M1 as Doorbell

Anyone had much luck using the M1 as their sole doorbell, while keeping it doorbell-like sounding? I'd figured that'd be easy, and I know how to get the elk to see the doorbell press, but anyone had any luck getting it to sound like a normal doorbell when activated (through the keypad speakers)?

I didn't see any tones that would replicate a good doorbell... so I guess the options are to see if I can somehow get something to sound decent while recording through the phone, otherwise maybe hook one of Elk's other audio modules in-line, or something like that?

Very open to ideas - I like the nice custom doorbell tone (not the completely generic one) - a nice musical, but loud tone... preferably through the keypad speakers.

Thx! Trying to get a solution soon before I place my 4th (and hopefully nearly last) order to get this elk system running completely...

Anyone had much luck using the M1 as their sole doorbell, while keeping it doorbell-like sounding? I'd figured that'd be easy, and I know how to get the elk to see the doorbell press, but anyone had any luck getting it to sound like a normal doorbell when activated (through the keypad speakers)?

I didn't see any tones that would replicate a good doorbell... so I guess the options are to see if I can somehow get something to sound decent while recording through the phone, otherwise maybe hook one of Elk's other audio modules in-line, or something like that?

Very open to ideas - I like the nice custom doorbell tone (not the completely generic one) - a nice musical, but loud tone... preferably through the keypad speakers.

Thx! Trying to get a solution soon before I place my 4th (and hopefully nearly last) order to get this elk system running completely...

Click to expand...

I have it setup as my doorbell, but it play a somewhat crackly jetsons theme. There is just no way to get good audio into the M1 through a phone speaker, you have to stand at a keypad with a phone and a pc and quickly record it. A better solution, sound wise, would be to hook up an Elk audio card but you have to switch speakers to it then away for alarm events. I was going to go down that road but decided it was just too complicated.

The last solution is to keep a real doorbell and use the Elk doorbell detector. That is probably the best way to go. But you can't switch sounds etc.

I really wish elk would provide a better way to input audio. I would pay for a whole new M1 and pay a premium if they would just add an audio input jack so we can get clean sound into it. This is one of the few M1 flaws...

I do that, although I use CQC to play a .WAV file which is piped to the Elk-800, then the single-gang speakers. Sounds just like a real doorbell( I think) . I attached the file if you want to give it a listen.

Keep in mind that you'll need to upload it into that Elk-120 thingey that can hold this stuff, but you'll need the Elk-129 computer hookup thingey.

I have one of these:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...rentPage=search

that lets you plug the jack into the headphone jack of a PC or recorder and play back through the phone lines directly without having to be picked up by the handset's microphone... I was going to try that and see if I can get a clean recording through the phone of something like this:
http://www.musicaldoorchime.com/SONGS/1-5.mp3

Speaking of which - I was looking for 20 mins for some good sample doorbells when I came across this site - They've got some good ones I'll likely be "borrowing"!
http://www.musicaldoorchime.com/ichimedoorbell.html

If that doesn't work, I'll want to try to rig up the switching to an audio module and playing the doorbell... I've already ripped the doorbell and the old siren off the wall in favor of the new Elk, and I like the cleaner wall, and having sounds throughout the house. (ouch - just looked at the price on the recordable modules - I really hope recording through the phone goes well!)

Let's say one wanted to use the Elk M1 exclusively but wanted to keep the lighted doorbell pushbuttons. There would be no need for the traditional doorbell "chime" as the Elk would be used instead.

Couldn't you just use the Elk 930 doorbell detectors (front and back door pushbutton locations) and still use the traditional transformer to supply the lighting for the pushbuttons? The setup would be like the first picture below (taken from the Elk-930 manual) but without wanting to include the doorbell chime itself.

If one would not want to use the chime wouldn't you need to replace it with a resistor as the Elk-930 triggers on a change of current when the doorbell is pressed (you would not have this change if the resistor was not in place). The wiring scenario is shown in the second pic below.

Is there a better way to go about this? I guess one would have to look at the chime's coil resistance to see what value of resistor to use?

BraveSirRobbin said:

Let's say one wanted to use the Elk M1 exclusively but wanted to keep the lighted doorbell pushbuttons. There would be no need for the traditional doorbell "chime" as the Elk would be used instead.

Couldn't you just use the Elk 930 doorbell detectors (front and back door pushbutton locations) and still use the traditional transformer to supply the lighting for the pushbuttons? The setup would be like the first picture below (taken from the Elk-930 manual) but without wanting to include the doorbell chime itself.

If one would not want to use the chime wouldn't you need to replace it with a resistor as the Elk-930 triggers on a change of current when the doorbell is pressed (you would not have this change if the resistor was not in place). The wiring scenario is shown in the second pic below.

