On 29/12/2016 19:24, Brian Gaff wrote:
I and some of my friends, being vulnerable people are installing wireless
door intercoms on our houses.
The problem with these devices is, that, unlike their wired brethren, you
cannot instigate a conversation with the person at your door unless they
actually press the button on the device. Its a bloody big button, but
seemingly we have an issue of the people who do not like door bells, who
persist on using rattling of letter boxes, banging on windows or using door
knockers etc when, as we see it its bleedin obvious there is a bell push.
Who are these increasingly frequent visitors, not the Police though they do
seem to be one of the groups who do this, no its apparently sane
individuals.
So two answers. 1. try to find a door intercom that can instigate comms
from inside that is not wired. Seemingly and perversely, not possible as
nobody does one unless you want to power the outside station from a wall
wart.
The reason is that the batteries would go down if it had to listen for the
inside unit polling it.
The other option is to somehow convince callers to use the bell push and
only the bell push.
So if anyone has any bright ideas that do not involve 50,000 v on the
outside of the front door to 'discourage' the errant behaviour will be
accepted. Not sure if perhaps a big day glow arrow pointing to the bell
would work as its visible enough already.


I suspect that somewhere within the mire of the internet of things there
may be an answer.

I'm trying out an Amazon Echo and Samsung 'smartthings'. All I can say
is that the various 'things I've got do work very effectively, but I'm
not exactly a power user. Things like switching lights on/off,
controlling the heating, detecting doors open, movement. The Echo
responds accurately to my voice commands.

Within the smartthing app itself, and by extension the various forums,
many hundreds of permutations are set out/discussed. From a quick look
there are push/pull actions that can be triggered by proximity - not
sure which might work best for you.


--
Cheers, Rob