Trivial problem - wireless bell push - 1byOne

[David]

The door bell push is being temperamental.

After a few days it stops working.

I prise the bell push off the bracket and prise the battery out and then put it back in and then it works again. For a while.

I have checked the CR2032 with a multi-meter and the voltage looks good.

This suggests a marginal contact.

Any suggestions on how to resolve this? Everything looks suitably shiny. The bell push is in a sheltered porch so not subject to rain.

Cheers

Dave R

[Spike]

Clean all finger grease from the CR2032 before inserting it into the holder.

Rub a lead pencil over the holder’s contacts.

[Tim+]

Do the above, then drill a hole through the door frame and fit a cheapo wired battery doorbell. Save you years of faffing. ;-)

Tim

[Paul]

These items include the concept of "pairing", implying Bluetooth.

Maybe the scheme is just too complicated for its own good ?

I would want to understand the operating principle of the item in question, and how many "moving parts" it has, which can break.

It could be, that the Bell Push is sending a signal at

2.4Ghz, but the receiver is refusing to acknowledge it. It might not be a "dirty contact".

Paul

[Jeff Layman]

Almost certainly a poor contact. We have a similar setup with a Honeywell (Friedland), but in this case we have two receivers - one mains powered and one battery powered. They either both work or both fail. We've had ours about 7 years, and the bell push is consistently unreliable! It's the one here:

. Note the one and two-star reviews. It wouldn't be so bad if there was some indication on the bell push that it had actually sent a signal, but there's no visual feedback such as a led illuminating at all.

Still, it's a lot better than the el-cheapo one we originally had, in which the receiver ate AA batteries, and was a lot less sensitive than the Honeywell receivers.

[Bob Eager]

I got so fed up with our unreliable wireless doorbells that I bit the bullet and did a hard wired one. (the house is large and has thick-ish walls).

[Paul]

Bell pushes are a fascinating topic. Almost as much fun as Internet Radio :-)

The 1byone lists 433.92MHz as the working frequency. It is printed on the back of the unit.

[Picture]

And 433.92MHz should be in range of an RTLSDR (software defined radio). If that's the frequency being used, it could be easier to "watch" than any 2.4GHz device (which would require a HackRFOne or similar/more expensive).

There is talk here, that importing these may be made illegal (as car thieves are using them, and isn't that the best reason???). This is one way to work at 2.4GHz.

Whereas below 1.7GHz or so, the RTLSDR would be a possible solution for listening to RF output. You would Google "RTLSDR Doorbell push" and see if anyone has built a demodulator. (Even listening for carrier, would be better than nothing.)

There's no guarantee that for a given modulation scheme, an SDR can work with it. Some modulation schemes, need a better device than a hackrf one. The feature the hackrf one has, is the ability to work from 0-6GHz or so for the RF carrier. Which is better for some of the computer related stuff. Things like GNURadio make an SDR run. Some RF things in our daily lives, the bandwidth is wide enough, you need an SDR that costs about 10^4.

The RTLSDR, they can be cheap enough at times, to be worthwhile as a toy. And especially if the thing you're working on, is at a lower frequency.

There are also kits that come with a cheesy antenna. The antenna must be chosen with some idea what frequency range you're covering. A coat hanger stuffed into the central hole, should be enough for 433MHz. Otherwise, you'll be puttering with a Balun and an old UHF TV antenna or the like.

Paul

[Andy Burns]

I'd heard tales of FlipperZero devices being impounded at customs, have they seen sense yet?

[Andrew]

+1