Is there a better way to go about this? I guess one would have to look at the chime's coil resistance to see what value of resistor to use?

Click to expand...

BSR - that's exactly what I'm trying to accomplish - but throw in the mix that I want better control over what's played through the speakers. I don't want the existing doorbell, but would prefer that it stay lighted (though could scrap that if needed - we keep the porch light on from dark 'till midnight, and from 6AM 'till it gets light out - wife says screw anyone who comes around between midnight and 6AM). I hadn't thought about the resistor part - that's where it gets a little out of my expertise - I wouldn't have a clue what kind of resistor to put in.

I think I've resigned myself to going with the 8-channel elk voice annunciator, and using a relay to swith the speakers from the elk's control to the Elk 124 to playback certain things, like a doorbell, some sort of chime for gate opening, etc... since the wife doesn't like the voice announcements, but I still want to be able to differentiate between each with a nice musical tone. Also, I like the idea of those tones having a separate volume control from the normal elk stuff.

Suggestion for Elk:
Please include a bunch more musical and sound-based tones for those who don't want to use voices everywhere - and allow programmatical control of volume - like - "on Zone 20 Violated Play Westminister at volume 10" - that would save me about $200 on this project!

Also handy for when you want fire announcements or gate intrusions at midnight to be loud, but doors, arm/disarm, etc to be relatively quiet so the speaker in the bedroom doesn't wake the wife and/or baby.

-->QUOTE(Todd B @ Sep 1 2008, 03:17 PM) [post="95610"][/post]
Suggestion for Elk:
Please include a bunch more musical and sound-based tones for those who don't want to use voices everywhere - and allow programmatical control of volume - like - "on Zone 20 Violated Play Westminister at volume 10" - that would save me about $200 on this project!

Also handy for when you want fire announcements or gate intrusions at midnight to be loud, but doors, arm/disarm, etc to be relatively quiet so the speaker in the bedroom doesn't wake the wife and/or baby.[/quote]

Spanky,

SQUEEK, SQUEEK, SQUEEK, SQUEEK on both suggestions

robolo

-->QUOTE(Todd B @ Sep 1 2008, 03:17 PM) [post="95610"][/post]
Suggestion for Elk:
Please include a bunch more musical and sound-based tones for those who don't want to use voices everywhere - and allow programmatical control of volume[/quote]

robolo said:

Spanky,

SQUEEK, SQUEEK, SQUEEK, SQUEEK on both suggestions

robolo

Click to expand...

DITTO.

And/or, a way to upload .wav files, for both simplicity and quality.

agreed - if there was a way to use the recordable computer interface, I'd buy that in a heartbeat and throw my own sounds in there. I'd really rather have simple but distinguishable tones over voice most of the time.

Squeek on the programmatical control of volume, varying by either zone or type.

Please add my squeek err doorbell sound to the group.

Just wanna give this a *bump* to see if we can catch Spanky's attention ;-)

Hopefully Spanky will respond. I had been using one of the old X10 chime modules for my remote doorbell for an area of the house where we can't hear when it rings. I have finally gotten rid of all X10 (replaced with Insteon), and there is no chime module. I now have my M1 saying "Door Bell - Door Bell" when the door bell rings. My wife hates it. A few additional tones other than the 800Hz tone would probably work okay for me, and possibly be easier to implement in the firmware.

IVB said:

I do that, although I use CQC to play a .WAV file which is piped to the Elk-800, then the single-gang speakers. Sounds just like a real doorbell( I think) . I attached the file if you want to give it a listen.

Keep in mind that you'll need to upload it into that Elk-120 thingey that can hold this stuff, but you'll need the Elk-129 computer hookup thingey.

Click to expand...

Are you using the voltage outputs or relays to activate the Elk-120 channels? And are you using a separate power supply or the M1?

That's the rub on that method, it's nice but the wiring starts to get complicated. You have to have power for the sound card, you have to switch the speakers with two relays, then you have to have connections to activate the channel. I have an Elk-129v2 but it wants 2A so that demands a different power supply, maybe the 120 requires less power?.

All this because Elk "forgot" the M1's audio input.

-->QUOTE(Todd B @ Aug 29 2008, 03:57 PM) [post="95514"][/post]
Speaking of which - I was looking for 20 mins for some good sample doorbells when I came across this site - They've got some good ones I'll likely be "borrowing"!
http://www.musicaldoorchime.com/ichimedoorbell.html[/quote]

That was great. Use them all and play them randomly. Could you imagine late at night someone ring the door bell, the wife is all alone at home and the witch cackles...

So much fun could be had.

Mick