Skybell HD

Right now I'm integrating my Skybell HD via IFTTT. Works OK, some missed events, but better than nothing.

Anyone have a better / more reliable way to integrate it, other than IFTTT? Or is that it?

I'm looking for this as well. Mainly the ability to detect when the button has been pressed and possibly the ability to turn off/on the internal ringer.

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I'm still doing doorbell motion and button press into HE via IFTTT. Don't know of any other way.

I don't encourage it, but I've kept my SkyBell on ST and used Other Hub to read from HE. SkyBell had always been klunky for me, so I don't keep track very well of how it works.

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Any hope of Skybell HD being supported natively by Hubitat soon? I JUST bought my Hubitat (will be here tomorrow) and am moving from ST. I've tried IFTTT for integration and it's SLOOOOW (I've been seeing 30-60minutes + for notifications).

I use my Skybell's motion sensor to trigger my porch light in ST... IFTTT is not an option for that. =/

Thanks!

I don't have a Skybell, but I do have a Ring and what I did was use Alexa to trigger a virtual switch in HE when motion is detected or the button is pressed. It's MUCH faster than IFTTT. I get notified about motion as quickly as the native Ring app notifies me.

Skybell also has an Alexa skill. The same can probably be achieved.

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so I just tried this, and it doesn't appear to work (or rather, you can't create a routine based on a skybell device). It doesn't show up as a device, and if you go to create a routine, it doesn't seem to be selectable. Unless I'm missing something. =(

I wasn't sure if Alexa would expose a device or not. I did see that there is a homebridge plugin available, but it's built upon an undocumented API and there are reports that it takes 5 seconds (or more!!!) to get a response from the cloud servers.

:frowning:

dang. For the most part, ST has worked well with it. And Skybell is literally the outlier in my conversion... =(

I'd switch to Ring, but I don't like how they look (they don't really look right with normal slat siding). And ST doesn't expose their DH or SA for Skybell, so it's not like I can just try manually porting it like the Harmony integration.

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I don't even care about the video doorbell part for Hubitat. I just want it to act like a motion sensor and button... lol

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I don't mind the Ring so much (we have slat siding as well). My wife has taken to "dressing" it up most of the year so that you can see it's a doorbell, but it's decorated. This year, she's putting shamrock thingies (I lack a better term for them) around it. The rest of the year, she usually puts some sort of fake vine plant thingie around it. LOL

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I just mean more it would sit at a weird angle (tilted back). I'd switch in a heartbeat if they produced a round or square unit.

What I did with mine was to attach it to the door frame. It still angles to the side a bit (about 30 degrees to the left), but it is slim enough not to interfere with the door.

However, Ring also sells a wedge kit for slat siding: Wedge Kit (for Ring Video Doorbell) | Ring

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I do see they sell wedges.

Gah. Moving to Hubitat is already costing me a small fortune (also moving off my Wink 2, so I needed a Lutron Smart Bridge Pro to replace my Lutron Connected remote)... don't want to move doorbells too! =P

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Welcome to home automation? LOL I've basically just given up on the argument of "it's going to cost me". I even got my wife to agree to a "home automation" monthly (yes, MONTHLY) budget. :wink:

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lol. I know.

Anyway, back to original topic. Any way to hit up Hubitat to ask about Skybell integration possibility?

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Skybell got back to me saying they're working on fixing integration (unclear about whether they meant offering Hubitat integration, or exposing device in Alexa, or fixing IFTTT slowness).

No ETA... =/

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I'm going to jump into this so I get notifications if you figure it out. +1 for SkyBell... I like how they look like a doorbell and the HD is my second one... I don't like the look of the Ring either, but they might have the edge with development and function.

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Ring absolutely has the upper hand here as the Amazon buyout put a LOT of resources behind them. There are tons of working nodejs/python/etc APIs available for Ring and virtually none for Skybell. I really wish Skybell would get their act together and put out a working, public API. I would jump over to them in a heartbeat as I also like the look of the Skybell versus the Ring.

Agree. The userbase for ring is big that people have created all sorts of unsupported scripts to integrate it.

Looking at the skybell homebridge plugin above, its very similar in terms of code and the api. Both ring and skybell require polling of the server to get the ring/motion notifications. The concern is that they state in the document that the skybell servers are already heavily loaded which may affect reliability with any type of integration.

I think this is one of the reasons the myq apps had to change their ways. Their apps were flooding the servers with polling requests. If its a handful of people, they probably don't notice it, but add in many thousands of people and it can affect them.

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