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Users / Doorbell... Help Please
« on: September 06, 2012, 01:20:47 am »
I thought this would be a simple addition and hopefully it is but I am not getting any closer to coming up with a supported solution despite my best efforts. Some of my issues may be due to "doorbell" having an alternate meaning when you add the computer/PC/automation search terms with it. Here is specifically what I am trying to to.
My core knows when someone presses a doorbell.
Once that works I can do custom events, trigger phone calls, alerts, pausing media, and all the fun stuff. I am dumbfounded though in how to get this connection. Here is what I have looked at doing and how I am currently approaching it.
Z-Wave: No 'buttons' or button modules exist. I could probably crack apart a door/window alarm to go off if the doorbell button separated the sensor units enough. I could modify a scene controller wall switch to send a state change but as described in other posts, events were not intended to be fired by direct actions. Soldering something onto a Z-Wave sensor really kills the PNP appeal of that technology anyways.
X-10: Similar to the Z-Wave problems, in that no simple contact seems to exist. I could justify spending the money on a box of used x-10 parts and probably come up with some way to get a signal back to my core but by the time I add a PC interface device to receive that signal and run isolated power lines to the doorbell (and then step down the current somehow to not have a 110V surprise for guests in the rain) I would have already spent more on a cm15a and other parts by this point to equal a controller for another tech.
Expensive intercom as simple doorbell: There seems to be some Insteon functions that allow for button pressing firing events but after 25 pages of the Smarthome website I only found units that talk to other intercoms and not back to a PC to keep it informed.
Other less often mentioned technologies: zigbee, KNX, proprietary systems, I even considered buying a security panel with ethernet outputs and wire a "panic" button which would act as a method of communicating something happened. 1-Wire to be honest is for hobbyists well above my abilities with bus addresses and willingness to solder onto my core. I actually attempted a simple switch on a test machine via serial, parallel and usb but don't think I had the proper "pull up voltage" pins wired... Each guide I found recommended a different port and some called out completely different pins. I even considered cracking apart "the clapper" to respond to a standard doorbell chimes, then have the clapper turn on a light which would shine onto a photo intensity sensor... There has to be an easier way.
I currently have a stand alone pc that I am purposing to act as a doorbell interface. Basically I cracked apart a standard keyboard and if you are familiar with how they work you understand that each key is tied to a controller in the normally open position. Pressing a key closes the circuit that the controller interprets as a key (this can be edited with a keymapper to be any input you wish) So I have a small pc running Puppy Linux and a wire coming out of the keyboard where the Home key would be and out to a switch that I will after testing move to the doorbell. I need to learn GSD and socket communications better before I can get "Home key" = lmce receiving an input via TCP that a button has been pressed.
I have some interested from the roommate to finance a doorbell solution, together we can probably invest as much as $300 into this. If this was one of your doorbells, how would you go about connecting it?
My core knows when someone presses a doorbell.
Once that works I can do custom events, trigger phone calls, alerts, pausing media, and all the fun stuff. I am dumbfounded though in how to get this connection. Here is what I have looked at doing and how I am currently approaching it.
Z-Wave: No 'buttons' or button modules exist. I could probably crack apart a door/window alarm to go off if the doorbell button separated the sensor units enough. I could modify a scene controller wall switch to send a state change but as described in other posts, events were not intended to be fired by direct actions. Soldering something onto a Z-Wave sensor really kills the PNP appeal of that technology anyways.
X-10: Similar to the Z-Wave problems, in that no simple contact seems to exist. I could justify spending the money on a box of used x-10 parts and probably come up with some way to get a signal back to my core but by the time I add a PC interface device to receive that signal and run isolated power lines to the doorbell (and then step down the current somehow to not have a 110V surprise for guests in the rain) I would have already spent more on a cm15a and other parts by this point to equal a controller for another tech.
Expensive intercom as simple doorbell: There seems to be some Insteon functions that allow for button pressing firing events but after 25 pages of the Smarthome website I only found units that talk to other intercoms and not back to a PC to keep it informed.
Other less often mentioned technologies: zigbee, KNX, proprietary systems, I even considered buying a security panel with ethernet outputs and wire a "panic" button which would act as a method of communicating something happened. 1-Wire to be honest is for hobbyists well above my abilities with bus addresses and willingness to solder onto my core. I actually attempted a simple switch on a test machine via serial, parallel and usb but don't think I had the proper "pull up voltage" pins wired... Each guide I found recommended a different port and some called out completely different pins. I even considered cracking apart "the clapper" to respond to a standard doorbell chimes, then have the clapper turn on a light which would shine onto a photo intensity sensor... There has to be an easier way.
I currently have a stand alone pc that I am purposing to act as a doorbell interface. Basically I cracked apart a standard keyboard and if you are familiar with how they work you understand that each key is tied to a controller in the normally open position. Pressing a key closes the circuit that the controller interprets as a key (this can be edited with a keymapper to be any input you wish) So I have a small pc running Puppy Linux and a wire coming out of the keyboard where the Home key would be and out to a switch that I will after testing move to the doorbell. I need to learn GSD and socket communications better before I can get "Home key" = lmce receiving an input via TCP that a button has been pressed.
I have some interested from the roommate to finance a doorbell solution, together we can probably invest as much as $300 into this. If this was one of your doorbells, how would you go about connecting it?