Door bell camera

All,

Am fairly set on my plans for the new house.

ELK M1G system
ELK M1XSP
ELK M1XIN
ELK M1XEP
eKeypad running on 3 ipads, in-wall mounted
1 standard ELK keypad as backup

I plan on adding an 8-channel analog DVR connected to eKeypad (working with Jayson on compatible models with 3rd party integration).

I would like to have a doorbell camera, that would connect to my DVR. I would like to automate the system so that when someone rings the doorbell, the camera shows up on all iPads (running eKaypad), with a screen showing the image from the camera, the alarm arm/disarm panel, as well as hot buttons for 9-1-1. We have little kids and I want them to feel safe, plus I travel a lot for business. Other standard automation like lighting control would be added, as well.

Does anyone have any recommendation on equipment? Need a functional and reasonably priced option.

Much appreciated

Just relating to my front door. I have a front door with two side glass panels. The wood between the door and the side panel is about 2" wide and maybe 2" deep. That said I had a heck of a time installing a deeper LED style doorbell a few weeks back; it fit though. I guess you could put something in the brick or frame adjacent or inside of the glass side panel (two layers of glass/ wood framing) or just door frame if you don't have side panels. I have these little rear facing all in one cylindrical analog cameras that I have used for the automobiles; they do have a small footprint and are available with wide angle lens and built to stand the weather. They do also sell the integrated door bell, intercom camera thing and I am seeing wireless doorbell viewers which work on batteries and can be mounting over the door viewing hole.

This is my current front door view using the Optex SD combo (one view of three to the front door). It is not a doorbell camera and its mounted perpendicular to the front door giving you a side view versus a front face view. Works though. It is totally exposed to the weather and I do have an occasional bird or two that flies in front of it blocking its view and soiling the outer plastic cover.

Note that the Optex combos have been in place for about 10 years and I just recently updated (2 years ago) the camera boards with a better than original electromechanical designed boards (lens and stuff). Its amazing what they do with the optics these days. I am getting ready to retrofit same Optex cams with HD IP boards that should be a drop in replacement for the analog boards.

I have added automation to the doorbell/camera/PIR/motion/driveway combination and it works just fine. Also added TTS/Wave files which get triggered depending on the chosen event (speaks or barks, foe or friend stuff). You can get as elaborate as you imagination chooses with this kind of stuff.

pete_c

Plan would be to put the door bell camera unit in the stone, immediately to the right of the door (no drilling into the frame).

I would like to be able to see the person's face, so the unit must face straight out. I want the unit chosen to connect to the DVR, and the iPads running eKeypad.

Anyone have any experience?

Not cameras but I did cut into the brick1/2 for a few added single duplex metal electrical boxes running metal conduit to closest interior boxes. Most of the work was chiseling the brick. The Optex combo cams are mounted on the brick with the cabling passing in between the bricks to conduit (RG6, power and Cat5E). Fishing the wiring (conduit) was most time consuming. I have one set of wires going in through the brick, up to the attic, across the attic and down the center of the house and back out to the side basement server / wiring / server area (the specific wiring was easier than trying to pass the cables straight down to the basement and over to the patch panel area). The very small cameras today have thin combo analog and power cables but the ends are large with the connectors; so you could splice them or put new ends/connectors on the cables.

Anyone else have any experience? Input?

I have a similar issue. I have a Doorbell Fon system which rings the telephone when the doorbell is pressed. I also have a security camera mounted by the front door. I would like the doorbell to activate the camera and transmit the image to a desktop and an iPad. The company that makes Doorbell Fon makes a switcher (DP-29CI) that would seem to serve this purpose. How would I wire it to the DVR and get the images to transmit automatically?