I brought a Reolink Doorbell Chime and was disappointed to find I couldn’t use it with Home Assistant - it seems to pair directly with the Reolink Doorbell, and I have a Unifi doorbell. Instead of throwing it away, I thought I would crack it open and see if I could flash my own firmware to it - but I didn’t recognise the chip.

In for a penny, in for a pound I thought I will use the nice case and power supply, replacing the internals with an ESP32 and DSP. This is the code for project.

BOM

• 3d printed bracket https://www.printables.com/model/1565198-reolink-doorbell-chime-esp32-conversion
• Reolink Doorbell Chime https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CYGZLMS5
• Seeed XIAO ESP32S3 https://thepihut.com/products/seeed-studio-xiao-esp32s3
• MAX98357 I2S Amplifier Module https://thepihut.com/products/max98357-i2s-amplifier-module

# We'll use pipx to install esphome, and brew to install pipx
$ brew install pipx libmagic cairo

# Install esphome in its own virtual env
$ pipx install esphome

# Add some dependencies to the virtual env
$ pipx runpip esphome install python-magic pillow==11.3.0 cairosvg

# Install the wind tunnel (first time - your device name will vary)
$ ~/.local/bin/esphome run --device=/dev/tty.usbmodem31301 doorbell.yaml

# Install the wind tunnel (susequent times, via WiFi)
$ ~/.local/bin/esphome run doorbell.yaml