Randall's Blog

I recently bought a DoorBird video doorbell. The contenders were Ring and DoorBird, and I chose DoorBird because of its explicit support for SIP. I already have an Asterisk PBX rasPBX and was excited about the potential to integrate the doorbell with my PBX. The scenario I had in mind was that all phones in the house would ring with a distinctive ring when the doorbell button was pressed. In addition, DoorBird has support for ONVIF and reportedly integrates well with a number of home automation systems. If that wasn't enough, it has really good app support for both Android and iPhone.

After physically installing the doorbell using 2 existing wires for power and wifi for communication, then configuring it with the Android app, I set out to setup SIP communication with Asterisk. I scoured the web, looked through the documentation, and fiddled with the apps SIP settings. Late that evening, after several hours of frustration, I discovered the solution. In addition to the typical asterisk settings, there are three sections in the DoorBird settings that have to be configured.

First, the SIP section. Set this up as you would for any SIP client and the DoorBird will register with asterisk. Second is the SIP call list. This is a list of SIP peers to call when the doorbell is pressed. I setup a ring group and added that extension to the list. Finally is the schedule. This is what had be stumped. There's a drop-down menu for the schedule and, gasp, SIP is an option and empty by default.

Next up, I need a nice doorbell sound in the house. Maybe trigger a system call in asterisk or use the http interface of the DoorBird. Fun Times!

I decided to do a little math to find out how many electric vehicles need to hit the road to displace all the oil imported from OPEC countries. It turns out, about 42% or 105 million vehicles.

According to eia.gov, in 2012 we imported 1,557,591,000 barrels of oil from OPEC countries. According to a reuters article, 2012 passenger vehicles sold averaged 23.8 mpg. Though the actual average fuel economy for all vehicles on the road would include previous years and be less, I'll be conservative and use 24 mpg. Also, we'll use average miles driven per year to be 15,000.

Barrels of oil used by a vehcile in one year is:

15,000 miles / 24 miles/gallon / 42 gallons / barrel of oil = 14.9 barrels of oil

How many ICE vehicles need to be removed to replace all OPEC oil?

1,557,591,000 barrels / 14.9 barrels/car = 104670115 vehicles

So about 105 million ICE vehicles to be replaced by electric vehicles. A few searches show there about 250 million vehicles on the road so that's about 42%.

Why did I mention Tesla specifically? Because the Model S has sufficient range to be a primary vehicle. I don't think electric vehicles with range < 200 miles will appeal to enough people. Vehicles like the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt certainly help reduce oil usage, but I think Tesla building the S, X, and E (3rd generation) will have the most impact.

Tesla's stock price has soared due to optimism on several future developments. Among them are:

• Markets in Europe
• Markets in China
• Model X release
• A $35,000 model (model E?)
• Good margins

So I was wondering if there may possibly be anything left they could pull off to warrant an even higher stock price and faster growth potential - a surprise from Tesla. I think I've got it.

Two announcements hint at higher capacity batteries readying for the market. GM R&D Boss Hints At Tesla-Surpassing Batteries and Tesla Hints At Eventual 500-Mile Battery. I think that before the model E is in production, the model S and X will receive a battery upgrade and/or significant price reduction. This would bring in more buyers from the existing market (being more comfortable with a 500 mile range) and buyers who can now afford the 265 miles vehicle previously out of their price range.