A Doorbell and Alert System all in One

Other Devices & Integrations Home Theater & Smart Speakers
#1

Hello all, I have been trying to find out how to implement a simple and inexpensive voice capability on my Vera Lite so that in the event an alarm is triggered - e.g. Smoke Alarm or Front Door Unlocked, in addition to an email or text message, an alert is announced throughout the house. I finally have that installed and it is working wonderfully - here is how I did it: My initial intent was to install an Aeon Labs Gen5 Z Wave Doorbell. This device has 2 components: A Battery Powered Button (transmitter) which is installed outside and a plug in receiver which is plugged into any wall socket. It is this second unit which comes with 6 ringtones (all MP3 files) that proved to be the key to my audio messaging system. (an important note here - when installing this unit, the orientation of the transmitter unit is critical for the receiver to be activated - if you are not getting the bell to ring, try different orientations - I had to experiment and now it is working very well).

OK - so after everything was working well, I enrolled the doorbell unit onto Vera and verified that all was OK there.

My next step was to create message files. Using my PC I created as many messages as I needed (which included everything from nice salutations to loud Klaxon alarms), and saved each separately, in MP3 format. I then unplug my Doorbell receiver unit and connected it to my PC using the USB cable supplied. After the unit was recognized by the PC, I transferred all of the MP3 files that I had created to the receiver. Then with the file folder still opened on my PC, I sorted all of the files in that folder by DATE - and made a numbered list of their order with 1 being the oldest file. I then made sure that I properly dismounted the receiver from my PC so that files were not lost.

Then after plugging the receiver back into the wall at its original location, I opened Vera and in Devices found the Doorbell and under the advanced tab, wrote down the number that was on the AltID line - which I would have to use in the next step.

I then edited the Scene that I had created many months ago, where I wanted the voice message e.g. the scene that alerts me when the temperature in the house goes below 50 degrees, to be placed. I then went to the page in the Scene that allows me to enter an LUUP Code and pasted the following: luup.call_action(‘urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:ZWaveNetwork1’,‘SendData’,{Node=‘Y’,Data=‘112 4 6 1 X’},1)

I then substitute for X (on the line above), the number-serquence of the date-sorted MP3 and substituted for Y (in the line above) the AltID that I had recorded, in the previous step. For example if the Water Altert Message was the 8th file in the MP3 list and the AltID that I recorded was 35 … the above code looked like:

luup.call_action(‘urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:ZWaveNetwork1’,‘SendData’,{Node=‘35’,Data=‘112 4 6 1 8’},1)

That’s all there was to it - after I saved that Scene I tested the results and it worked perfectly! And so for the price of the Doorbell, I was able to implement a robust voice messaging system at no additional cost!

#2

That is impressive, very clever of you.

“Take that, Amazon echo”

What model number Aeon Labs Gen5 Z Wave Doorbell did you use ?? I see 056 and 080 with and without -a
I am in the USA.

#3

Thank you for your reply - Happy to be able to help -

Here is the link to the Doorbell that I got.

#4

A good rundown coticon, thanks!

I have one on order (056-A) and will refer back to this thread when I get it set up (on UI5) :slight_smile:

#5

I want one. I hope they become available in the UK soon.

#6

That’s great if you have any problems (although it is pretty straight forward), I would be happy to provide any help from what I have learned with my implementation.

I currently have 38 messages in the system. I recorded my voice for only one - but since it doesn’t have that “nice” quality - for the other 37, I used the free text to voice application at this site:

http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php?sitepal

(Julie seems to have the nicest sounding voice).

After I type in my text, I play “Julie’s voice” in turn and use Nero Wave Editor - in the “record what you hear” mode (but any PC recording program should work fine), to capture “her” messages; which I then save in MP3 format before transferring them to my Aeon Doorbell unit. (note: while the file is in the Wave Editor program, I use this opportunity to add any Klaxon, warning alerts or introductory chimes to enhance the message).

One change to my Instructions: I stated in my initial post that the MP3 files, transferred into Aeon unit’s memory, and the corresponding reference number in your LUA code should match (e.g. the third file should be entered as 3 in your LUA code). I have since found that this is not necessarily true … for some reason, the order that the messages are displayed in the unit’s memory card, do not always correspond to the number that has to be entered on the line of code. To resolve this - I simply created a new “temporary” scene in which I placed only the LUUP statement, above. Then after: I entered a number into the code’s line, saved, and activated the scene, I listened to which message was played and associated it with the number currently in the code. I then changed the number - and played the scene again, repeating until all of the messages were assigned to their correct numbers. A bit heavy handed - but it worked.

#7

Great writeup. Thanks

[quote author=coticon link=topic=35302.msg260528#msg260528 date=1450130015]
Hello all, I have been trying to find out how to implement a simple and inexpensive voice capability on my Vera Lite so that in the event an alarm is triggered - e.g. Smoke Alarm or Front Door Unlocked, in addition to an email or text message, an alert is announced throughout the house. I finally have that installed and it is working wonderfully - here is how I did it: My initial intent was to install an Aeon Labs Gen5 Z Wave Doorbell. This device has 2 components: A Battery Powered Button (transmitter) which is installed outside and a plug in receiver which is plugged into any wall socket. It is this second unit which comes with 6 ringtones (all MP3 files) that proved to be the key to my audio messaging system. (an important note here - when installing this unit, the orientation of the transmitter unit is critical for the receiver to be activated - if you are not getting the bell to ring, try different orientations - I had to experiment and now it is working very well).

#8

Is it possible to have the message repeat every 15 minutes until the event ends.

Such as a "SM-103 z-wave switch tells the Vera3 that a door is unlocked and the Aeon Labs ZW056-A announces “Please lock the door” every 15 minutes until someone locks the door ??

