Legacy Doorbell -> z-wave event - pure success

[DanielPuckett]

This has little commercial value but scores a +1 on fun.

I have a traditional doorbell that runs off a 16VAC transformer and 40 year old doorbell push switch. Not terrible exciting, but extremely reliable.

Then I decided I needed an event on my HS3.

NEEDED. really.

So I decided the best way to get the event was to go old school and make a circuit to trip a z-wave door sensor.

At Best Buy I bought an Aeotec door sensor.
And then took it apart. The reed switch was easy to identify and attached two leads.

It even went back together with the leads running out through a screw hole. Then I took a quick trip to the electronics store and bought 4 diodes (50V 1A) and 1 24VDC relay.

Now I am a bit off here. I recall that when you make a rectifier (4 diodes) the convert the AC to DC you get more DC volts at your meter than AC because you essentially get the peaks not the RMS of the AC and using 1.4x as my guide I figured I would get 23 VDC, but nope, my rectifier spits out 16.5VDC.

So I hoped that my 24VDC relay would trip fast enough, usually they want 75% of the 24VDC. But fear not, worked like a charm.

Clipped it all together on a spring clip breadboard and viola!

When my doorbell rings I get my HS3 event.

Have a great day!

Daniel



Current Date/Time: 9/6/2016 8:06:22 AM
HomeSeer Version: HS3 Pro Edition 3.0.0.293
Linux version: Linux hometrollerSEL 3.16.0-031600-generic #201408031935 SMP Sun Aug 3 23:56:17 UTC 2014 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux System Uptime: 4 Days 1 Hour 23 Minutes 17 Seconds
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3.0.1.92: Z-Wave

[rmasonjr]

Excellent work, Daniel!

[DanielPuckett]

Thanks Rob

[Steve Q]

Daniel, nice work. Did you try just putting the Aeon door sensor inside the chime housing without connecting any wires at all. When the chime rings, it creates a strong magnetic field. This may be enough to trigger the sensor without doing any of the electronic modification.

Steve Q


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[Rupp]

Daniel, nice work. Did you try just putting the Aeon door sensor inside the chime housing without connecting any wires at all. When the chime rings, it creates a strong magnetic field. This may be enough to trigger the sensor without doing any of the electronic modification.

Steve Q


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

This works as well as long as you get the receiver right next to the plunger.

[Mssoll]

Nicely done. I did a very similar thing a few years back. I used an ac relay. I guess it has the rectifier built into it. I have a DSC alarm with wireless capacity integrated to HS so I used a wireless door sensor on one of the unused zones for the input. The DSC sensors have built in contacts so it was easy. I use it to trigger an event for a camera that covers the front entry. Anytime the door bell rings, I get a text with a photo. I also have it run an even for our Sonos. It can be hard to hear the doorbell in some parts of the house (3 stories). I have Sonos tts play a really fancy doorbell mp3 to all the zones. Sounds like mansion from outside!

[DanielPuckett]

Yes Steve, thanks. I did actually try that but the testing involving me on a chair holding the sensor near the electomag and my son-in-law pressing the doorbell was simply too absurd. Caused my wife to give me that look.

Mssol, thanks. yes, could have used an AC relay, I guess using DC is my second nature. Step 1 -get to something you know..

I saw another solution posted, not sure where, but that solver added the ability to switch off the local bell. Maybe a version II.

[ArbWare]

Yes Steve, thanks. I did actually try that but the testing involving me on a chair holding the sensor near the electomag and my son-in-law pressing the doorbell was simply too absurd. Caused my wife to give me that look.

.......

I know that look well!