Stupid cheap flimsy wireless doorbells... So I'm thinking about putting in a Spore illuminated doorbell button and connecting it to a security zone on my OPII. I'll configure it as an aux zone and put in automation code to alert us somehow when the button is pressed; beep the console and flash a light, or some such. (Eventually, it will announce or sound a chime tone through whole-house audio, but that's a ways off yet.)
The Spore is illuminated by an LED. They have DC and AC versions, and the DC version is spec'ed for 6-12V DC. Unfortunately, the spec sheet doesn't really say how much power the LED draws, just "less than 1 watt". So at first I though, "gee, that could draw a lot of current", and I was already envisioning some complicated circuit with an auxiliary power supply and a relay that closes when the button is pressed, whose contacts would be wired to a zone on the OPII.
Then it occurred to me: illuminated doorbell buttons are intended to be wired in series with the chime. A conventional chime solenoid has resistance, and that provides the circuit loading which limits the amount of current the button illumination can draw. How much resistance? It's hard to find any specs, but a couple of things I've seen suggest that a typical DC resistance for a DC doorbell solenoid is in the vicinity of 1K. Well, how conveeeenient... could I make the doorbell look like a normal security zone with a 1K EOL resistor? I could measure the resistance of the button's illumination circuit, presuming that it's pretty low, and add a resistor of a sufficient value in series to make a 1K end-to-end resistance on the zone.
If this works, I can then set it up as an aux zone, and write some automation code that will alert the interior whenever the zone becomes ready (button is pressed). It would sure be less complicated than a setup with auxiliary power and relays. Anyone ever done something like this?
The Spore is illuminated by an LED. They have DC and AC versions, and the DC version is spec'ed for 6-12V DC. Unfortunately, the spec sheet doesn't really say how much power the LED draws, just "less than 1 watt". So at first I though, "gee, that could draw a lot of current", and I was already envisioning some complicated circuit with an auxiliary power supply and a relay that closes when the button is pressed, whose contacts would be wired to a zone on the OPII.
Then it occurred to me: illuminated doorbell buttons are intended to be wired in series with the chime. A conventional chime solenoid has resistance, and that provides the circuit loading which limits the amount of current the button illumination can draw. How much resistance? It's hard to find any specs, but a couple of things I've seen suggest that a typical DC resistance for a DC doorbell solenoid is in the vicinity of 1K. Well, how conveeeenient... could I make the doorbell look like a normal security zone with a 1K EOL resistor? I could measure the resistance of the button's illumination circuit, presuming that it's pretty low, and add a resistor of a sufficient value in series to make a 1K end-to-end resistance on the zone.
If this works, I can then set it up as an aux zone, and write some automation code that will alert the interior whenever the zone becomes ready (button is pressed). It would sure be less complicated than a setup with auxiliary power and relays. Anyone ever done something like this?
