On Thu, 15 Dec 2005 23:38:19 GMT, Steve Kraus
wrote:

What about those detectors with the built-in emergency light? I presume
that's just a flashlight type bulb (not an LED light) and if it can drive a
bulb it could drive a small reed relay. Wiring a relay in place of the
bulb is a pretty minimal alteration.

No comment on your post, but it reminds me of another thing I did that
was rather interesting. Couldn't hear the doorbell upstairs when the
computer and radio are running, and couldn't figure out an easy way to
run a wire from the existing doorbell**

So I took the 3 dollar wireless door buzzer that my mother used before
she died (cement walls in her apartment building.) and I took the
button half, and soldered a jumper across the button switch on the
circuit board.

Then I connected the 9 volt connector of the button par sort of to the
doorbell transformer, that is, in parallel with the current doorbell,
with a diode in the circuit to give DC from the 18?** volt AC
transformer. And screwed the thing to a ceiling joist in the basement.

Now when someone rings the front doorbell, it also powers the button
half, the LED lights, and it causes the buzzer in the hallway upstairs
to sound.

** (I'm done running wires through the stack. I should have put in
some spares but dudn't.)

***The transformer is 18 volts because 12 wasn't enough when I got the
seocnd doorbell for the basement. But I think rectified 12 volts,
which would have been about 6 volts, might have been enough to power
the 9 volt button half of the wireless doorbell. If not, a full wave
or bridge rectifier could have been used to get closer to 9 volts.


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me know if you have posted also.