I wanted a way to get email alerts, and scrolling messages on my LaMetric units, from things that beep at home - but - I didn't want to have to modify any of the original units.
For example:
- smoke detectors (my house has the kind linked together, where when ones goes off they all beep)
- water leak alarms (I really like the Honeywell RWD41)
- clothes washer (cause I keep forgetting and leave wet clothes in there)
So, I found these little sound sensors for Arduino that many people seem to be confusing as audio microphones, but all they really do is detect noise and output an analog value, over 600 seems to equal that of another piezo speaker (like that in the smoke detector or water alarm) and then I use that to make an HTTP request to my home automation server.
The chain of connections/events is like this...
Sound sensor > Arduino > Ethernet shield > HTTP get request > IIS running on Windows server > when hit for a certain file with query string then run a batch which sends a message to the LaMetric and emails me.
Pictures of the build here: Arduino sound sense - Album on Imgur
Arduino code here: Arduino Sound Sensor - Pastebin.com