The Fusion Chime Vision Is a Three-Part, Open Source, ESP32 Smart Doorbell System
Doorbell, chime, and display form the three gadgets making up this flexible smart entry system.
Dutch open hardware specialist FusionXvision is preparing to launch a crowdfunding campaign for an Espressif ESP32-based smart doorbell system, designed for easy integration into existing home automation setups: the Fusion Chime Vision.
"Fusion Chime Vision is a next-generation smart doorbell system that transforms how you interact with visitors. More than just a chime, it features a built-in display that allows you to greet guests with custom messages, images, or alerts, adding a personalized touch to every visit," FusionXvision's Suleyman Yasin Dundar explains. "Powered by the [Espressif] ESP32 and open-source firmware, the Fusion Chime platform is fully customizable, enabling users to modify, expand, and integrate it into their smart home ecosystem."
The doorbell itself, which includes an integrated 2.4" 240×320 color TFT display, is based on the Espressif ESP32-CAM platform with Omnivision OV2640 camera sensor. There's the all-important push-button to ring the bell, plus microphone and speaker for half-duplex communication with someone on the other side of the door. There's integrated Wi-Fi connectivity plus a 433MHz transceiver module and 32GB of microSD Card storage for local logging and image capture, all housed in a weather-resistant case.
The doorbell is designed to connect to the "Smart Chime" base station, which is again Espressif ESP32-based. This time there's only a 0.91" OLED display with a 128×64 resolution, designed for simple status feedback, plus a speaker for the user's choice of chime sounds. Both base station and doorbell are designed to be powered through a standard doorbell transformer, making them drop-in replacements for existing powered doorbell systems.
Finally, there's a display module powered by — yes, no surprises here — another Espressif ESP32. This time it's connected to a 4" 480×320 color touchscreen display, and like the doorbell there's a microphone and speaker for half-duplex communication. There's also room for expansion: unused general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins are brought out to a 0.1" pin header for, Dundar explains, "additional home automation features."
Dundar is planning to launch a crowdfunding campaign for the devices on Crowd Supply in the near future, with interested parties invited to sign up to be notified when it goes live; he has also stated that the firmware will be "fully open source" and that schematics will be made available "after [the hardware] has started to ship to backers," though without specifying the license under which they will be released.
