First foray into HA

[Vangelis]

Lab-Art - Been looking at a product (crowd funded) called DoorBot (https://secure.christiestreet.com/products/doorbot). Nothing to do with Comfort but provides iPhone integration and similar function (I think)

BTW - Unless I have missed a new product release KT-06 (KP-06) has an LCD only screen and no ability to display a camera feed.

[Lab-art]

Very nice product. Looks great. and very good price. I wonder if you could get it for that price in the UK.

Having said that, a lot of the functionality should already be in the door stations modules with the added tamperproof aspects of being associated with Comfort. What I can't seem to find is where you view the camera feed on. I know that the Comfort iOS app has feed for unto 4 IP cameras. Could this be one of them? Or is this an analogue camera and can only be viewed....

I could easily get a non-camera version of the door station and just get an IP camera separately which will work within Comfort.

[Vangelis]

Lab-art - Looking at the DM02 Manual (http://www.cytech.biz/dm02_manual.html) the schematic on p.11 shows the video out going to a monitor / video server. This suggests that Comfort cannot handle video distribution (it might have been able to via its old Web Server module back in the day).

Not having the IP Camera function up and running on my iPhone (think Wexfordman has via his Google Docs article), I imagine it just needs to be pointed at a URL hosting the camera feed (PC, Raspberry-Pi etc)...but I could be totally mistaken.

[b33k34]

Looking at how Loxone handle IP camera door stations I think you just look at the stream. Loxone handles the audio as an VoIP phone call.

When I looked at Comfort the suggestion was analogue video to TV

[Wexfordman]

Lab-art - Looking at the DM02 Manual (http://www.cytech.biz/dm02_manual.html) the schematic on p.11 shows the video out going to a monitor / video server. This suggests that Comfort cannot handle video distribution (it might have been able to via its old Web Server module back in the day).

Not having the IP Camera function up and running on my iPhone (think Wexfordman has via his Google Docs article), I imagine it just needs to be pointed at a URL hosting the camera feed (PC, Raspberry-Pi etc)...but I could be totally mistaken.

Yep, the app simply points to the ip address of the ipcam! The two systems are seperate and independent.

[b33k34]

Lab-Art - Been looking at a product (crowd funded) called DoorBot (https://secure.christiestreet.com/products/doorbot). Nothing to do with Comfort but provides iPhone integration and similar function (I think)

That looks half brilliant. Very competitive price compared to IP cameras in general but some strange decisions. I find it hard to believe it will really run for a year on a set of 4 AA batteries (but I suppose they could add a 6v input using a 'fake battery' and a cable to a power supply.

Doesn't look secure as needs to be removable from the front to replace batteries. Presumably only connects to the wifi network when someone pushes the bell which will add a delay to the connection. Suspect it relies on a web service so you've a dependency on the company on an ongoing basis though with the product pitched at that price point that's not a huge problem (They don't talk about a subscription of any kind so their business model relies on ongoing sales to pay for the service to run).

Can't help thinking that a version with a hardwired connection, receiving power over ethernet, would be a much better product. They could split the unit with two boxes inside the house - a unit taking batteries and wifi or one hardwired.

[Vangelis]

That looks half brilliant. Very competitive price compared to IP cameras in general but some strange decisions. I find it hard to believe it will really run for a year on a set of 4 AA batteries (but I suppose they could add a 6v input using a 'fake battery' and a cable to a power supply.

Doesn't look secure as needs to be removable from the front to replace batteries. Presumably only connects to the wifi network when someone pushes the bell which will add a delay to the connection. Suspect it relies on a web service so you've a dependency on the company on an ongoing basis though with the product pitched at that price point that's not a huge problem (They don't talk about a subscription of any kind so their business model relies on ongoing sales to pay for the service to run).

Can't help thinking that a version with a hardwired connection, receiving power over ethernet, would be a much better product. They could split the unit with two boxes inside the house - a unit taking batteries and wifi or one hardwired.

Agree with you on this - they are however looking at the PSU issue and also interfacing to the current doorbell in case your phone isn't to hand. As with Kickstarter projects it could be pie-in-the-sky if it doesn't reach funding.

Starting having a look at another device called Ubi (http://theubi.com/pages/how-it-works) as a potential for voice control. It's another Kickstarter, that via it's Open Source platform could provide a voice recognition interface into HA. Looks less gimmikey than previous products..

Vangelis

[b33k34]

I'm considering VoiP door stations. There's a free VoiP exchange that runs on a Raspberry Pi - potentially door station + RPi + a few VoiP video phones could give you a very effective door network plus VoiP telephony. The gateways to connect your VoiP phones to the POTS seems to be expensive sticking point and a VoiP in number is about £4 per month. That would be fine if you didn't already have a phone number and free calls with your internet connection.

[Wexfordman]

Lads there is a free ipcam dvr solution available too, can't remember the name of it but it's Linux based, Blue something or other. Played with it a while back very nice but I've only got one webcam so was a bit overkill

[biccies]

You're probably talking about bluecherry, although I think that just offers a free trail. There's a few Linux based cctv packages. For windows there's Milestone's XProtect range which used to offer a free solution with the limitation of 8 cameras and a weeks worth of recording. I've used this package and can recommend it