DoorBell goes off Unpredictibly

[jack0987]

I had my doorbell connected as in in figure A. It worked fine.

I then connected it as in figure B. Now the doorbell goes off on its own every now and then.
The switch triggers the Arduino which in turn triggers the relay.
The reason for the Arduino is to monitor the doorbell switch.

What might be the issue?
Can I correct this? Add a cap or something?

 

[AnalogKid]

Waaaaaaay too small to read.

ak

 

[jack0987]

Made image bigger.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

No actual circuit provided??

Most likely you need to add a fairly low value pull-up or pull-down resistor between the switch input at the arduino and its power or ground (opposite to the other side of the switch). Try 1K or 470 Ohms.

If that alone does not work, add a 0.1uF capacitor in series with a ten ohm resistor, across the switch input at the arduino.

More effective filters are possible, but we need the exact wiring details to be able to make better suggestions.

 

[shortbus=]

This Arduino micro controller stuff has really gotten out of hand overboard if this is where it's headed.

 

[jack0987]

No actual circuit provided??

Most likely you need to add a fairly low value pull-up or pull-down resistor between the switch input at the arduino and its power or ground (opposite to the other side of the switch). Try 1K or 470 Ohms.

If that alone does not work, add a 0.1uF capacitor in series with a ten ohm resistor, across the switch input at the arduino.

More effective filters are possible, but we need the exact wiring details to be able to make better suggestions.

At this time, I do not think the connection of the momentary switch to the Arduino is the issue. The Arduino serves as a transmitter to the monitor. When the doorbell goes off on it's own, the monitor is receiving no signal from it.

Do you mean the connections between the Arduino and the wireless doorbell switch?

 

[jack0987]

This Arduino micro controller stuff has really gotten out of hand overboard if this is where it's headed.

At this point, I think the Arduino stuff is ok. However, I may not be able to say that about the AdaFruit Feather series where an upload of code of a certain type or content may cause it's bootloader to lock up and windows will no longer recognize it's COM port connection. I just ran into this problem testing it out in the last few days. In order to get it working again, per their docs, I had to click the reset button on the Feather twice when the IDE went into upload mode.

This may be a bug they need to look at.

 

[alec_t]

Since it's a wireless door bell, are you sure the frequency it operates on isn't the same as a neighbour's door bell?

 

[unclejed613]

This Arduino micro controller stuff has really gotten out of hand overboard if this is where it's headed.

yeah, similar to using PICs to perform analog functions that normally required a couple of transistors and a handful of passive components... that was a bit of a fad about 10 years ago...

 

[jack0987]

Since it's a wireless door bell, are you sure the frequency it operates on isn't the same as a neighbour's door bell?

LOL. Very good question. The closest neighbor is at least 250 ft away. Anyway, I ran the setup in Figure A more than a year with no issues and unless they recently got one, I do not think so. I'll ask them anyway.

 

[Les Jones]

What is the purpose of the Arduino in the project ?

Les.

 

[jack0987]

What is the purpose of the Arduino in the project ?

Les.

It is a Arduino mini with a transmitter that notifies the monitor of the momentary switch having been pressed.

maybe should have used a hard wired doorbell but could not find one I liked.

 

[AnalogKid]

What is the function of the added Arduino? What value or features does it add to the project? It sounds like you had a wireless doorbell before, and you have one (the same one?) now, so . . .

ak

 

[jack0987]

What is the function of the added Arduino? What value or features does it add to the project? It sounds like you had a wireless doorbell before, and you have one (the same one?) now, so . . .

ak

Please see reply just before yours.

 

[Les Jones]

I think you need to supply us with a FULL schematic with details of the transmitter and monitor part. Post the de bounce code you are using for the input from the momentary switch.

Les.

 

[shortbus=]

It is a Arduino mini with a transmitter that notifies the monitor of the momentary switch having been pressed.

You do know that is what that funny bell sound from the doorbell is for don't you?

 

[Dr_Doggy]

unfortunately this problem needs to be narrowed down,
1)start with the button, add to code: if button = pressed then turn on flag(do not use blink or flash unless you want to stare and wait for false triggers)
2) check point between arduino and transmitter for false flags
3) check point between receiver and relay for false flags

but my guess is it will be one of the first two and most likely the first one .

 

[augustinetez]

It could also just be the oscillator harmonics combined with the digital chatter of the Arduino tripping the wireless doorbell - have see this before.

 

[jack0987]

I think you need to supply us with a FULL schematic with details of the transmitter and monitor part. Post the de bounce code you are using for the input from the momentary switch.

Les.

Thanks all for your interest.

The Circuit is pretty basic as in Figure B.

It happened to occur to me that the problem may be in code. The code assumes that an interrupt has occurred (Adruino Pin 3) and wakes up the Adruino and activates the relay. If the Adruino should wake up on it's own here and there it could cause the relay to activate when no event has happened. I just fixed that and will now test it out for a couple of days.

I will read and evaluate all your posts as well.

 

[Les Jones]

I suggest you add code to the interrupt handler to verify that pin 3 (Which I assume is (INT0)/ PD2 on the ATMEGA328P) is still low at between 100 and 500 mS after the interrupt has occurred. If it not still low then take no action. You have still not given any details of the transmitter and monitor and how it is connected to your block diagram.

Les.