Tutorial: how to obtain Ring & Eufy Doorbell alerts for node-RED flows

General
1

Since 'Ring Doorbells' have been taken over by Amazon, IFTTT & node-red-contrib-ringdoorbell (which is also not maintained) will no longer work to get ring & motion events to trigger flows in node-RED.
Many users currently use those to trigger flows that activate lighting, cctv, audio alerts etc, etc.

In another post of mine, after speaking with Amazon technical support, I have a good workaround, that Amazon claim should work for the foreseeable future, as the triggers originate directly from the Amazon infrastructure.
So I'm going to document the process in case it helps others.

node-RED setup

In node red install the node-red-contrib-virtual-smart-home node, & import my example flow;

[{"id":"b4e2bd6293fb2efc","type":"vsh-virtual-device","z":"c4de7e0b.d9216","name":"Ring event","topic":"","connection":"","template":"SCENE","passthrough":false,"diff":false,"filter":false,"x":175,"y":570,"wires":[["908bd0b32bd22aca"]]},{"id":"61ed6a37e1bfc22b","type":"debug","z":"c4de7e0b.d9216","name":"","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"false","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":340,"y":620,"wires":[]},{"id":"430a8c1913f24f24","type":"vsh-virtual-device","z":"c4de7e0b.d9216","name":"Motion event","topic":"","connection":"","template":"SCENE","passthrough":false,"diff":false,"filter":false,"x":175,"y":620,"wires":[["61ed6a37e1bfc22b"]]},{"id":"908bd0b32bd22aca","type":"debug","z":"c4de7e0b.d9216","name":"","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"false","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":340,"y":570,"wires":[]}]

Add a new vsh-connection in the node config. The node will give you clear instructions how to do this, and it is ridiculously easy, thanks to the node author - @lius, and takes less than a minute to complete.

virtualnodes

Amazon Alexa setup

The Amazon side is setup using the Amazon Alexa app on a phone, which once setup, there is no need to keep the app running, in fact it can be deleted if you wished, as everything after setup works totally in the Amazon Cloud.

Once you have the app installed, go to Browse Skills in the app and search & install the ring skill.
This will link your local ring doorbell, so we can get the triggers. When prompted enter your Ring login.

Next we need to create 2 routines to link the triggers to the virtual smart home devices.
First we'll do the motion alert.
Find Routines in the app, & create new routine
Enter routine name - any name that you want!
When this happens - select Smart Home and you should see your doorbell, select it, and then select Motion, and finally select Detected.
Add action - again select Smart Home, and then Control scene. You should then see the two virtual smart home devices, select Motion event.

Save the routine.

motion
motion1080Ă—1920 106 KB

Create another routine following the above, but select Doorbell (ring event), instead of Motion.

That should now be complete!
Go back to node-RED, and test your doorbell. If all works as planned, you should get a debug message for each of the alerts, which can then be used to run flows.

5 Likes
2

Hi Paul - just out of curiosity - which version of doorbell did you purchase (as Amazon list so many) ??

3

The new Video Doorbell Wired to replace my old Video Doorbell 1st generation.
It's very good, especially the pre-roll video - it records constantly and holds a cache of 5 seconds which is then deleted. But if there is a ring or motion event, the cache is stitched to the beginning of the live feed.
An example is this video which shows my postie being caught on video this morning, 5 seconds before the 'person detection' sensor triggered.

1 Like
4

Is this still working for you ?

I just tried this again but I never get a message from the scene node for door bell pressed ?

It works ok if I trgger the routine on alexa app but not from ring doorbell, bell works fine also just not triggering routine for some reason.

5

Also motion does trigger the routine, seems odd ?

6

Just tried it here, and I get the same result.
I've not changed anything for a few weeks, but now I'm also not getting 'ring' alerts anymore.

EDIT... tried deleting everything on the Alexa/Ring side, and then set it back up again, but still not working for ring alerts.
I guess this is a problem with the Ring Alexa skill/doorbell integration, which hopefully Amazon will fix. Hope it's soon :angry:

7

Looks like its nothing we can fix, as there are lots of complaints on amazon / ring forums too !

1 Like
8

@smcgann99 - It appears that Amazon/Ring have finally fixed the backend, and it's now back working again :grinning:

9

Yeah noticed it a while ago, I should have told you sorry :wink:

1 Like
10

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.

11

Just for information, the above process also works with Eufy doorbells.
Only difference is that instead of installing the ring skill, install the eufySecurity skill instead, and everything else is the same.

13

I guess you just got one of these ?

If so, which one and is it any good :grinning:

14

@smcgann99 - I purchased the 2k model which last week was priced at ÂŁ109.
The picture quality is very good (records in 2k), and the built in local AI seems very efficient at identifying humans - it also saves a small still image evidencing what AI thought was a human, and it's been 100% spot on so far.
The homebase (white box) has a ethernet lead into my router, and the box also establishes a network with the doorbell (don't know what it's using - ZigBee, Bluetooth, WiFi etc).
On the downside .. there are a few glitches which I'm having to work around, for example, the description claims 'Works with Amazon Alexa / Google Assistant', so I imagined it would send audio alerts to my Google speakers, which it doesn't!!

It's still new, but initial impressions are positive. If I get chance later, I'll post a few images

15

I have the Reolink D340W. It too states "Works with ...".

I added the doorbell to Google Home.
From within the google home app, I opened the "Automations" tab, Click "Add", select "household", click "Add Starter", click "when a device does something", chose the "Doorbell" then select "Doorbell rings". For the Actions I simply added a "Communicate and announce" action to say "There's somebody at the front door" and selected which smart speakers in the "Play on" section.

16

Not so with Eufy, if you have a Google nest hub it will display the doorbell video, but you cannot get chimes & alerts to play through Google speakers.
There are a number of requests in their support forum, but they ain't listening!

However, it does work with Alexa... so if Eufy is configured to send alerts to Alexa (even though I don't have any Alexa speakers), then listening for them in a node-red-contrib-virtual-smart-home virtual Alexa device, I can then send them to my Google speakers.

1 Like
17

Do you know if it's possible to record / stream the video to a DVR / NR ?

18

I don't think so, but the homebase 2 comes with 16GB of encrypted local storage, where you can view recordings via Eufy's app, and then download any of interest, to save/view/whatever.

You can also access live video streams via Alexa on a smart TV - "Alexa, show me the driveway camera", and view it in 2k full screen quality.

19

Paul, You may want to take a look at this eufy Support.

It looks like it may be possible, let me know if you get it working :wink: and I may buy one !

20

Yes I've seen that...

eufy
eufy1331Ă—640 58.2 KB

...but no idea how to change that to -

I'll look at the second part - NAS storage tomorrow...

1 Like