4.1.5 Intelligent Visual Doorbell¶

Introduction¶

In this project, let’s make a DIY intelligent visual doorbell.

Required Components¶

In this project, we need the following components.

It’s definitely convenient to buy a whole kit, here’s the link:

Name	ITEMS IN THIS KIT	LINK
Raphael Kit	337	Raphael Kit

You can also buy them separately from the links below.

COMPONENT INTRODUCTION	PURCHASE LINK
GPIO Extension Board	BUY
Breadboard	BUY
Jumper Wires	BUY
Resistor	BUY
Button	BUY
Audio Module and Speaker	-
Camera Module	BUY

Schematic Diagram¶

T-Board Name	physical	wiringPi	BCM
GPIO27	Pin 13	2	27

Experimental Procedures¶

Step 1: Build the circuit.

Before this project, you need to make sure you complete 3.1.3 Audio Module & 3.1.2 Video Module.

Step 2: Get into the folder of the code.

cd ~/raphael-kit/python/

Step 3: Run.

python3 4.1.5_DoorBell.py

After the code runs, when the button is pressed, a bell will sound, and the camera will record a 5s video, which is stored as the visitor.h264 file in the ~ directory. If you have a screen, you can also view visitors by previewing the video in real time.

Code

Note

You can Modify/Reset/Copy/Run/Stop the code below. But before that, you need to go to source code path like raphael-kit/python. After modifying the code, you can run it directly to see the effect.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from picamera import PiCamera
from pygame import mixer
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import time
import os
user = os.getlogin()
user_home = os.path.expanduser(f'~{user}')


camera = PiCamera()

BtnPin = 18
status = False

def setup():
    GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
    GPIO.setup(BtnPin, GPIO.IN, GPIO.PUD_UP)
    mixer.init()

def takePhotos(pin):
    global status
    status = True

def main():
    global status
    GPIO.add_event_detect(BtnPin, GPIO.FALLING, callback=takePhotos)
    while True:
        if status:
            mixer.music.load(f'{user_home}/raphael-kit/music/doorbell.wav')
            mixer.music.set_volume(0.7)
            mixer.music.play()
            camera.start_preview(alpha=200)
            camera.start_recording(f'{user_home}/visitor.h264')
            print ('Have a visitor')
            time.sleep(5)
            mixer.music.stop()
            camera.stop_preview()
            camera.stop_recording()
            status = False

def destroy():
    GPIO.cleanup()
    mixer.music.stop()
    camera.stop_preview()
    camera.stop_recording()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    setup()
    try:
        main()
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        destroy()

Code Explanation

status = False

This is a flag used to record whether the doorbell is used.

GPIO.add_event_detect(BtnPin, GPIO.FALLING, callback=takePhotos)

Set the event of BtnPin, when the button is pressed (the level signal changes from high to low) , call the function takePhotos().

if status:
    mixer.music.load(f'{user_home}/raphael-kit/music/doorbell.wav')
    mixer.music.set_volume(0.7)
    mixer.music.play()
    camera.start_preview(alpha=200)
    camera.start_recording(f'{user_home}/visitor.h264')
    print ('Have a visitor')
    time.sleep(5)
    mixer.music.stop()
    camera.stop_preview()
    camera.stop_recording()
    status = False

Five seconds are used here to play music and record videos, thus functioning as a doorbell.