My doorbell recently stopped working, and I was looking into getting another when I realized I could probably build something that would fit my needs better than any commercial model. This is my first arduino project. I have done lots of software programming before, but never gotten into the hardware side of things. I was hoping someone could offer advice/suggestions on this project. I have done a little electronics work previously, but I am still a beginner.
I often cannot hear the doorbell when I am in certain areas of the house (basement, workshop etc…), but I have computers in most of these areas. I have a home theater setup in the basement which is powered by a HTPC. I would like to create a doorbell that operates by itself, but also sends a notification over wifi to my computers. This way the HTPC could play a sound and pause whatever I’m watching when some rings the doorbell. Other machines could pop up similar notifications.
I have read about an mp3 shield that I assume I could use for the main doorbell sounds, as well as a wifi shield to send the notifications. My current (broken) doorbell unit also is a clock. I would like to add this as well. I prefer analogue clocks, but it seems that they are difficult to build with an arduino, so I will probably go with a digital display.
I would love to get some advice on parts or ideas. Also a recommendation of which flavor of arduino would be best to use. Thanks.
I think it is pretty doable although I don't know how to link up with the HTPC or send a notification. On the "doorbell being also a clock" part, can you describe what it is? I have not seen a doorbell/clock combo. You can use several types of displays for a clock, LCD, LED, or maybe a single arm clock driven by a small servo?
Thanks for the reply. I haven't programmed an arduino before, but hopefully communicating across a network will similar to other languages in which case I shouldn't have to many problems with notifications. As to the clock, my doorbell has a unit in the hall that contains the speaker and doorbell circuitry. It is designed to look like a wall clock. It is kind of cheap and plasticky so I was going to build a wooden replacement and house the arduino inside. It is a useful place for a clock though and I was hoping to have the arduino manage it as well. I will probably use a digital display, what are the pro's / con's between lcd and led?
torianironfist:
My doorbell recently stopped working, and I was looking into getting another when I realized I could probably build something that would fit my needs better than any commercial model. This is my first arduino project. I have done lots of software programming before, but never gotten into the hardware side of things. I was hoping someone could offer advice/suggestions on this project. I have done a little electronics work previously, but I am still a beginner.
I often cannot hear the doorbell when I am in certain areas of the house (basement, workshop etc…), but I have computers in most of these areas. I have a home theater setup in the basement which is powered by a HTPC. I would like to create a doorbell that operates by itself, but also sends a notification over wifi to my computers. This way the HTPC could play a sound and pause whatever I’m watching when some rings the doorbell. Other machines could pop up similar notifications.
I have read about an mp3 shield that I assume I could use for the main doorbell sounds, as well as a wifi shield to send the notifications. My current (broken) doorbell unit also is a clock. I would like to add this as well. I prefer analogue clocks, but it seems that they are difficult to build with an arduino, so I will probably go with a digital display.
I would love to get some advice on parts or ideas. Also a recommendation of which flavor of arduino would be best to use. Thanks.
you can have your arduino send a serial command to eventghost and then have that pause your media center as well as do a host of other things (you could have it play an mp3 on your htcp or have it display text on your tv)
torianironfist:
Thanks for the reply. I haven't programmed an arduino before, but hopefully communicating across a network will similar to other languages in which case I shouldn't have to many problems with notifications. As to the clock, my doorbell has a unit in the hall that contains the speaker and doorbell circuitry. It is designed to look like a wall clock. It is kind of cheap and plasticky so I was going to build a wooden replacement and house the arduino inside. It is a useful place for a clock though and I was hoping to have the arduino manage it as well. I will probably use a digital display, what are the pro's / con's between lcd and led?
I see. You can get large 7-segment LED displays that are very visible at night but with LCDs you have to read up close enough like reading your computer monitor, not the best especially considering most LCDs are also small. You can either have a real time clock chip with back up battery inside the clock to keep and tick the time or get time from some network time server I think.
Something like this would be quite visible with its size:
There is no colon on these units but you can use 2 red LEDs to make the blinking colon.
You might check into X10 modules. The Arduino could flash lights and/or ring a chime anywhere you have house electric, but it's not exactly cheap to do a lot of rooms that way.
You definitely need an RTC module to make an accurate clock, Arduino is not up to it by many seconds per day.
Check out 'ice cube' clocks and POV(persistence of vision) clocks for cool.