Chime integrations

[Rich2626]

I’m considering replacing my normal doorbell with a new C4 chime Poe doorbell and have a few questions:

1. I don’t have any control4 screens. I know it will call my iPhone and display cam on there, but is it possible to get the door cam to announce and/or show on any other screens, eg Echo Show, iPad, fire?

2. I don’t have any C4 audio integrated - is it possible to send a doorbell “ding dong” announcement to other devices, eg Echo Dots or Sonos speakers or other Bluetooth / WiFi speakers that are not hard wired to my C4 setup?

3. Can I wire my standard traditional doorbell ding dong door bell chime to my C4 Chime?

 thanks for your help

[chopedogg88]

1 - not that I know of

2- yes you can play an announcement through Sonos speakers

3-yes it will ring a standard mechanical chime

PS> I have an extra Chime POE in stock in Satin Nickel, let me know if interested.

[DAVIDN]

The Chime app is a standalone app (C4 Intercom) and runs on IOS, so yes- you should be able to have it ring and display video on any device running the app, including an iPad.  

HOWEVER- If you don't have any C4 screens or C4 audio, I would suggest a Ring doorbell instead.  I went from a Ring Elite to the Chime and I'm seriously considering going back.  The Chime is nowhere near as intuitive as the Ring, nor is it as flexible.  The Ring app makes it simple to configure all aspects of the device- snooze motion alerts, change sensitivity, set motion zones, view past events with video, etc.  The Chime is just far less sophisticated.  Or at least less sophisticated to the common person with C-HE available. 

Motion alerts are inconsistent and have to be configured in C4.  My installer still has to configure something because I have zero access to past video or motion events.  That's right- a video doorbell that I can't see any history.  Who knows why.  

Oh, and the video quality of the Chime sucks in comparison to Ring.  

[chopedogg88]

The C4 Intercom app is a separate app in iOS, but its integrated into the Control4 app in Android, fwiw.  However I don't believe it works on an iPad.

The History is easily viewable within the Control4 app.

The motion zones and other configurations can be made within Composer Home Edition if you have that - don't need a dealer to do it. 

An added benefit is that the Chime shows up in Control4 with your other IP cameras (if you have them), and can also be recorded to any standard NVR via RTSP.

I've had a few clients swap out their Ring Elites and have reported to me that they felt that the Chime video quality was better and had a larger viewing angle (although your pictures above seem to show the opposite - but one seems to be of a live intercom call (Chime) and the Ring one seems to be of just the camera view, so maybe that's why?)

 

 

[DAVIDN]

22 minutes ago, chopedogg88 said:

The C4 Intercom app is a separate app in iOS, but its integrated into the Control4 app in Android, fwiw.  However I don't believe it works on an iPad.

The History is easily viewable within the Control4 app.

The motion zones and other configurations can be made within Composer Home Edition if you have that - don't need a dealer to do it. 

An added benefit is that the Chime shows up in Control4 with your other IP cameras (if you have them), and can also be recorded to any standard NVR via RTSP.

I've had a few clients swap out their Ring Elites and have reported to me that they felt that the Chime video quality was better and had a larger viewing angle (although your pictures above seem to show the opposite - but one seems to be of a live intercom call (Chime) and the Ring one seems to be of just the camera view, so maybe that's why?)

 

 

Ok, so after more tinkering with C-HE, I stand corrected- you can change the motion zones and sensitivity.  I don't see an easy way to snooze alerts, though.

The viewing angle is indeed wider with the Chime- just that the image is compressed horizontally on the live Chime call.  The real difference is in low-light conditions where the Chime is B&W and the Ring is still full color.  Is that configurable?

[chopedogg88]

Yes in HE

[Rich2626]

19 hours ago, chopedogg88 said:

2- yes you can play an announcement through Sonos speakers

Thank you. Is it possible to send announcement to any other speakers? I have a number of Bluetooth and WiFi active speakers, that are not wired back to an amp or central location. Could I send an announcement to these?

19 hours ago, chopedogg88 said:

3-yes it will ring a standard mechanical chime

Do you have a pic of the back of the chime POE so I can see the connectors? What would I need to do to wire it to my normal mechanical chime ?

[chopedogg88]

no, only Sonos.

don't have a picture but the back of the chime has 2 connectors, 1 for POE, and one that you can screw the standard 2-wire doorbell wire into - which connects it to your mechanical chime.

[TheBob]

I'm in a similar boat and only have speakers powered by an AVR or separates.  I understand the delay from a relay to powering the amps on would likely cut off most if not all of any announcements.  Is the Sonos option pretty responsive such that this wouldn't be an issue?  Trying to decide if I should just buy another Sonos speaker or look into integrating a Triad amp.

