fun project: entertaining doorbell
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I'm thinking that I would like to (somewhat) entertain visitors when they press my doorbell by playing a wav file (or similar) of the Veritassium soundtrack on an outdoor loudspeaker after they press the doorbell button:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3jNvvzmHgIgiving me time to reach the first floor front door from my office on the second floor. After all, it sounds a bit like a doorbell. The doorbell already exists, and it would be trivial to capture the doorbell button push. The question is: what would be the most simple on-demand embodiment for playing the sound file on a speaker outdoors?
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I'm thinking that I would like to (somewhat) entertain visitors when they press my doorbell by playing a wav file (or similar) of the Veritassium soundtrack on an outdoor loudspeaker after they press the doorbell button:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3jNvvzmHgIgiving me time to reach the first floor front door from my office on the second floor. After all, it sounds a bit like a doorbell. The doorbell already exists, and it would be trivial to capture the doorbell button push. The question is: what would be the most simple on-demand embodiment for playing the sound file on a speaker outdoors?
@NeverDie You could use a mp3 player board (there are some with built in amplifiers) so that is one option. See the usual sellers online for info on them.
The other would be a pi zero and a small dac/amp combo. If it is outdoors don't forget that the speaker needs to 'tropicalised' to resist moisture or it won't last long with fog or humidity around. -
Yeah, I'm thinking an MPU with a large enough memory could hold the sound file in regular program memory and then update OTA using just a regular firmware update....
Finding an appropriate outdoor speaker does seem important.
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On the other hand, finding some actual chimes and hammering them with solenoids would remove the need for an outdoor speaker. The melody is fairly simple.... Maybe only 4 chimes (bells? tone bars? tone tubes? whatever they're called) would be needed. Then the trick would be sourcing the right bells to play the right notes--maybe disassemble a used xylophone to extract the right notes.
I guess whatever is easiest... Probably a speaker would be easiest.
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So... As much as I'm not a fan of bluetooth, there appear to be a ton of bluetooth outdoor speakers, which have the advantage of providing their own amplification. I'm guessing that such a setup might be the easiest (least time consuming) way to get it done. As to longevity? Hard to say.
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It looks as though there are a number of arduino comopatible MP3 players, such as:
https://www.amazon.com/Aideepen-YX5300-Control-Serial-Arduino/dp/B01JCI23JG/ref=sr_1_5?crid=29G0N075OAQBU&keywords=arduino+mp3+player&qid=1641245191&s=electronics&sprefix=arduino+mp3+player%2Celectronics%2C118&sr=1-5or
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It looks as though there are a number of arduino comopatible MP3 players, such as:
https://www.amazon.com/Aideepen-YX5300-Control-Serial-Arduino/dp/B01JCI23JG/ref=sr_1_5?crid=29G0N075OAQBU&keywords=arduino+mp3+player&qid=1641245191&s=electronics&sprefix=arduino+mp3+player%2Celectronics%2C118&sr=1-5or
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There do exist simple bolt-on products with what claim to have "waterproof speakers", such as:
I could button-hack them to control them, but then the question is: what kind of sound quality would it have? It's a shot in the dark. I don't doubt it might "work" in some nominal sense, but sound quality may disappoint.....
What I thought would be straight-forward is turning into a rabbit hole!
So, with benefit of hindsight, I suppose I should start with a search for decent quality speakers that can survive outdoors. Then validate them. Only then look for something to hook up to them to drive them to produce a quality melody.
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I inspected some wind chimes to see how they're constructed, and they couldn't be simpler: just the same tube, cut to different lengths, and suspended by a string. I presume the metal is some kind of alloy and thickness that "rings", but that's just a guess. Would EMT conduit work just as well? Probably somewhere there's a formula that maps musical notes onto different tube lengths. What I need first, though, is to find a program that I can play the music into and have it spit back to me what the four musical notes they are. Or perhaps there's already sheet music for it.
Edit: Yup, EMT will allegedly work. The note produced is a function of both the tube length and the hang point: https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to-plans/how-to/a7426/how-to-make-your-own-wind-chimes/
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I inspected some wind chimes to see how they're constructed, and they couldn't be simpler: just the same tube, cut to different lengths, and suspended by a string. I presume the metal is some kind of alloy and thickness that "rings", but that's just a guess. Would EMT conduit work just as well? Probably somewhere there's a formula that maps musical notes onto different tube lengths. What I need first, though, is to find a program that I can play the music into and have it spit back to me what the four musical notes they are. Or perhaps there's already sheet music for it.
