A corporate client lives in a house made in the thirties. This house probably had a doorbell until someone wired the house for Panasonic business phones. That system is now dead and they use cell phones, which opens the door (so to speak) for cameras. (The station wiring is still in place in the house, though we don't know if any of it is defective. The KSU is gone.)

Without consulting us, the client had his GC install a couple of Nest cameras, so that is now the environment in which we're working. Yes, there have been other communication problems, but we're moving ahead.

...and they then went and bought two Nest doorbell cameras. I got those in, no problem.

The challenge now is to add ringers in a few places. The Nest required a doorbell, so I installed one in the basement just so I could wire up the Nest doorbell cameras. My question at this point is: what's out there that would be simple to implement to give them doorbell ringers somewhere else? That would be on the main floor near the (inaudible) basement chime; upstairs and forty feet laterally; out on the back patio; maybe even out by the pool.

There's phone wiring everywhere except by the pool. I've considered using HeathZenith RF doorbells and extenders; my partner's first idea was to use the first pair of several different telephone extensions.

No matter what we put in, the Nest's chime output has to be the trigger. No equipment has been bought for this yet.

What products come to mind?

Throwing Nest out and moving to Doorbird.

You didn't purchase/provide the Nest product right?

Thanks, lippa --
I always appreciate and often suggest taking a step back to see if we're trying to add on to a poorly made choice, but in this case we have to work with Nest.

The decision was taken from us at the outset. As of the day that the doorbell cameras were installed, they have these Nest products: three indoor cameras, three thermostat controls, and two doorbells. This is not coming out. It has to be worked with.


No, but you can't always just tell the customer to toss something out, especially if they have in some way fallen in love with it. That happens more often than we'd like to believe, too!

I guess this whole thing could be reframed as:

A client has a working doorbell but for some stupid reason it's in the basement. He needs at least three doorbells in the house to cover it (and one out in the 5000 sq ft back yard if possible) . I'm looking at RF extenders. Of course, the means of triggering the other doorbells could be complicated.

What product comes to mind?

Ernie,

I tried several solutions, and ended up going back to the Panasonic KSU and Doorphones......they just work. No phone attached, and they still use it for intercom as well.

If you must use Nest, you will just have to suffer the consequences. I have no sympathy for you either just in case you came begging back for help.

You keep saying doorbells, but my thinking is that you mean "doorbell chimes"? Is that right?

If so, you're screwed. Nest doesn't make anything to help you out.

Tell your client that since they went ahead and purchased DIY product without discussing the full SOW with you beforehand, that you must redesign this frankenstein system to get the functionality that they're looking for.

As long as they still have the original boxes, pack that shit up and send it out the door. Better off at the bottom of the ocean.

Looks like you can do two with a 24v tformer, but that’s the limit. Here’s what I found- “I had support help walk me though my install as I have two chimes for one doorbell. Two chimes is very common where I live when you have a two story house. We installed the connector but only one chime would ring. I used a multimeter and could see the 16v transformer was not enough to power the Hello and two chimes. When I disconnected the chime connector for testing (while Hello was still installed) immediately, the chimes were buzzing. Now the covers were off, and they were hanging down, but the buzz/vibration was extremely noticeable.

I purchased a 24v transformer, installed it and the chime connector, and everything works. Now I do hear a slight buzz from one of the chimes (the one without the connector attached) but you it has to be dead quiet, you have to be right next to it, and have to really listen for it. It is nothing like it was without the chime connector, and quite honestly, could have been like this before, but we never noticed until we started messing with it to install the Hello.

The nest tech said that 16v was the minimum and that more than likely a 24v transformer would be necessary since there are two chimes.“

Google Home Assistant. It’s not a chime but it verbally announces “Someone is at your door”. It’s the only thing I found to get around the lack of a chime. I’ve already complained to Nest about that hole in their product line.

I haven't dealt with the Nest doorbell at all, but I'm assuming the app has a notification. How about popping several iPad's on Launchports around the house and locking them on the Nest app? This gives them audible notifications, plus several stations around the house to interface with the products.

or, if your device provides contact closure, consider a Viking electronics device. My favorite supplier has them, of course.

As mentioned, just add google home mini's. They will announce someone is at the door.

As it turned out, there was further communication lack... and they bought a google home mini for the front door. And put it in already (the GC did). The client said he'd rather go with the voice announcement, since it says which door someone's at. This, despite the fact that there are only two doors and the side door is behind a motorized gate.


Somehow I found out that they weren't sure a transformer could run two Hellos, so I bought two 16 volt transformers. Hey, you have to build a kluge, build a thorough kluge! It works fine.

Fred,
I was about to create a contact closure: voltage to chime goes also to full wave bridge and capacitor, which closes a relay for a small amount of time. Bingo, contact closure. The hassle, of course, is that it'll look like hell or the time has to be put in to build it into a chassis, with holes in the chassis, connectors, and such.

I second this... Doorbird!

I have used it with a SnapAV NVR using ONVIF protocol.

My next test will be streaming rtsp to Crestron touch panels...

I can have it built into Holovision or use the standalone products. There are access control options as well. The build quality seems better than nest. Most devices can be wired. The German sensibility in some of the settings and in the manual leave something to be desired but I am sure that will change with time... especially after I bend their ear a bit :)

Shades of Bose.... Hear the "I love my Bose", all to often.