#9

Hello MiamiJerry,

I know the delay portion of a scene can be used to reactivate the announcement every 15 minutes and you can place a ton of 15 minute delay triggers into the scene which is making the announcement (but this is brute force). If the sm 103 switch has a locked/unlocked sensing capability you might be able to set the scene to play only when the door is unlocked - using a conditional statement before the announcement LUA code (e.g. If then ) - but that is only conjecture since I have not used the “If-Then” ability of this code - and I really have to learn that (this is a note to myself really). What I will do (as soon as the mob leaves from our place - ((Holiday Family)), is look into this and get back to you). If you figure this out yourself, in the interim, I would like to know how you did it.

#10

Very Cool!! I got mine to work. But I was wondering what the other numbers mean after Data? I know the 8 means the 8th mp3 file but what does 112 4 6 1 all mean? Is one of them volume? If not, how can I set the volume? Where can I read about these variables?
Thanks!

luup.call_action(‘urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:ZWaveNetwork1’,‘SendData’,{Node=‘35’,Data=‘112 4 6 1 8’},1)

#11

I was able to find the information about what each position in the Data Portion of the line of code means. I did not figure this out myself - but instead went to this link http://www.airedalez.net/?p=287 where Airdale (a senior forum member) had figured the information out. The following is a cut and paste of what he had placed on the page in the link above:

Data: There are 5 values to send, and some are static.

112 (Never Changes): This is the Command_Class_Configuration ZWave Command
4 (Never Changes): This is the Configuration_Set Zwave Command
6: Parameter Number ? Different options to execute on the device.
1: (Does not change for these options) ? Size
2: Configuration Value ? Change doorbell ringtones, volume, etc?
You are mainly concerned with changing the parameter value and the configuration value. Here are the options to execute on the device:

Repetition ? How many times the ringtone plays
Parameter Number: 2
Configuration Value: 1 ? 100
Default doorbell ringhtone ? Set the default ringtone
Parameter Number: 5
Configuration Value: 1 ? 100
Ringtone to play (ad-hoc)
Parameter Number: 6
Configuration Value: 1 ? 100
Control (Play,stop,pause,next,previous)
Parameter Number: 7
Configuration Value:
1 ? Play
2 ? Stop
3 ? Pause
4 ? Next
5 ? Previous
Volume
Parameter Number: 8
Configuration Value: 1- 10

#12

Fantastic, Thanks so much for all the great info. Coticon,it was your review on Amazon that convinced me to buy the doorbell.

#13

Thank you!

#14

@coticon very clever solution… one question did you do it with UI5 or UI7?

#15

Thank you Mcalistair … I have UI7 Installed.

It took me a long while to change from 5 to 7 since UI5 was working very well and I’m from the school of “if it ain’t broke - don’t fix it”, but in March when the First Alert ZWave fire alarms became available - they could only be installed with UI7, (at least initially), so I made the switch. And I am happy that I did - I found UI7 to be very user friendly; and it has a section within each scene, where LUUP code can be added very easily.

Sorry for my rambling answer to your question - but I wanted to give you some background.

#16

Question to those who already have one of these items, looking at amazon reviews a number of folks are citing poor performance of the door bell (lack of range) can anyone confirm. I also saw a comment that a person had to fiddle with orientation (of the door bell or receiver?). Mike

#17

Hi MNB,

It was my comment in Amazon about orientation that you probably saw. That was because when I was deciding whether to purchase this unit or not, I saw the same statements that you did, that these problems existed - but the cost of the unit and the promise to be able to get it to also serve as a message system was so attractive that I went ahead and purchased it with the knowledge that if it didn’t work I could always return it.

As others had experienced, at first I got no response when I pressed the button … then I found I could get it to ring intermittently and noticed that the difference between no response and the latter had to do with the orientation of the transmitter (button) unit. So I rotated it 90 degrees at a time and tested it in each position and found that when the sending unit had the button at the lower part of the transmitter - it worked perfectly and for very large distances (e.g. from the front door, outside of the house, to a room in the basement - about 40 feet away), with no problems at all.

For the past 3 weeks (since it has been permanently installed), it has worked 100% of the time.

Hope this helps.

#18

Hi Again,

Just want to enter an update to let you know that last week I purchased and installed a second doorbell since I wanted the messages to also play on the second floor of my house - since i have the first unit in the basement and with the bedroom door closed in the back of the house it can be very hard to hear. The bottom line: Both this new unit along with my first unit are working perfectly.

Here is how I set it up: When I received the new unit, I unplugged my first receiver and attached both to my PC. Then I just copied the files from unit 1 to unit 2. I then plugged both units in (#1 back in the basement and #2 in the hallway on the second floor). I linked unit #2 to Vera and then (using the same procedure as I did below) wrote down the new unit’s AlTID#

I then edited all of the scenes where I had placed my LUUP code to activate the messages. To do this - I copied the first LUUP statement and pasted it below the first line of code. I then changed the AlTID number on the second line to reflect the correct value. One word of warning … the number in the code for a given message may change for unit #2 (it will remain the same for unit #1) - even though you did a straight copy of messages from unit #1 to Unit #2, message 8 on line one may now be message 4 on the new line; so there could be a minor hassle here - but I was able to get everything up and running from unboxing to operation in about an hour (with finding the correct numbers for the messages in unit #2 - the longest pole).

Again - Hope this helps
Regards,
Ken

#19

@Coticon

Ken,

Do both units respond to the same physical button?

Thanks,

Donnie

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

#20

@coticon, many thanxs for the update and supporting information. Based on you experience you’ve seem to have figured out the pro/cons and having your door bells working, out of curiosity what is furthest distance between door bell & receiver? I assume that the door button is not z-wave device but rather the receiver is the z-wave device which suggest that the weak link is the RF between the door button? Mike