This project is less about an enclosure and more about Encadra trying to be an investor. We decided to invest in our own product — a wireless video doorbell.

The idea came from a very common problem: random people somehow get past the building intercom and start knocking on apartment doors. Fundraisers, scammers, salespeople, all kinds of stuff. Opening the door just to find out who it is feels like a waste of time. Sometimes you don’t even want to get up from your chair.

So the idea was simple: a doorbell that lets you see who’s there without going to the hallway. We combined the doorbell button and a video module in one enclosure. The camera captures what’s in front of the door and sends video to a mobile phone.
At the early stage, components were selected with one rule in mind: as cheap as possible. That decision came back to bite us later.

At that time we were already working with a small team of electronics engineers on other projects, so putting together a prototype board wasn’t a problem. Electronics worked. The next step was the enclosure design.

Because the components were cheap and not very compact, the enclosure was never going to be small. Making it look like a standard doorbell button didn’t make much sense either — this wasn’t a regular button. We also wanted to move away from familiar shapes.
We reused an old design idea from a domofon button we once made for another company. That client rejected it as too avant-garde. For this project, it worked perfectly.
The shape made it obvious where to press. Even though the front looked monolithic, people instinctively pressed the right spot. You could call it an intuitive interface, or just good design beating reflexes.

Later we refined the design and removed the visible round camera hole so people wouldn’t try to press on the lens itself.

Anyone can press a doorbell — adults, kids, tall people. Installers also mount them however they want: left, right, at an angle, sometimes even in a corner. That means the camera can end up pointing almost anywhere.

We didn’t aim for high-quality video. The important thing was that a person would end up in the frame no matter how the device was mounted.

The best viewing angle was forward and slightly down. To make this adjustable, we designed rails inside the enclosure so the camera position could be shifted during assembly.

The enclosure prototypes were 3D printed. You could clearly see the internal rails in those prints.

The camera ran continuously, recording video in 10-minute loops. If nobody pressed the button during a loop, that video was queued for deletion and the next cycle started.

As soon as someone pressed the button, the system sent video to the cloud, including a couple of minutes before the press. At the same time, the doorbell connected to the smartphone app so the user could immediately see who was at the door.

We eventually reached a working prototype that could record and transmit video. It felt like serial production was close.

That’s when reality hit. We finally understood the scale of costs involved. Hardware was only part of it. There were also servers, backend development, and a mobile app. Doing all of this on our own wasn’t realistic.

We looked at crowdfunding, then started talking to investors.

When we showed investors a working 3D-printed prototype, explained the numbers, and showed renders, the reaction was usually the same: a bored “interesting” and a rejection.
Everything changed when we made a non-working aluminum enclosure. Just a solid metal object that looked finished. The electronics inside didn’t matter anymore.

The same people who had refused earlier suddenly agreed to invest.

That was an eye-opening moment.

We found investors, set up a company, and became co-investors: some people brought money, Encadra brought engineering and manufacturing expertise.

Then came a major tech exhibition. We honestly thought people would love the idea and leave preorders, or at least talk about it.

That didn’t happen. Most visitors walked past without interest.

After the exhibition, a developer of high-end residential buildings approached us. He liked the idea but didn’t like the enclosure form factor. He said that if we redesigned it, he’d buy 300 units at any price.

We paused and thought it through.

That’s where the AiKtoTam doorbell project ended.

The doorbell itself never made it to production, but it revealed something important.
If you’re pitching a hardware idea to investors, showing a printed prototype — even a working one — isn’t always enough. A realistic, well-made physical prototype can get a completely different reaction.

When people can touch a real object that feels finished, their attitude changes immediately.

So if you’re planning to raise money for a hardware product, think seriously about building a proper prototype first.