Okay, so sometime ago I changed my wired doorbell into a semi-smart device with a dry contact sensor and a reed switch (thanks Community).
Now that Alexa can be controlled to play files and speak via software, I’d like to revisit this and understand what I would need to completely remove the physical doorbell from the equation.
I’d like to power a wireless device by taking the power from the doorbell now and drive a sensor of some sort (can I just use the dry contact sensor?) by connecting the two wires from the ringer button right to that.
Would that do it?
I know I’d need a voltage adapter to convert the voltage over to whatever the smart sensor needs. Does anyone know what voltage is provided to standard doorbells? 12v?
Once that’s done I can clean up the wall and perhaps just leave a SMALL hole for the wiring to get to the sensor and then the only thing you’ll see is the sensor. No more large bell box.
Thanks Robin. It sounds like I can eliminate the physical doorbell now then and work on the powering of the battery jack of the sensor as a second step.
Damn … this is brilliant. I can just hook up a window sensor to my doorbell contacts and be notified when someone rings the doorbelll regardless of where I am. I wish I had thought of that before I bought a ring doorbell but then again it is a nice product.
Yup - I get it. I used a simple $4 relay to set up my garage opener using the same concept back in the day before integrated Zwave openers were available.
Slightly confused. Didn’t you say above that, “you would just connect the two terminals of the push button directly to the two terminals of the dry sensor contact”? I was under the impression that power to the two wires heading to the button was supplied by the transformer at the physical door bell unit in the house. The only reason I want to involve power is to step it down and use it to power the sensor itself.
I did speak with the wife and the Internet here goes out so rarely that losing the doorbell then would be very minor. The doorbell is out anyway when the power is out so that would remain the same. We’d gain a lot of options on flexibility of tunes and such. I’m even thinking holiday-based rings and such. That’s hard to pass up.