DoorPost
One post beside every business door: visitor bell, door-left-open, dock photos and PPE reminder
Does the job of EdgeBell (visitor bell, talk and door release), GarageEye (door left open, safe close), LoadingDock AI (trailer photo, pallet stills, dwell clock) and PPE Gate (light and spoken PPE reminder) from one PoE post per door, with one Edge Hub as the brain for the whole site.
- Who buys it
- The operations or site manager of a small warehouse, 3PL, distributor or light-industrial unit with a front door, 2–8 dock or bay doors and no full-time receptionist.
- Why it pays
- Per door, our four single-job products cost about $1,542 + $278 a month together; DoorPost is $449 + $99 a month plus a $595 Edge Hub per site. One cable and one camera per door instead of up to four boxes (est.).
- Target price
- $449 per door + $99/door/month; Edge Hub site kit $595 once (target)
- First-minute wow
- A driver presses the button at dock 1: the receiving lead's phone rings with live video, the trailer photo appears the moment the door rises, and the post turns red and says 'Hard hat required' as the driver steps in.
What the research found
And how this design answers it
- Four single-job products at one door meant four cameras or boxes and four apps → one post: one camera, one radar, one speaker, one light bar, one PoE cable
- EdgeBell, GarageEye and the DockTag each had their own chip; LoadingDock and PPE Gate already used the Edge Hub → the Edge Hub is the one brain; the post's ESP32-P4 only streams and drives the lights
- A camera flat on the wall cannot see into the trailer → a printed 30-degree wedge turns the post towards the door
- Door release and remote close are safety-sensitive → both live only in the indoor node, which checks signed commands; close only, never open, after a bay-clear check and a 10 s strobe
- PPE Gate's three light windows and GarageEye's per-door node → one RGB light bar and one node per door
Use case
A truck at dock 1 with nobody at the desk
Truck driverReceiving leadSite managerDoorPostEdge Hub
- 01Trigger: the driver presses the call button on the post beside dock 1
- 02Ring: the receiving lead's phone rings with live video and talks to the driver
- 03Dock: the door goes up; the hub saves a signed trailer photo and starts the dwell clock, then a still per pallet
- 04PPE: the driver walks in without a hard hat; the bar turns red and the post says so, green once one is on
- 05Close: the door is left open after the truck leaves; the manager taps Close, the node checks the bay is clear and strobes for 10 s
Outcome: One device answered the driver, kept the load evidence, reminded about PPE and shut the door (est. $10–16k a year of claims and detention for a 4-door site, from LoadingDock's estimate)
How it works
Architecture
- 01
Sense: one 1080p wide camera, a 24 GHz radar, a call button and microphone, and a door contact per door
- 02
Decide: the site's Edge Hub (Pi 5 + Hailo-8) runs the bell, door state, dock evidence and PPE checks for up to 8 posts
- 03
Act: the post's light bar and speaker; the indoor node releases the strike or closes the door on a signed command
- 04
Tell: one app and desk tablet for bell calls, door board, dock records and anonymous PPE counts
Hardware
Real parts, buyable today
Bill of materials: about $125 per door at qty 50 (est.), plus the shared Edge Hub and PoE switch (~$495 per site).
| Block | Part | Why this part |
|---|---|---|
| Brain (per site) | IEMI Edge Hub: Raspberry Pi 5 + Hailo-8 + 8-port PoE+ switch | Already runs LoadingDock and PPE Gate; enough AI for 8 doors |
| Door head | ESP32-P4NRW32X + ESP32-C6-MINI-1 | H.264 1080p stream, audio, lights and radar; Thread link to the node |
| Camera | SC2336 1080p + 120 deg M12 lens + 2 x SFH 4715AS IR | Sees visitor, door, trailer and PPE from one spot, day and night |
| Presence | Hi-Link HLK-LD2410C 24 GHz radar | Wakes the PPE check and tells the hub the bay is occupied |
| Prompt | Adafruit NeoPixel Stick 1426 + 40 mm speaker | PPE colours, visitor ring, close warning and spoken prompts |
| Power | Silvertel Ag9905M PoE PD 5 V 12 W | One cable per door |
| Door node | ESP32-C6-MINI-1 + 2 x Panasonic TQ2SA-3V | Strike release and operator CLOSE, indoors, signed commands only |
Mechanical
Printable CAD
8 parts, generated from code and checked as closed solids. Pick a part to inspect it, or download the STL files to print.
Loading the CAD…
Real CAD · drag to rotate · scroll to zoomReal CAD · swipe sideways
Bought hardware fitted inside this part (checked in the CAD: nothing collides with the plastic)
- Post backpost-back.stl · ASA
- Post front (camera window, grille, call button)post-front.stl · ASA
- Light-bar diffuserlightbar-diffuser.stl · PETG
- 30-degree wall wedgemount-wedge.stl · ASA
- Door node basenode-base.stl · PETG
- Door node lidnode-lid.stl · PETG
- Door contact blockcontact-block.stl · PETG
- Door target plaquedoor-target.stl · ASA
Open risks we are working on
- Four jobs want slightly different camera views; one 120-degree lens on a 30-degree wedge is a compromise to prove at a real dock (trailer depth, glare)
- A camera at a workplace door: staff notices, no face recognition, anonymous PPE counts, labour and privacy rules per state
- PPE prompt is a reminder only, never an interlock; remote close must keep the operator's own UL 325 safety devices in charge
- Edge Hub is a single point of failure for the site; the bell falls back to the post ringing the desk tablet directly (to build)
- Big players (Verkada intercom ~$1,599 + $249/yr; dock AI vendors) can bundle; we win only on price and one device per door
Design stage only: nothing on this page is for sale. Specifications and prices are targets.