Quick Projects

Making My Own Ring Camera Doorbell With A Raspberry Pi Zero

For a few years now I've seen the explosion of IoT (internet of things) devices in the world.  I do love technology and these devices that make life easier, but I don't like the underlying connectivity of them.  I'm only partially paranoid.  I don't really think that anyone would hack into my doorbell, and even if they did they'd probably be pretty bored.

In the process, I did find this article about how, firstly when Ring came out there was a bug that would leak your wifi username and password.  And then, evidently, Ring will allow access to your camera for surveillance purposes.  I think that's great, I'm on board with that, but if there is access, then there could be an exploit.

My wife was interested in having a wireless doorbell for when she's in the back of the house.  I think it would be great if we had a doorbell that could see the front door.  I figured I can make an ad hoc Ring doorbell out of a Raspberry Pi and a 3D printed case.

Planning

I figured a standard house door bell was a pretty simple thing.  Turns out it's a little more complex than I thought.  Quick story, there the 110 that goes to a transformer that makes it about 11 volts AC.  That runs to the hallway where the bell is.  Then a wire continues out to the doorbell.  Looks like the Ring doorbell uses the 16 to 14 volts AC for power.  I don't really want to buy anything else for this project and have a Raspberry Pi sitting around so I decided to hijack the existing wires and replace 5 volts DC where the 11 volts AC goes out.  This will stop the original bell from ringing but I have an idea for that.

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