A simple way to get alerts when your doorbell is rung

I would like to have my doorbell disabled during certain times of the day. Any ideas or starting point suggestions?

What’s the current doorbell device like? And are you willing to replace it?

If you’re willing to replace it, the easiest way is just to replace it with a non-ringing open/close sensor, and then have that open/close sensor trigger whatever sound you like, and put that on your time schedule.

I have a contact sensor on my front gate that I have smart things monitor and send a text to my phone when the gate opens. The text notification sound is my doorbell.

It would be easy to take any DNLA sound device and have that act as the chime part. Basically just play the sound you specified. So instead of having smart things send a text, smart things turn on the DNLA player.

Aeon been promising a Z wave doorbell with some different sounds for a while now, most recently with a promised delivery date of the summer. If it ever actually arrives, then again, you could easily control the time schedule from smartthings.

so lots of different ways, but all of those require replacing the doorbell button you currently have.

There are some other ways to do it with a relay in between your current doorbell button and your current chime, but that gets more into electrical wiring.

I would try and use modes for this. Create mode(s) where the doorbell doesn’t function if the system is in currently in that mode.

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If all you want to do is disable the doorbell at certain times, I would wire in one of these dry contact relays to either of the two wires running from your doorbell button to your doorbell ringer:

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The use of one or more Modes ("location.mode") is the common paradigm established by SmartThings, but it is a rather limited feature since only one mode can be active at a time. It is really difficult to accommodate different use categories (home, away, night, day, do not disturb, armed, disarmed…) in only one global Mode. (NB: Technically there is one mode for each Location on your Account … since a single Account can have multiple hubs, and the hubs may be at distinct locations).

The two alternatives that I consider:

  • Use a start / end schedule preference in the SmartApp that links button to sound.

  • Add a Virtual Switch Device to turn “Do Not Disturb” on and off. A separate SmartApp could flip this switch based on a schedule or various other criteria (such as when you are in the bathroom, as detected by a Motion Sensor)? The possibilities are endless.

I prefer the second approach because it allows easy manual override, and you can link multiple SmartApps to the same switch (or similar Switches) to handle arbitrarily complex useful scenarios. Perhaps the switch activates a red Hue bulb to indicate that “do not disturb” is active,… Etc., etc.

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Here’s my no wiring required version:
I taped a smartsence multi to my ding plate inside my doorbell. The accelerometer inside detects the vibration from the ding plate being struck by the doorbell being rung. No fuss, no muss, no wires :wink:
For notifications there’s [Notify Me When… App with Button functionality][1]
To turn my patio light on there’s [Lights On,On Vibration.groovy][2]

Cover Off:


Cover On:

[1]: https://github.com/twack/smarthings-apps/blob/master/NotifyMeWhen.groovy
[2]: https://github.com/sidjohn1/smartthings/blob/master/Lights%20On%2COn%20Vibration.groovy

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I have this working using a contact and @Dan999 device type. Only thing that still dives me nuts is in the Mobile app, under doors and locks, it says 1 open. Obviously because the contact is open. The device it self shows a doorbell becasue of the device type. Should I not have set this up as a door?

Thanks

Yeah, I would say remove it from the Doors and Locks section. That would bother me too. Its not like you need to check it often, as it will almost always be open unless you happen to be looking while someone is holding the button in. It will still show in Things.

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It looks like the code repository didn’t have the latest code I am running. I updated it so you can try to update your code and see if it fixes your issue. I think the only difference should be to comment out the contact sensor capability.

My doorbell definitely does not show up in Doors and Locks.

@dan999 and @obycode

Thanks for the responses. I removed it from the locks and doors section and all is fine.

Thank you both again.

I live out in the middle of no where and my door bell is rarely rung, but I think this is cool…

My wife just shakes her head, lol

Michael

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I posted in the wrong thread late last night, and figured I’d drop a comment here, too. For folks that are looking to hardwire their sensor from the 16-20VAC of the doorbell check out the Altronix AL624.

They look to fit the bill for the MIMOlite and small enough to fit in small areas. Better yet they’re cheap and easily available to buy stateside

I micro’d my doorbell and have constant 20VAC (no surprise) at the doorbell, which falls into the input range of the AL624 and is switch configurable to output 12VDC @ 1.2A

Hope this helps others!

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I keep going round and round on AC -> DC power conversion, so I just called Fortrezz and confirmed that the Mimolite does indeed use DC power.

@twack and others, you haven’t had any issues running it off your transformer’s AC power?

Has the Nexia Door Bell Sensor DB100Z been mentioned before? Doesn’t seem available yet but seems exactly what is needed for sensing activation of existing low-voltage AC doorbells without any hacker skills or kluges/workarounds required.

The Nexia does look interesting!

It was just certified two weeks ago, it typically takes about 3 months for a certified device to come to market, although it varies.

. . . and proof that I’m not crazy for expecting something that simple to install. Too bad I have to wait a few more months for it, but I’ve been waiting since SmartThings first kickstartered and I’m not expecting to die within the year. (A year or two might be a different story – we’ll see.)

FWIW, I’ve seen other not-so-bad workarounds, but they all seem to have a hitch (usually the requirement of DC power supply either themselves or for a relay delay circuit they’d need to avoid missing buttonpresses like the ELK-930+ELK-960 or issues with too-fast polarity reversal for reed relays to sensors with terminal screws, etc, etc, etc. I just want it to be stupid-simple for what a hundred million or more homes already have.

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@craiginpa

Couldn’t agree more. I really am shocked there isn’t a retail available product to do this yet. Doorbells are ubiquitous. For all that people do to detect motion/presence/etc… vendors are really missing the boat here with doorbells.

The only thing that makes me think Nexia swung and missed on their upcoming product is that it uses batteries. Folks have too many of those already in their homes that need replacing, why require them when there’s a power source inches away?

Interesting thought, kars85. That would require including a 16v AC-to-[??]v transformer in their product. Maybe they figured that would add too much cost and size, and maybe they can do the job with batteries for half a year at a time anyway (assuming it’s just on standby until an activation)? Maybe it leaves open an opportunity for a competitor, or maybe you can hack your own transformer into the battery terminals if it is really that important to you? I’m happy enough though, with a stupid-simple solution even if it needs batteries to run the z-wave electronics.

Did you wire that in?

nope, it is just taped inside…it uses the battery still and just picks up the magnet in the doorbell.

I have a door sensor im not using that has wire inputs inside of it. Im having space issues inside my doorbell box so i was wondering since it has wire inputs if i could hard wire the sensor to the doorbell wires inside the box?