Doorbell - simple now, more complex later

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi folks. If this is not the right section please move or advise.

DISCLOSURE:
I can solder and I can identify most electronic components by sight, but I have little (very little!) electronic theory, and have never even seen an Arduino in the flesh. Just been doing some reading.

REQUIREMENT:
I have been unable to buy a doorbell with the required features so I thought perhaps it might be possible to build one.

I need a wireless doorbell that can have press buttons on front and back doors, and which will give a unique tone to each. Volume should be adjustable from moderate up to quite loud. Ideally there would be two receivers so each can be located in a different part of the house, but both receivers must be able to indicate by tone which buzzer has been pressed (front or back).

Might sound a bit simplistic to some of you guys, but it's for a large old house occupied by an elderly woman who's hearing is reasonable but who has very slow mobility. Want to put an end to her slowly heading off to the wrong door because she heard a knock or a bell but couldn't be sure from which direction.

That's all I need for a start, but I'm told that much, much more could be done with an Arduino, so maybe later I might want to look at expanding into some of those possibilities – motion sensor, WebCam to phone, Ethernet, etc. But for a start keep it easy so I can at least get something useful up and running.

Open to any and all suggestions.

Thank you.

2

You could use an arduino nano that is nice and small for the job with a cheap rf transceiver you can get off ebay Google rf module the 433mhz should do for your application, Bluetooth would be over doing it.

You can power the nano from 5v so a USB lead could be attached or a 9v battery with a voltage divider.

As for sound you can play tones straight out the arduino to small speakers or get a old dell pc case speaker with a built in amp.

If you want pure audio I'd recommend wtv020-sd.

Good luck.

3

Thanks for the advice.

Something like this OK for the RF transceiver ?

CLICK HERE

4

Yes, that would work fine, I use that receiver (albeit with a key-fob style transmitter but it could be the very same one as shown). Details in my YouTube video #26 (URL in the signature of this post).

It has 4 outputs so you could extend your system in the future.

You mentioned you wanted TWO bells, so you will have to physically wire two sounders / speakers from the single Arduino. If you want a totally wireless system then two Arduinos (Nanos, cheap as chips) and two receivers will be required, to be placed at the required points in the house.