Doorbell options

I'm looking into front doorbell options. My requirements are:

  1. Simple analog phone integration (pick up phone to talk to front door station)
  2. Chime output (I want it to sound like a normal doorbell, not a "motorboat")
  3. Nice flush-mount door stations, no plastic surface mount boxes, and no ugly commercial-looking ones.

Doesn't sound like an unreasonable set of requirements to me, but I haven't found anything that satifies them yet!

Notes:

- Doorbell Fon definitely does not satisfy #2

- The Channel Vision TE-110 doesn't have chime outputs (though the discontinued TE-200 did)

- I can't find details about the available Touch-N-Talk systems

- The Viking C-1000b (successor to C-1000a) looks like it would work, but the currently available door stations are UGLY. That being said, their site shows nice ones "in beta"

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Once those are available this may be the solution.

Have I missed any?

- Mark.

Reply to
Mark Thomas
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Doorbell Fon

Doorbell Fon inbound relay option

Ugly is in the eye of the beholder. :^)

Yes, it does if you connect the inbound relay to a normal doorbell.

Reply to
Robert L Bass

Hi Robert,

Yes. The Doorbell Fon will work with any phone or phone system that is compatible with the public telephone network. The Doorbell Fon fakes an incoming call, generates a ring tone and provides talk power to the line whenever the button by the door is pressed. The Panasonic system thinks it's an ordinary phone call on an outside line.

Reply to
Robert L Bass

DorbellFon is still your best bet as it's the only reasonably priced full duplex door intercom - that's important! They have a dry contact module that can be used to trigger any doorbell you choose. If you don't want the phone to ring call them and they can send you a "no ring" chip. Touch 'n Talk is good but, last time I looked, not full duplex.

Reply to
brobin

Do these work at all with a panasonic ksu, specifically the kx-ta624? I know I can get an add-on card & phone for the panny, but was wondering if there were other alternatives.

Robert

Reply to
RM

Yes, It will work coming in on a CO line.

Reply to
brobin

Thanks for the information! I'll investigate the "no ring" chip and the inbound relay.

Reply to
Mark Thomas

If you're connecting to a Panasonic KSU and have a spare CO line input, you can connect the DoorbellFon to that and set the phones not to ring on that line but you can still pickup the line to talk and buzz a gate or a door. That way, you can still use the ringer on a phone that might be out of earshot of any chimes, like in a garage or basement or even a cordless out by the pool.

Reply to
brobin

It all depends on the individual's needs. I happen to work at home. My office is in the back and I'm almost always on the phone. A Doorbell Fon that rings my phone would be a real blessing for me, allowing me to hit the "flash" key on my phone, find out who's there, let them in if I want and flash back to continue speaking to my customer without ever having to leave my desk. Unfortunately, my home is on a slab and my attic is almost totally inaccessible.

The next house will definitely have a video intercom at the door. I'm kind of torn between Aiphone, which I've sold for decades, and a new CAT5 video intercom from Grayfox (now part of OnQ).

Reply to
Robert L Bass

What's the fascination with these doorbell intercom systems. They are really cool in theory, but the fact is that maybe one person a month knocks on my door unexpected, and I live in an urban neighborhood right off a main thoroughfare. Sometimes I think people get caught up in the cool gadget syndrome without really thinking about actual benefit. (I know I do it all the time!!)

Reply to
Chuck

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