Comments on: Getting the doorbell online

By: Insteon

Insteon — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:45:52 +0000

Nice use of a basic wireless doorbell to accomplish this! I had to work harder than I thought I would to get my basic 120v doorbell to pass off the signal to the EZIO for my computer to read it. I like the simplicity of this approach and using an Arduino earns you bonus points.

By: nick

nick — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:05:19 +0000

Rudi: it seems so obvious when you say it. Thanks for pointing that out!

By: Rudi

Rudi — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:08:00 +0000

“It also lets you pick one of three chimes to use …. As that setting is on the button itself, it must be sending it over the wireless signal.”

This is for using more than one button, i.e. at the front door and at the back door. Each button (location) thus can have its own melody.

By: Setting up my Current Cost Meter | Chris Dalby Untangles Networks

Setting up my Current Cost Meter | Chris Dalby Untangles Networks — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:45:54 +0000

[...] certainly is a great bit of fun at the moment. Seeing people getting their doorbell online also makes me want to go and buy a doorbell for a weekend project. Stay tuned for more blog posts [...]

By: Current Cost « The lost outpost

Current Cost « The lost outpost — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:55:10 +0000

[...] tangible to hack around with. It has also led me into a bunch of interesting discussions about home automation, tweetjects and low-power servers. Fascinating [...]

By: nick

nick — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:57:47 +0000

@roo – it’s a hidden switch inside the button battery compartment. As you can have multiple receivers there is something to be said for only having to pick the chime in one place – but it evidently does complicate the signal it has to send out.

By: Roo

Roo — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:45:43 +0000

Excellent post!

By the way: “It also lets you pick one of three chimes to use …. As that setting is on the button itself, it must be sending it over the wireless signal.”

That’s just weird. Does this allow visitors to pick which chime they want to use, or is it a secret hidden feature. Seems surreal to pick at the button rather than the bell.

By: nick

nick — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:21:13 +0000

Gas usage is an interesting one – and is something I definitely want to track to be sure to get the whole energy-use picture.

I will write a post on this once I’ve done some investigating and experimenting.

By: ben

ben — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:03:48 +0000

fantastic work!

the current temp is useful for alerting me when there may be a fire at home… like a modern smoke alarm

would love to hear your thoughts on gas usage tracking… one thought i had was to use computer vision (http://opencvlibrary.sourceforge.net/) with a very high frames per second webcam

By: James Taylor

James Taylor — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:51:45 +0000

Very much looking forward to the Aduino post, especially if it includes MQTT!