Door Bell Integration?

[rhinoman]

The problem with multiroom music is thatwe cannot hear the doorbell when it rings.

Is there any way that we could interface the doorbell so that its noise goes over/into the music of any zones playing music?

All ideas welcome.

[jowaldo]

does x10 make any type of doorbell?

[rhinoman]

TBH I got the idea from looking around the Russound stuff on Smarthome. Haven't looked at x10 yet.

[rhinoman]

Ok, appears x10 do a

X10 Chime Module - This module produces a pleasant chime Ding-Dong Ding-Dong Ding-Ding in response to an ON X10 signal.

or

X10 Powerflash Interface - Create your own security system. Add remote doorbell chimes. Turn off vacuum when doorbell rings. Bridge House Codes. Automatically turn on lights, music, etc. when doors open. Signal you when the garage door is open. Automatically turn on devices when sound is detected at speakers

The scond option looks like we may be able to use that as a switch that xlobby can pick up if we can work out a way to integrate it into the music player.

Any ideas or is this for Steven?

[timwarner]

Rhinoman

I have experience of getting different things to control my PC's but before I go off in the wrong direction if would help me to help you if I knew:

Do you have any X10 stuff already?
If so what hardware / software do you have?
Can you get a wire from your doorbell push back to the PC?
What budget do you have for this project?
Do you enjoy making / modifing things or do you prefer off the shelf items?

Tim Warner

[rhinoman]

Hi Tim,

No thoughts on budget but I thought it would be a cool thing to have and dont mind throwing some money at it if necessary. I dont have any X10 stuff yet but have been looking at it so its on my list. I could get a wire to the door push if necessary and it would be easy to get this to the xlobby server. I'm quite happy to make/modify but my solderings rubbish but could get someone to do it for me if nessary.

What ideas have you got?

[timwarner]

Hi

The method I would use is a gameport plugin. There is one here that can be used on its own.

http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=228

http://www.gadgetjunkie.net/index.php used to have a page describing how to wire the gameport for inputs. You would need to use a relay switched by the doorbell not just connect the doorbell to the gameport.

You would then want to use this to control the volume. I have somewhere a small program call setvol. It controls the windows master volume.

Maybe this http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_d ... 480,00.asp would be easier.

You could set up a button on xlobby to unmute.

The x10 route would work but would cost a lot, powerflash & pc interface would proberbly be £50 compared to using the gameport which may cost £5

Sorry this post is a bit rushed but I am going out but I thought you might like some info to look into

Tim

[rhinoman]

Hi Tim,

Thanks for your ideas.

The gameport idea looks like a possible solution. My first thoughts are related to windows mastyer volume. My rme setup uses waveout in foobar to send sound to the required output pair for the zone playing. Windows volume control is not used.

It would be nice if the doorbell played over the sound in any active zone, I suppose if it interupted the sound in all of the zones that might work too.

I dont really want money to be an issue at this stage and dont mind investing in x10 stuff as I expect to use it in the future anyway. If I set a finger in the air price of £100 maybe this will make options easier.