Doorbell that you can shut off?

[default]

Oh, now I have to go buy a wolf-trap, weld it open, and nail it up over my doorbell with a "no soliciting" sign...

[Takoma Park Volunteer Fire Dep]

All you need is a timing relay of the appropriate voltage that will open the circuit on application of power and will not make it available to the button again for whatever interval you set.

-- Tom H

[rck]

Time delay relays can be expensive. For example a 24AG-KRP11 Interval On relay is almost $80. I suppose I could use an IC to drive an inexpensive relay but then I'd have to build a power supply. How many milliamps are available from a doorbell transformer?

Bob

[Dan]

Love that! Another suggestion: a NO SOLICITING sign. "NO I DO NOT want FREE COPY of THE WATCHTOWER!!!" ;-) Take it from me, the irritating idiots will actually TURN AROUND & LEAVE when the see it.

Seriously, if KNOCKING is less of a concern, go to radio shack (probably even Home Depot) and get a single pole single throw toggle switch. Drill a hole in the side of the door bell cover & install the switch. Wire it in series with one of the door bell wires (doesn't matter which, but if you have both front & back door bells, make sure it's the door where you expect annoyance, probably the front). Just take a wire off the terminal on the bell, solder it to the switch, then run a wire from the other switch terminal to where that 1st wire was attached. Don't worry; we're talking 14 volts or so here, you're not going to electrocute anyone. Just flip it OFF before retiring on the weekend ;-)

Dan

[JennP]

I don't know, but what a fabulous idea! I'd love something like that to prevent my barking dog from waking up the kids at naptime. The doorbell is the only thing that makes her bark.

JennP.

[Jeff Prevett]

This is quite simple to do. You can even keep your existing doorbell. Go buy a single toggle single throw switch. If you have a plastic case (the 'cheap' type that builders put into houses), you can drill a hole in it and put the switch in the case. You have two ways to electrically connect the switch. You can interupt the power supply or the switch. Personally, I would interput the power supply to the bell. Find the two wires that connect the doorbell to the transformer disconnect the positive one (probably the red one if red and green are the two wire colours). Connect one side of the switch to the wire that you disconnected and connect the other side of the switch to the terminal on the bell. It is good pratice to interput the +ve line, but since we're working with very low DC voltage it really doesn't matter. If the power from the transformer goes to the doorbell button, you have to connect it like the later case. Simply put the switch in as in the former case.

Here is a little ASCII schematic. It's the same schematic for both setups, except in the second setup, the SPDT-switch is between the doorbell button and the doorbell:

• ---------------------|SPDT-switch|----------- | | Doorbell button |

12-24VDC | Doorbell | |

- ---------------------------------------------------

NOTE: by doing this, if you have a light on the pushbutton (outside), it will go off when you turn off the switch.

Give me a shout if you need a better picture or this doesn't make sense (I'm an electrical engineering student -3rd year, so this is pretty basic stuff to me and I sometimes forget that it isn't to others).

Jeff

[Jeff Wisnia]

If your doorbell is located where you can easily reach up and touch it I'd suggest that an good spot you to mount a miniature toggle switch would be right through a hole drilled in the doorbell's housing. That'd eliminate the need to run any additional wires.

One like this from Radio Shack should do the job:

HTH,

(Another) Jeff

[MUADIB®]

Did anyone other than me hear that the "X-10" bunch claimed bankruptcy recently?.............About two months ago or so. I swear It!................Maybe I should have tken more time and listened more carefully, they may have sold also.............but I know I heard a newscasrt one morning saying something about their Bankruptcy.

Turns out I wasn;t just hearing things.

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MUADIB®

one small step for man,..... One giant leap for attorneys.

[Mark Holbrook]

One could put a wet paint sign on the door and the area around it? ;)

Mark

[Nick Hull]

How about stuffing tissue into the bell to quiet it?

[Joe Zimmerman]

Instead of hardwiring the doorbell transformer to your AC, you could put that on a switch, or use some sort of X10 aplliance module to turn it on and off.

[Travis Jordan]

1) Ask you neighbors not to ring your doorbell on the weekends. 2) Post a "No Solicitation" sign on your front steps.