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doorbell connection


dburton

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Really? I need to run a wire for it? Jeesh, what was I thinking!

Ok, really, I have been waiting for someone to suggest a decent solution for a doorbell besides flashing lights. I have 2 clients that are waiting for a chime solution and I've been checking here and there for a solution but have come up short. Anyone come up with a CHIME solution for this yet?

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Really? I need to run a wire for it? Jeesh, what was I thinking!

Ok, really, I have been waiting for someone to suggest a decent solution for a doorbell besides flashing lights. I have 2 clients that are waiting for a chime solution and I've been checking here and there for a solution but have come up short. Anyone come up with a CHIME solution for this yet?

I'm definitely interested in what you're talking about. I might be able to find something if you give me some more details - a scenario for usage would help me.

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I'm under the assumption you want to be able to hear the doorbell throughout the home when the button is pressed. How about running the door button to a HTC or Media contact sensor then place a doorbell near each HTC or Media Controller. Wire these in to the relay then program when button is pushed to ring all the doorbells.

Alternative is to play a mp3 file but this is not as "quick", will be some delay and if you are already listing to a music source I don't know of a way to return to that source at the point that it was switched to the doorbell mp3.

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I'm under the assumption you want to be able to hear the doorbell throughout the home when the button is pressed. How about running the door button to a HTC or Media contact sensor then place a doorbell near each HTC or Media Controller. Wire these in to the relay then program when button is pushed to ring all the doorbells.

Alternative is to play a mp3 file but this is not as "quick", will be some delay and if you are already listing to a music source I don't know of a way to return to that source at the point that it was switched to the doorbell mp3.

Could be very sweet. I'd be curious if someone works out this suggestion.

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You might be able to do this by dedicating a receivers zone 2. I'm thinking something along the lines of somehow splicing the zone two speaker wire to all of the speakers primary wire then when doorbell button is pushed you reduce the volume on zone 1 and any amp by a set amount (perhaps volume down by so many milliseconds - don't know if that can be done), activate zone 2 at a set volume, play doorbell MPG, then reverse this process.

This would require the right receiver and a closer look at the programming, but maybe?

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What about a SpeakerCraft SL-One or similar speaker switch with a trigger input? I think this would be the easiest to use with a small amplifier to power the speakers when the doorbell rings?

The SpeakerCraft switch doesn't have a 12v trigger but Niles or Sonance has one that may have a trigger.

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Let's just see if we can all yell loud enough for C4 to hear us that this is a big wow factor item that needs to go into 1.3. I think it would take some extra programming but still not a mountain that can't be climbed. Elan has this feature. Find out how they're doing it. I'm thinking just status variables for each audio zone. Then ability to switch the zones to the sound source go to a set volume (configurable of course), play the file then switch back to known state stored in the status variables.

C'mon, piece of cake. Programmed in 25 minutes...ok 35. :)

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  • 5 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

We recently incorporated an ELAN Z600 communications controller into a project for a page/doorbell solution. It works well but it was a bit of a programming nightmare because Composer does not allow us to set one variable equal to another variable (i.e. to "remember the on/off state, source, and volume level in a zone at the time of the doorbell event). If anyone would like some more details, let me know and I'd be glad to share the info with you.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I think this should be a a module that works with the intercom. The speakers on the MT's through out the home could 'Ring' (play a specified wav or mp3 file), and people in the home could then speak with the person at the door via the intercom.

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I had the same problem, You have to take a record of the states of each thing in the project and then return it to its pre buzzer state, but is hellishly slow and i ended up taking the niles out and just putting in a $2 buzzer located in the hall. Life is too short, besides the programming ends up so long and full of bugs it never works sweetly.

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  • 4 months later...

speaker point works great with and mp3 in this situation. Hardly any delay. I use this in combination with lights flashing on/off with a variable that turns the doorbell audio part on/off with a keypad in case the baby is sleeping.

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  • 2 years later...

Time to resurrect this thread with a new question.

Have taken a 3rd party wireles chime. and ued it to close a relay that is connected to the contact input on a MC.

Works great, except, the delay is 3 to 4 seconds from the time the relay actuates to the sound coming out of the speakers.

We used an doorbell resource and an announcement agent and a wave file. I have a 1.7.4 system. Is there a way to do this with less delay?

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Time to resurrect this thread with a new question.

Have taken a 3rd party wireles chime. and ued it to close a relay that is connected to the contact input on a MC.

Works great, except, the delay is 3 to 4 seconds from the time the relay actuates to the sound coming out of the speakers.

We used an doorbell resource and an announcement agent and a wave file. I have a 1.7.4 system. Is there a way to do this with less delay?

Faster C4 hardware.

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OK, I have an old faithful friend of an MC, true.

Before I put the bullet in the old dog and run off with a HC300C, I would like to know if someone actually has a measured time differential.

If you close the contact, how long does the announcement take to play on the HC300x?

Other then that, is the coding style I chose part of the problem or is it just the time to bring up the audio zones and push out the wav file?

Brian

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