**Smart Doorbell Project: A Step-by-Step Guide**

As you can see, I am constantly working on new electronics projects which often times requires quite a bit of soldering. What I love to do most while soldering is listening to music and no this video is not sponsored by some wireless ear plugs.

But anyway, while listening to music I pretty much always miss the doorbell, which is a huge problem for me because most of the time there is a postman at the door trying to deliver components for the next project. And since I live in an apartment house, which obviously houses several families and whose intercommunication system is all connected together, I can not simply rip out my old intercom and replace it with something smart that could talk to my phone.

Instead, I need to find another solution, something small and inconspicuous that I can add next to my intercom so that my landlord doesn't get angry and that sends push notifications to my smartphone immediately through WhatsApp or similar as soon as someone rings the door. So in this video, I will try to build something just like that.

This video is sponsored by Altium and their Altium Designer software. To use it, all I had to do was install Telegram on my phone, talk to the BotFather in order to create my own bot that also gave me an API, then get my telegram ID from the IDBot and ultimately use those two information in the given ESP example code here in order to send out a telegram message with a push of a button.

The problem was that it took sometimes between 10 to 20 seconds to send a message and by that time my postman at the door would be gone. So sadly this method does not work as well for me which is why next I looked for alternatives and found this Universal Telegram Bot Library created by Brian Lough who is also an electronics YouTuber.

To use it all I had to do was install Telegram on my phone, talk to the BotFather in order to create my own bot that also gave me an API, then get my telegram ID from the IDBot and ultimately use those two information in the given ESP example code here in order to send out a telegram message with a push of a button.

And as you can see this method works way faster without having to register anywhere besides Telegram so it is a winner for me. That means it was time to merge the ESP with my intercom and to do that I firstly added a voltage divider to the ESP that converts the 5V of the intercom to 3.3V that the ESP can handle.

After then creating the final code and uploading it to the ESP; I thought about how to power it next to the intercom and remembered that there was actually 24V DC available at the pin next to the ring contact which reminded me of a certain meme.

But after a moment of clarity and checking in my basement to see the power supply for the intercom system, I realized that it can only provide 34.5VA. The ESP though requires around 80mA normally or 250mA peak which in my opinion is a bit too much of an extra load for the intercommunications system to handle.

I mean like I said I do not want to interfere with the function of this system and thus possibly annoy other families in this house. But luckily I had a 5V power supply already very close positioned to my intercom which I only used so far to power my door alarm system.

So all I had to do to use its power for the new ESP as well was cutting its USB wire and basically splitting it into the already existing one and one additional one. And that means it was time to finish this project which I did by connecting the intercom PCB pins with the ESP, designing a small enclosure, 3D printing that, reinstalling the intercom PCB, adding a cable duct to my wall, adding the enclosure next to the intercom with the help of Velcro tape, soldering the power wires to the ESP and finally closing everything up.

And just like that this project was complete and as you can see as soon as the door rings I get my telegram message pretty quickly which means I will hopefully never miss the doorbell again. With that being said I hope you enjoyed this project and maybe learned something new along the way.

