How to make a Raspberry Pi doorbell camera

My latest Raspberry Pi project is a Raspberry Pi doorbell camera. This simple project allows you to use a Raspberry Pi and the Raspberry Pi Camera module and use it to look through a peep hole in a door.

I usually take a look through the peep hole before I answer the door giving me the chance to ignore the random door to door sales call if I care to. I am often in my home office in the back of my house when the doorbell rings, so being able to take a look outside via my tablet or computer from my office saves me time.  I simply bookmark the ip address of the camera in a web browser and I can bring up the camera image in seconds.

I 3D printed a simple Raspberry Pi case (thing:1226828) and a camera mount Raspberry Pi Camera for 3D Printer (thing:267265) from files on Thingiverse.com and my awesome CEL Robox 3D Printer used double stick tape to attach them to the front door. I ran the single power line over to a nearby power outlet and the Raspberry Pi connects via the home WiFi.

I chose the Raspberry Pi3 Model B and the Raspberry Pi 8 MP Camera Module for this project, I also used a Dual USB 2.1A Power Supply for power. For the time being I am just using the basic camera software from Raspberry, but it is possible to stream the camera out to the internet so that the camera could be viewed from anywhere if needed. And since the camera mount I printed is on a swing arm I can swing it out of the way when I want to look through the peep hole myself as well as point the camera into the living room to keep an eye on things inside if I set the camera up for internet streaming. Naturally, you would want to set an access login and password for access to keep from becoming the next internet sensation by broadcasting your nocturnal television viewing habits in your PJ’s.

I am also planning to implement an exterior doorbell push button, possibly using one of our RXD4140-434 RF Remote Control modules. They come in pairs and have 4 buttons each so there are many options that could be developed to use them for other options.

I will document any further developments I come up with for this project here in the blog when they are finished.  We hope you enjoyed learning about this Raspberry Pi doorbell camera project.

Here is this project featured in CircuitTV 5: Smart Home