Doorbell on OmniPro II

[Anthony A.]

thats good news. i skipped the electronic chime as well and have a mechanical. did you follow the exact schematic shown by BraveSirRobbin for hookup, using the same settings as well as the diode he mentions inline with the transformer?

also, how are you playing the song through your speakers?

 

[Steve]

Yea, that's Elk diagram (their devices) and what I did. Right now its playing from CQC through my Nuvo Grand Concerto paging.

 

[Anthony A.]

The quote refers to automatically handled alarm type zones. Since you do not want the burglar alarm to go off when you press the door bell this is not relevant.

With the Zone Resistors setting OFF, NC is SECURE, NO is NOT READY. NOT READY on an "alarm" zone triggers the alarm. With the Zone Resistors setting ON, a 1K ohm loop is SECURE, anything else (open or short) is NOT READY.


In your case if everything else is setup and working the way you want, then just set the Zone Type to AUX and leave everything else alone. NC will indicate a zone status of SECURE and NO will indicate a status of NOT READY.

Now typically we tend to think of the door bell as not ready when someone pushes it and the typical door bell routine is triggered by a line like "WHEN Door Bell NOT READY...". In truth the controller doesn't care. If the door bell is NO except when someone pushes the button, then you just modify the programming.

WHEN Door Bell SECURE
THEN SAY Guest At Front Door

so i took this advice, as my entire setup doesn't make use of resistors. however, after all has been installed (and works great btw! ), my doorbell zone shows up as secure all the time, until it is pressed in which case it goes to unsecure. this is correct, but i have it connected with the N/C on the 960 module. im wondering if you also steve have it as secure all the time?

not that im complaining either as i think this was how it should have been anyways, but im stumped how its functioning that way.

one more thing. i set the time on the 960 to about 15 seconds. i notice that this allows the zone to be "unsecure" for that amount of time so that kids pressing it multiple times, don't screw anything. what i've noticed is though, that if you press the bell than wait 10 seconds and press it again, you need to wait another 15 seconds for it to be secure. so essentially, everytime you press the bell you need to wait those 15 seconds (in my case) for the zone to be "secure" again. i was under the assumption that no matter how many times you press the bell during those 15 seconds, the zone is unsecure and returns to secure automatically at 15 seconds from the first ring. am i confused?

 

[programmergeek]

I did this same thing on some installs trouble is I used a elk board to take care of the delay worked well but the OPII takes to long to announce soneone is at the door about 3-15 seconds after someone rings the bell. I am using a voice message from the OPII and supect the voice board is the issue. Just a FYI.

 

[Anthony A.]

thanks for the bit of info. im debating getting the voice board, but now im wondering if this type of delay will render it almost useless. do you think the programming could be the issue? would adding the programming rule at the very top of the list perhaps correct this delay? reason i ask is because when i programmed the lights, i found having them at the top improved response time quite a bit. or do you think the actual voice board is just slow in processing what to say and then turning on the zones, etc.

 

[Steve]

I think the NC / Not Ready was if you hook the button straight to the OPII. I believe the Elk 'fixes' that and that's why its as you expect on the OP. Mine is the same way. As for the delay, I am not using the voice board (I have one but its just hooked up to small speakers in the kpd for 2 way - which really sucks BTW, hardly any volume thru it) but my delay is only like 2 sec but that it mostly time for Nuvo to go to page mode and start the song. I guess I can try the voice board and see what happens but something else sounds wrong there. Almost sounds like your voice doesn't start until AFTER the delay on the 960 end. And I have my 960 set to around 3-5 sec I think. Was not too concerned about multiple presses, etc.

 

[cornutt]

I prototyped a pulse stretcher circuit last night for a doorbell button, based on a 7555 timer IC. It creates a 650 ms pulse when the button is pressed. It drives an open-collector transistor that will switch the zone. It also supplies 12V to light the LED in the doorbell. Itt's powered off the OPII's auxiliary supply. I'm going to try connecting it to the OPII sometime this week. If it works, I'll build it on a piece of strip board and put it in a box.