If so consider supporting me through Patreon. Don't forget to like, share, subscribe and hit the notification bell. Stay creative and I will see you next time.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enAs you can see I am constantly working onnew electronics projects which often timesrequires quite a bit of soldering.What I love to do most while soldering is listeningto music and no this video is not sponsoredby some wireless ear plugs.But anyway while listening to music I prettymuch always miss the doorbell which is a hugeproblem for me because most of the time thereis a postman at the door trying to deliverthe components for the next project.And since I live in an apartment house whichobviously houses several families and whoseintercommunication system is all connectedtogether, I can not simply rip out my oldintercom and replace it with something smartthat could talk to my phone.Instead I need to find another solution, somethingsmall and inconspicuous that I can add nextto my intercom so that my landlord doesn'tget angry and that sends push notificationsto my smartphone immediately thorough WhatsAppor similar as soon as someone rings the door.So in this video I will try to build somethingjust like that and since I know that not everyoneis super excited about doorbells; let me tellyou right now that such a system is also greatfor all kinds of alarms and triggers thatrequire super fast push notifications.Let's get started!This video is sponsored by Altium and theirAltium Designer software that you can tryout for free to create some stunning schematicsand PCBs.Now their software also comes with Altium365 integrated which basically connects yourdesigns with a cloud storage so that you caneasily share and get feedback on your designsto increase your productivity which is prettyawesome.So like I said feel free to try it out forfree by clicking the link in the description.First off I thought about a theoretical planfor this project and as it turns out it waspretty straightforward.Step one is to inspect the intercom systemand find a point in the circuit that changesits voltage level when the doorbell rings.Step two is then creating an ESP8266 microcontrollerbased electronics thingy that as soon as itdetects the voltage change, sends a push notificationthrough WiFi and the internet to my smartphonewhich will hopefully appear on WhatsApp becauseyes that is the messenger I use the most.And last but not least I will have to seehow I will power the new electronics throughthe Intercom and house it all but all in alllike I said this plan seemed super straightforward.So let's start off by having a closer lookat the intercom which like many others comeswith a speaker, microphone and door openerbutton.But we do not really care about the exteriorright now which is why next I simply removedthe front cover and was greeted with a rathersmall control PCB which is only connectedthrough 4 wires to the intercommunicationsystem.The left two wires are for the TwinBus systemwhich is mentioned on the PCB and the othertwo wires are for the bell ring button onmy floor.I know this because there is a 260 page manualabout such TwinBus systems which are apparentlynowadays still quite popular and like thename implies use a data bus for communicationbetween the intercoms in the apartments, thebell button panel at the main door and themain control system in the basement.So yeah since they are using a data bus whosecomposition is not available for the publicI would have a hard time decoding that andfinding out which data bits mean that my doorbell rings.But luckily there are other smart people outthere on the internet who partly reverse engineeredthe intercoms PCB in order to find out thefunction of these other pins here.And in case you are wondering why I tappeda magnet in front of the PCB then let me tellyou that it simulates that the telephone partof the intercom is still in place.But anyway most important are these pins righthere which are GND and right next to it mydesired ring signal.As you can see this pin is usually at GNDlevel but if someone rings the door, the voltagerises to 5V afterwards which is exactly theindicator I was looking for.That means next it was time for step 2 byfinding out how to send WhatsApp notificationsto my smartphone with this ESP8266 board thatyou can get for cheap from the internet.And if you are thinking right now why I don'tsimply integrate this ESP board into my home-assistantsystem which at the moment consists of a RaspberryPi server, one ESP for a door alarm and oneESP for a security camera; then let me tellyou that those push notifications are sometimesa bit sluggish depending on how my smartphoneis currently feeling.And in case I completely confused you rightnow then feel free to check out my home security/automationseries with home assistant.But anyway I want my door bell alarm to belike this super snappy.So I searched the internet on how to sendto the WhatsApp service with an ESP and Ibasically found two services that can do thatcalled Twilio and CallMeBot.Now Twilio required me to create an accountand already at first sight looked a bit morecomplicated.But after a bit of trying around I was ableto send What-app messages which like I hopedfor was super quick.But it seems like it was costing me a bitof money; so because of that and the complexityof this service I decided against using it.Now CallMeBot on the other hand was very easyto use and doesn't even require creating anaccount.By messaging it, you basically get an APIthat you can then directly use in the ArduinoESP code.And as you can see according to this simpledemo circuit with a push button it seems towork perfectly fine at least at first sight.The problem was that it took sometimes between10 to 20 seconds to send a message and bythat time my postman at the door would begone.So sadly this method does not work as wellfor me which is why next I looked for alternativesand found this Universal Telegram Bot Librarycreated by Brian Lough who is also an electronicsYouTuber.To use it all I had to do was install Telegramon my phone, talk to the BotFather in orderto create my own bot that also gave me anAPI, then get my telegram ID from the IDBotand ultimately use those two information inthe given ESP example code here in order tosend out a telegram message with a push ofa button.And as you can see this method works way fasterwithout having to register anywhere besidestelegram so it is a winner for me.That means it was time to merge the ESP withmy intercom and to do that I firstly addeda voltage divider to the ESP that convertsthe 5V of the intercom to 3.3V that the ESPcan handle.After then creating the final code and uploadingit to the ESP; I thought about how to powerthe it next to the intercom and rememberedthat there was actually 24V DC available atthe pin next to the ring contact which remindedme of a certain meme.But after a moment of clarity and checkingin my basement to see the power supply forthe intercom system, I realized that it canonly provide 34.5VA.The ESP though requires around 80mA normallyor 250mA peak which in my opinion is a bittoo much of an extra load for the intercommunicationsystem to handle.I mean like I said I do not want to interferewith the function of this system and thuspossibly annoy other families in this house.But luckily I had a 5V power supply alreadyvery close positioned to my intercom whichI only used so far to power my door alarmsystem.So all I had to do to use its power for thenew ESP as well was cutting its USB wire andbasically splitting it into the already existingone and one additional one.And that means it was time to finish thisproject which I did by connecting the intercomPCB pins with the ESP, designing a small enclosure,3D printing that, reinstalling the intercomPCB, adding a cable duct to my wall, addingthe enclosure next to the intercom with thehelp of Velcro tape, soldering the power wiresto the ESP and finally closing everythingup.And just like that this project was completeand as you can see as soon as the door ringsI get my telegram message pretty quickly whichmeans I will hopefully never miss the doorbellagain.With that being said I hope you enjoyed thisproject and maybe learned something new alongthe way.If so consider supporting me through Patreon.Don't forget to like, share, subscribe andhit the notification bell.Stay creative and I will see you next time.