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A doorbell for the dog
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║ p r e s e n t s ║
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║ ─[ A doorbell for the dog ]─ ║
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║ Release ....: Dog.Doorbell.v1.0.IDOSTUFF ║
║ Title ......: A doorbell for the dog ║
║ Date .......: 2026-08-16 ║
║ Supplier ...: the parts drawer ║
║ Platform ...: Raspberry Pi / Python ║
║ Protection .: none, it's a button attached to a wall ║
║ Parts ......: whatever was to hand ║
║ ║
╠══════════════════════════▓▒░ RELEASE NOTES ░▒▓═══════════════════════════╣
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║ The dog presses a button, a chime goes off in the house, and I get a ║
║ Discord message with a video of the dog standing there looking ║
║ expectant. The camera records into a buffer all the time, so the clip ║
║ starts a few seconds before the press and I get all the context to the ║
║ idiot dogs demands. ║
║ ║
║ Nothing in it was bought for it. It's a Raspberry Pi, a USB webcam ║
║ with a microphone in it, a button the Pi thinks is a keyboard, and a ║
║ speaker. All of it came out of one of many tech junk drawers. ║
║ ║
║ The software got a bunch more attention than the hardware. ║
║ It's overengineered, because overeingeering things is just fun. ║
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║ As well as the core doorbell functionality: ║
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║ ■ barking detection, loud wasn't enough, because my house is a loud ║
║ place. It has to be mostly in the 300-4000 Hz band and come in at ║
║ least two separate bursts, and it ignores the microphone for two ║
║ seconds after any chime trigger so it can't set itself off. ║
║ ║
║ ■ watches for movement and asks a small object-detection model what ║
║ moved, so it can tell me when the cats turn up. ║
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║ ■ using /say in Discord speaks through the doorbell's speaker, ║
║ through local tts ║
║ ║
║ ■ fox mode. Three presses in ten seconds means there is something ║
║ worth seeing, and for the next five minutes every notification says ║
║ FOX! FOX! FOX! This comes from my dog having a habit of smashing ║
║ the doorbell repeatedly if he sees a fox outside. ║
║ ║
║ ■ score keeping. Every button press, bark detection, animal sighting, ║
║ etc etc, is tracked. Om Sunday evenings I get a digest with the ║
║ busiest days, how often fox mode went off, how many presses and ║
║ with hotspots of when common high-press times are. ║
║ ║
║ There's also /snap, /clip, /status and /snooze, and probably other ║
║ features I've added during a session of aforementioned ║
║ overengineering. ║
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╠══════════════════════════▓▒░ INSTALL NOTES ░▒▓═══════════════════════════╣
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║ 1. Find a Pi. Plug in a webcam, a speaker and a button. ║
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║ 2. Copy files to the pi, setup the systemd bits and bobs. ║
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║ 3. Pip install the reqs file, and then pip install some packages ║
║ manually because I didn't maintain reqs properly. ║
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║ 4. Populate .env: a Discord bot token, user id. ║
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║ 5. Watch in awe as the memory usage potentially grows because of a ║
║ leak I can't be arsed to fix. Systemd will keep it up when it ║
║ crashes. ║
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╠══════════════════════════════▓▒░ GREETZ ░▒▓══════════════════════════════╣
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║ The dog. ║
║ The cats. ║
║ The fox. ║
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╠════════════════════════════▓▒░ GROUP NEWS ░▒▓════════════════════════════╣
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║ IDOSTUFF is looking for: strange hardware, invasive smart tech, cheap ║
║ boards with no documentation, more sources of chinese landfill tech. ║
║ Email us: hello@idostuff.uk. ║
║ ║
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║ -= idostuff.uk =- · nfo updated 2026-10-12 ║
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Photos
Coming soon.
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