Doorbell with camera?

[reidfo]

I want to put in a front door camera, but there's no good or easy place to put one in. I think my only option is to replace the doorbell button with a combo button and camera.

I have a Cat5e cable running from the doorbell button to the inside unit, and I have another Cat5e cable running from the doorbell unit to a power transformer, so I have good connectivity options, and it would be easy to run cable back to my server room.

I guess what I'm looking for are suggestions for something that functions as a traditional doorbell button, but also has a camera built in. I don't really care if the camera is IP or analog. I just want to be able to view the front door when motion is detected on the camera or my doorbell event fires in HS. I'll worry about the software part, just looking for recommendations on the hardware.

[Wadenut]

What about these?
http://www.calibex.com/Doorbell-Butt...0--search-html

[Pete]

If you have room for a single gang box to fit the camera and doorbell; try one of those automobile style cams. They are weatherproof and very small. You only need to supply 12VDC / video and you can do this via a cat5e balum if you are doing analog. Recently I just switched my BMW rear camera for one with better optics and night illumination and a built in overlay. Way better video than what I was using.

[Rupp]

I have a wide angle above the door and it works good and it's a lot cheaper than the doorbell cams.

[Pete]

My doorbell camera is on the side of the door.

The preference though would be like Rupp's door cam or even someone staring at the camera as they pushed the doorbell.

Rupp do you get a face picture when a visitor rings the doorbell?

[Rupp]

Rupp do you get a face picture when a visitor rings the doorbell?

No not really, just a top of the head. Mine is mounted about 5 feet higher than the head would be but I've never needed to know exactly who's at the front door as much as, is someone at the front door. I can tell if it's a family member but other than that, it's hard to identify the person. If your door is solid look for the peep hole cameras, these work pretty good as well.

[Wadenut]

Rupp, you need bald spot recognition software.

[Rupp]

Rupp, you need bald spot recognition software.

You've got that right. My bald head is just a reflection.

[Wadenut]

I hear ya.
My cam is off to the left and just below the top of the door pointed about 3 ft out. I get a good picture of the visitor. It's a pretty small unit, so doesn't look too bad.

[Raptor]

I had one facing up. the issue i had was timing, i would rarely get a shot of the face emailed due to the delay from door bell to pic.

[Pete]

My current front door cam is off to the side.

That said the whole "doorbell" infrastructure today is a bit involved; even more so now that I have installed an LED halo style doorbell.

There were some folks doing a DIY on Cocoontech relating to same said halo style doorbell. I decided just to purchase one which was sealed and would fit in the existing frame between glass panels in my front door.

I use a couple of Elk circuit boards such that I could utilize the old doorbell and the alarm panel. (one is a doorbell or phone to alarm panel board and the other is just an Elk debounce circuit).

Lately though no one ever rings the doorbell; they just knock on the door.

That said the doorbell still rings and I still get a video of the person at the front door using a number of other means to detect someone at the front door.

[Automated]

I have been recently trying to decide how to solve this same issue. I don't want top of the head shots. The problem with all the peephole cameras I see is that they are battery powered units, where you walk up to it and push a viewer button on the inside to light up a small LCD panel. I am considering a Mobotix T24 to solve this, but not looking forward to the work even that will require. By this I mean...it is available in only white or silver it seems, so I will need to carefully mask off the lens, and paint it. Then there is the whole dismounting the door and trying to drill to the middle of the door from the hinge side, and then fishing a wire through. Solid wood over sized front doors are ridiculously heavy so it would be a "calling in a buddy favor" day for sure! This would be the ideal solution, but obviously a lot of work. I will probably eventually try it if testing out the camera itself proves satisfactory. I'm stubborn like that.

The other option is to the side, but that is also not optimal. In my case, with surrounding glass, the final position would probably not give the vantage point I'm after.

[Pete]

Here's a pictorial of my last "doorbell" project. My preference would be to fit a small camera angled in the door frame. Its only though maybe 1.5" of wood there making it very difficult.

[reidfo]

All very interesting ideas. My entry looks similar to Rupp's. Very tall and narrow with an overhead window. I also have a glass entry door and sidelights.

I am interested in seeing exactly who is at the door so top of the head shots won't really work. Since I work from home and am frequently on the phone I need to know if the person at the door warrants me putting my call on hold. FedEx/UPS guy gets my attention. The guy who comes around trying to sell me palm trees doesn't.

The current doorbell is on the wall to the left of the door perpendicular to the door, so it would get a shot of the person's left side if they face the door. It's also mounted in stucco covered concrete block, so putting a gang box in would be difficult.

[Pete]

I have a similiar set up in Florida where the doorbell is in the stucco wall perpendicular to the door in stucco. The door is wood with glass panels to the top and side of it. A camera inside a side glass panel could work. It could be protected by glass there but would look a bit tacky. I never looked when the wired it but am guessing that they ran the wire in a metal conduit the doorbell as the electrician did utilize conduit for some stuff in the house. That said you could just remove the doorbell and see if it runs into conduit and then chop up a 1/2 sized gang box into the stucco. Mine in Florida stucco is over cement blocks. You would only have a side view still though.