Saturday, June 16, 2012

Wireless Doorbell Amplifier

The Mater's doorbell started to become unreliable. The wires were pastered in concrete, so troubleshooting was pretty much out of scope.

I got 3 Homeeasy wireless doorbells and programmed them to one button transmitter. I put the plug-in unit in three different rooms.

Everything worked fine. The major issue is that the sound produced when the button is pressed was not very loud.

A new project was born.

Being a cheapskate Northsider, I decided to go for the best value option.

This would include buying the least abount of stuff and repurpose some parts I already had. I had a fairly small speaker box from a now defunct Hi-Fi unit. A 5V power supply which was an old Nokia phone charger. Some wire.

I got an amplifier kit from BitzBox.co.uk for £4.99.
http://www.bitsbox.co.uk/kits/projectkits.html

So cheap, what could possibly go wrong. Everything is included, as can be seen from the photo.


The instructions are quite good. I put it together and it worked first time. Woo hoo!! I have to say, it is a great kit and excellent value.

I dismantled the plug-in unit and connected two wires to the speaker leads. These wires were connected to the input on the amplifier board.

Connected up the power supply to the board and the speaker cables to the output connectors.

Tested it, all OK. Woo Hoo again!

Lastly, I hot glued the board onto the back of the speaker. I tried to open the speaker box, but it was too dense, so no joy there. Anyway everything will be hidden away, so hot glue was a good choice.

Anyway, I installed it in the Mater's house. Everyone was happy.

Job done.