Audio on the cheap...

Well - as part of my project to implement a doorbell using my HA setup I quickly realised that without any kind of MFP I would be sans audio... I did however realise that I could quite easily piggyback off of the audio bus and with some advice I have successfully integrated a small audio amp (courtesy of Maplins for 5 quid) onto the network. Short of a few bleeps and squeaks (from the network traffic), it's OK.. Fits into a standard 1g back box and also takes its power from the network.

Doorbell/Camera Microphone

Right - more (very sporadic) updates.... This bit of the HA install was actually completed in September so it shows how on the ball I'm not. Anyway this little thing I fabricated from -
s/s flush plate
some Lexan
a vandal resistant s/s push
a small colour camera
a microphone and preamp
a cheap cat5 to video balun

In fact, all 3 of my cameras are connected using these 'ebay special' baluns, and they're not that bad. I may upgrade to Kat5 kit, but right now it does for me....

The whole assy is fed with 1 cat5 cable which covers across the 4 pairs audio, video, power and a contact for the push. The push activates a doorbell input on cortex via an octal input module. The audio output for cortex is a bit of a non standard setup..