I've wanted to bring my door bell into my smarthome ecosystem for a while but I really don't want a video door bell. I looked at lots of different projects that mainly focused on using a dry contact sensor, which wasn't going to work for me.
I have a couple of gen5 Aeotec recessed door sensors which are triggered by magnets so I dug back to my school science days and watched a couple of youtube videos and built a battery powered electromagnet.
I took a single wire from some cat5 cable and wrapped it around an old floorboard nail for my proof of concept.
Here's a pic of the electromagnet triggering the contact sensor:
My next step will be to run one end of the cable through a wired door bell push, cut down the nail and find a case that will enclose it all tightly.
I was hoping that to power the electromagnet straight off the sensor battery but, I'm going to run it off a separate 9v battery which will give me decent battery contacts and fit the whole thing in a small patress behind the front door.
I went a little more high tech but didn't want anything fancy either.
Just used some double sided tape and stuck a vibration sensor next to the electromagnet stiker.
I get an acceleration event in my WebCore piston and push a message.
Or for another way to do this... I had the vibration sensor for a few years but the false positives were too much. I ordered a reed switch for under a dollar, these are activated by magnetic field. Attached it to dry contacts on an ecolink sensor and used some telephone wire to allow me to fit it close to the doorbell strike. It's all covered up nicely but heres a pic of the inside.