[chopedogg88]

Yes the Sonos option is responsive as far as I know.  I've programmed it for a few of my remote clients so I haven't been onsite to see "how" responsive it is, but nobody has told me otherwise so I assume its fine.

[lippavisual]

Sonos announcement is fine. Just remember whatever audio file you choose for the announcements stays within the Sonos queue.

Sometimes it randomly plays during music playback. 

[DanITman]

6 hours ago, lippavisual said:

Sonos announcement is fine. Just remember whatever audio file you choose for the announcements stays within the Sonos queue.

Sometimes it randomly plays during music playback. 

It does?  I've never had that happen to me. 

[DanITman]

Another part of the integration that I thought I would use but don't is the action button during a call.  You can set an action to show on the screen such as "Unlock Door" and have that trigger an event. If I ever end up getting another chime near my garage doors, I'll add this to open the garage.

[Neo1738]

12 hours ago, DanITman said:

Another part of the integration that I thought I would use but don't is the action button during a call.  You can set an action to show on the screen such as "Unlock Door" and have that trigger an event. If I ever end up getting another chime near my garage doors, I'll add this to open the garage.

I have it set to unlock the front door if I push it. Nifty but never really use it. Especially bc we now have Amazon Key delivery so most of my packages go straight into my garage. 

[DAVIDN]

On 8/21/2021 at 4:15 AM, Rich2626 said:

Thank you. Is it possible to send announcement to any other speakers? I have a number of Bluetooth and WiFi active speakers, that are not wired back to an amp or central location. Could I send an announcement to these?

Do you have a pic of the back of the chime POE so I can see the connectors? What would I need to do to wire it to my normal mechanical chime ?

I can confirm that the Chime rings a standard mechanical doorbell just fine.

[DanITman]

On 8/23/2021 at 12:06 PM, DAVIDN said:

I can confirm that the Chime rings a standard mechanical doorbell just fine.

Does yours have a delay?  Its not instant?  However, the T3s do play a nice doorbell tone so I don't really need the mechanical chime anymore. 

[Tokead]

Ours has a delay and sometimes doesn’t ring at all. I don’t have T3’s so rely on app and door chime. Sometimes it’ll ring on the app but not in the house. Other times, it’ll be the opposite. Haven’t figured out why

[DLite]

On 8/22/2021 at 1:32 PM, lippavisual said:

Sonos announcement is fine. Just remember whatever audio file you choose for the announcements stays within the Sonos queue.

Sometimes it randomly plays during music playback. 

The updated announcements feature on the latest Sonos driver no longer causes this particular annoyance, but you need newer Sonos gear to be able to take advantage of the improvement.

[Rich2626]

Thanks everyone. What about using Alexa devices? Could the Chime Doorbell camera and microphone be viewed and used via an Echo Show for example? 

[OldGreg]

On 8/22/2021 at 9:46 PM, DanITman said:

Another part of the integration that I thought I would use but don't is the action button during a call.  You can set an action to show on the screen such as "Unlock Door" and have that trigger an event. If I ever end up getting another chime near my garage doors, I'll add this to open the garage.

Where/how did you set this action menu up and configure it to control a door lock relay? I couldn't get this part setup at least not on iOS devices.  Mind sharing?

[DanITman]

5 hours ago, OldGreg said:

Where/how did you set this action menu up and configure it to control a door lock relay? I couldn't get this part setup at least not on iOS devices.  Mind sharing?

Under your chime you should have two devices.  The Chime Camera and the Chime Intercom.  Click on Chime Intercom device.  In the properties window you can set two custom buttons to say what you want.  Then in programming you can listen for these button presses and do what you want. 

[Matt Lowe]

12 hours ago, OldGreg said:

Where/how did you set this action menu up and configure it to control a door lock relay? I couldn't get this part setup at least not on iOS devices.  Mind sharing?

stick to discrete commands too as there is no feed back. so no way to tell the state of the device that you are controlling. I hope this is something that can be update in the future even if its just as simple as a light indicating on or off. we talk about his feature in one of videos in our composer home training course to give you more examples.

[Sipsy]

On 8/20/2021 at 9:55 AM, chopedogg88 said:

1 - not that I know of

2- yes you can play an announcement through Sonos speakers

3-yes it will ring a standard mechanical chime

PS> I have an extra Chime POE in stock in Satin Nickel, let me know if interested.

I know this post is not super-recent, but curious as to whether you still (or again) have an extra chime sitting around you'd care to sell? Doesn't matter to me whether it's black or ss. Thanks! 

[chopedogg88]

I do still have a new in box chime poe in satin. PM me if interested.