Edit: Yup, EMT will allegedly work. The note produced is a function of both the tube length and the hang point: https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to-plans/how-to/a7426/how-to-make-your-own-wind-chimes/
@NeverDie Here are some you might consider - but if you possibly can try them first or make sure you can send them back if they do not perform as you expect.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/324974489634?epid=94228626&hash=item4ba9fd3022:g:RjIAAOSwFpFh0zNV
https://www.ebay.com/itm/234211692000?hash=item36881acde0:g:KEcAAOSwB7Zhlan1
https://www.ebay.com/itm/333089455334?epid=10023280376&hash=item4d8dadbce6:g:mS4AAOSwkhxccXWc
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An option: I am playing sound on a speaker in my kitchen through a long ethernet cable when somebody press doorbell. Speaker is connected to my server PC which is my home automation controller and is turned on always. The speaker is connected through a cheap usb sound card and a cheap sound amplifier. My controller (Node-red) starts an external command line program to play an mp3 file on usb soundcard when somebody push the ring button outside. it could be a solution for you if you have a server. However it is not too simple and I also had some problem with it. (Now it is quite stable but it could be better :) )
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An option: I am playing sound on a speaker in my kitchen through a long ethernet cable when somebody press doorbell. Speaker is connected to my server PC which is my home automation controller and is turned on always. The speaker is connected through a cheap usb sound card and a cheap sound amplifier. My controller (Node-red) starts an external command line program to play an mp3 file on usb soundcard when somebody push the ring button outside. it could be a solution for you if you have a server. However it is not too simple and I also had some problem with it. (Now it is quite stable but it could be better :) )
@Imre-Telek said in fun project: entertaining doorbell:
An option: I am playing sound on a speaker in my kitchen through a long ethernet cable when somebody press doorbell. Speaker is connected to my server PC which is my home automation controller and is turned on always. The speaker is connected through a cheap usb sound card and a cheap sound amplifier. My controller (Node-red) starts an external command line program to play an mp3 file on usb soundcard when somebody push the ring button outside. it could be a solution for you if you have a server. However it is not too simple and I also had some problem with it. (Now it is quite stable but it could be better :) )
Details please? For starters, which parts exactly?
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@Imre-Telek said in fun project: entertaining doorbell:
An option: I am playing sound on a speaker in my kitchen through a long ethernet cable when somebody press doorbell. Speaker is connected to my server PC which is my home automation controller and is turned on always. The speaker is connected through a cheap usb sound card and a cheap sound amplifier. My controller (Node-red) starts an external command line program to play an mp3 file on usb soundcard when somebody push the ring button outside. it could be a solution for you if you have a server. However it is not too simple and I also had some problem with it. (Now it is quite stable but it could be better :) )
Details please? For starters, which parts exactly?
@NeverDie If you ask about problems:
- external amplifier interferences with radio signals (mobile phone calls) -> I had to put it into a box coated with aluminium foil
- usb soundcard and pc built in sound card output order changed sometimes so I had to make the PC-s sound card as primary output. Now I always send sound to the second output (which is the usb sound card)
- one time the amplifier stopped and didn't play anything. I can't find the reason but after disconnected from power it started woring again.
- I couldn't find any good command line sound player where I cound specify the output device. So I wrote one in C#. I can share it if somebody need it. (windows command line exe)
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@Imre-Telek said in fun project: entertaining doorbell:
An option: I am playing sound on a speaker in my kitchen through a long ethernet cable when somebody press doorbell. Speaker is connected to my server PC which is my home automation controller and is turned on always. The speaker is connected through a cheap usb sound card and a cheap sound amplifier. My controller (Node-red) starts an external command line program to play an mp3 file on usb soundcard when somebody push the ring button outside. it could be a solution for you if you have a server. However it is not too simple and I also had some problem with it. (Now it is quite stable but it could be better :) )
Details please? For starters, which parts exactly?
@NeverDie My amplifier is something like this (TDA7297 Power Amplifier Module): https://www.ebay.com/itm/173501557435?hash=item28657faabb:g:bb4AAOSw1J5bhgtY
And usb sound card is like this (usb sound adapter): https://www.ebay.com/itm/391937753301?hash=item5b414f80d5:g:9hoAAOSwUYNaIX4l
(Maybe not exactly theese because I ordered them years ago) -
@NeverDie If you ask about problems:
- external amplifier interferences with radio signals (mobile phone calls) -> I had to put it into a box coated with aluminium foil
- usb soundcard and pc built in sound card output order changed sometimes so I had to make the PC-s sound card as primary output. Now I always send sound to the second output (which is the usb sound card)
- one time the amplifier stopped and didn't play anything. I can't find the reason but after disconnected from power it started woring again.
- I couldn't find any good command line sound player where I cound specify the output device. So I wrote one in C#. I can share it if somebody need it. (windows command line exe)
@Imre-Telek Interesting approach. I just now did a quick search, and it looks as though there may be some products specifically made for doing audio over ethernet, with no USB involved.
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@Imre-Telek Interesting approach. I just now did a quick search, and it looks as though there may be some products specifically made for doing audio over ethernet, with no USB involved.
@NeverDie I used ethernet cable as an audio cable so later I can use those 6 unused pins something else.