 

[Anthony A.]

sounds like a nice little device. maybe make a few more and sell them here! :unsure:

btw, now that my doorbell is sensed and i can automate anything with it, im wondering what all my options are for interfacing it through my whole house audio. for starters, i looked at the hai voice module but it seems that it is not 100% reliable all the time in regards to how long it takes to make announcement. are there any other voice modules that are similar that will work? i've also looked at the visonic sp-2 and viking mtg-10. any other options available? what other ways can i interface a wav file of choice over the system other than getting software to run on a pc.

thanks.

 

[pete_c]

I prototyped a pulse stretcher circuit last night for a doorbell button, based on a 7555 timer IC. It creates a 650 ms pulse when the button is pressed. It drives an open-collector transistor that will switch the zone. It also supplies 12V to light the LED in the doorbell. Itt's powered off the OPII's auxiliary supply. I'm going to try connecting it to the OPII sometime this week. If it works, I'll build it on a piece of strip board and put it in a box.

Sounds interesting cornutt. I left all of the electronics in place for the doorbell minus the doorbell itself and just wired it to the HAI panel (with a EOL resistor). It works fine for me and it is typically fast enough. I have the "event" on the HAI panel just sounding a couple of X10 chimers.

On the HA (HS) box / ZM box recording video and triggering a TTS event. All of this occurs in a timely manner (for me - but I am old). Future plans are a whole new front door/side panels (and a re-wire to include a small cam).

A Pulse stretcher / supplying 12V to the LED in the doorbell would be a nice addition.

This could also be used for my mailbox setup. This is kind of a unique setup which is hardwired to the HAI panel. I use a vibration sensor on the back of the mail box which typically is too fast and doesn't trigger an alert on the OPII. The mailbox itself is made out of aluminum with two doors in front inside of a brick structure. The vibration of either door used to trigger an event but hasn't in a while now.

This would also work for a Geophone setup that I used to use for a driveway sensor in the old house.

 

[programmergeek]

No it starts right away whe the button is pressed it did this when I had the button going right to the board. I do have quite a bit of programming and 4 expansion boards the system had to poll. I will try moving it to thte top of the logic, maybe that will help. We do alot of new house wireing so if I can use the HAI and solve this it is one less thing I have to install.

 

[cornutt]

sounds like a nice little device. maybe make a few more and sell them here! :unsure:

Thanks, but I'm not patient enough to build 100 of them. I'll post the schematic and pics when I've got it all working.

btw, now that my doorbell is sensed and i can automate anything with it, im wondering what all my options are for interfacing it through my whole house audio. for starters, i looked at the hai voice module but it seems that it is not 100% reliable all the time in regards to how long it takes to make announcement.

I've heard that about the voice module. It seems like I read that it's actually a function of how long it takes for your audio amp to come out of standby. I don't have an audio system yet (it's getting near the top of the list). For right now I'm going to have the 5.7e play a sound through its speaker when the doorbell button is pressed.

 

[pete_c]

Cornutt,

I was thinking of just buying one of those $6.00 debounce/timer circuit kits and maybe modifying it a bit to provide the doorbell LED voltage. Would that work?

 

[cornutt]

I was thinking of just buying one of those $6.00 debounce/timer circuit kits and maybe modifying it a bit to provide the doorbell LED voltage. Would that work?

It might, depending on what kind of switch interface it has. I'll post the schematic for the one I built this weekend, and I'll point out how I got that to work. That trick might work with one of those kits too.

 

[charliebarns]

So I've got this hooked up and all works fine. The problem is it doesn't distinguish between the front/back door bell being pushed. Any trickery for figuring our wiring to be able to announce what door bell is being pushed?


thx

CB

 

[pete_c]

CB,

Do you have an Elk hooked up?

To figure out which is the front or back doorbell button use a multimeter. Are the two door bell pairs of wires paired up or are they just 4 wires?