times, there's only a 0.8% chance it won't ring even once).
I should probably add a little message below the button: "Please ring three times". Low tech way to fix the brittle system I guess.