Author Topic: bellmote doorbell detection [solved]  (Read 3267 times)

blackie

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bellmote doorbell detection [solved]
« on: December 10, 2015, 10:32:02 AM »
I have the bellmote working as far as being able to ring the doorbell and disable it, but I can't seem to get it to detect a doorbell switch press.

I have tried to swap my neg/pos connections to the transformer around, but haven't had any luck getting it to detect a switch press. Is this my most likely issue?

I am wondering if I made a mistake assembling the board. I did use the red LED as the power indicator, so yeah...

The Ring detect LED never comes on. Not when the doorbell switch is pressed, or the RING button on the Pi Gateway.

I still have a bunch of troubleshooting to do, but I figured I should ask for help.

I am connecting my bellmote at the chime location. Wires from the transformer and switches all meet at the chime. There are front and back doorbell switches, but I am only dealing with one for now.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2015, 11:04:54 PM by Felix »

Felix

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Re: bellmote doorbell detection
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2015, 12:09:45 PM »
Could you possibly post a little diagram of how the wiring is done, including the transformer and chime and their wiring as well. You can take a photo of your sticky note, post it on imgur.com and then include it here. I am assuming you have assembled the Bellmote correctly, but a close up of that will also help in figuring this out.

blackie

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Re: bellmote doorbell detection
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2015, 03:46:47 PM »
Diagram


I have one wire nut that connects one wire from the transformer with the bellmote GND and one of the chime leads.

Another wire nut connects the other lead from the transformer with the bellmote 16VAC and one lead from the switch pic:


« Last Edit: December 10, 2015, 04:58:22 PM by Felix »

Felix

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Re: bellmote doorbell detection
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2015, 08:39:42 PM »
Ok I realize I might have made a mistake and shipped some bellmotes with a PCB error that I forgot to correct.
Namely there was a trace missing and I made a mental note to fix these manually on all the PCBs in the first batch and I probably forgot on some of them before I packaged the parts. Which explains why they won't work. Namely a hookup wire needs to be soldered to these 2 points:


So .. my apologies, I would hope you can add that yourself.
I think your soldering is OK, assuming the orientation of the diodes is correct, as indicated on the silkscreen. The consequence of reversing the LEDs is that green will not be bright and red will be very bright. It's the resistors that determine that... but otherwise it won't matter since you're not looking at these, they are merely for debugging and making sure everything works.
Also please note that you will need the Moteino in the socket for the detection circuit to work. It needs a voltage from the Moteino "3.3" pin, otherwise the little IC will not be properly biased.

If that still won't work then let's take some steps back. I'd like you to wire it this way as a first step:

This will allow detection and ringing the door bell. We will do disabling as a second step after this works.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2015, 08:41:29 PM by Felix »

blackie

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Re: bellmote doorbell detection
« Reply #4 on: December 10, 2015, 09:38:52 PM »
Thanks! The hookup wire fixed it.

Felix

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Re: bellmote doorbell detection
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2015, 11:04:24 PM »
Awesome, good job soldering!  ;D