For many months, the Ecolink Z-wave 700 Chime/Siren was unavailable, perhaps due to chip shortages. When it did become available, the price was listed at more than $100 USD. Although I had been planning on purchasing a second one, I considered the price excessive.
Recently, the price was reduced to $69 USD, which I consider reasonable, so I placed my order. It should arrive in about a week. I suspect the seller overestimated the demand at the elevated price.
If anyone purchases one and needs assistance in installing and using it, including creating custom sound files for the chime, I will be happy to help. Please be aware that you will need to obtain a microSD card for custom sounds, but any small-capacity, inexpensive card should work. If you are like me, you will have older cards in your spare parts bin that can be repurposed.
Just thought I would update my post to add a bump to the thread.
My second Echolink 700 Chime Siren arrived yesterday. It took me only a few minutes to add the Z-wave 700 device to my Hubitat. I added it without security. I used the same set of custom voice announcements for this one as my first Chime. I also have an Aeotec Gen 5 doorbell/chime that uses the same set of sounds.
I had to go through my set of Rules in Rule Machine to add the new Ecolink chime to any rules triggering the original chimes. It is interesting that the Ecolink devices respond about 1/2 second faster than the Aeotec chime. Thus, I will use the Ecolink chimes on the first and second floors of my home and move the Aeotec chime to the basement.
I used to use the Alexa Speaks app for some of my voice announcements, but with the loss of free Heroku functionality, that has become to cumbersome. The local chimes are far simpler to use and will function even if Internet access is down.
@rwclements228 I have been trying to use customs sound on this chime/siren but it doesn't work for me. I did everything mentioned in the brochure that came with the siren. I used Audacity to convert some messages to 16bit, 16Khz, 1 channel (Mono), .wav file. I added a number at the beginning of each file name 1 name, 3 name, etc. Then I tested it in Hubitat Devices Ecolink Chime but it keeps playing the original message, not the one I recorded on the microSD card. Is there something I am missing?
I named my custom sound files in this manner. I believe the underscore is used to separate the file name "09" from the sound description. I know this works, The chime only looks at the digits prior to the underscore.
09_front door opened
The 16 depth, 16 khz rate, mono wav file is correct.
Try renaming your files using the underscore separator. Let me know if it works.
Also, make sure the microSD card is properly seated in the slot. I have had mine stop working a couple of times and hand to remove and reinstall the card.
Thank you for your feedback. It still doesn't work, when I introduce the sdcard it emits a sound and flashes red, it seems to accept the SDcard. I added the underscore and a zero in front of 1 digit numbers.
Do I have to save 30 sounds in the SDcard? I just created 6 and used 6 different numbers from 1 to 30. Do you know if there is a way to reset the Siren? Thanks again for your help.
What capacity microSD card did you use? How is it formatted?
I believe you need to format the cards as Fat32 which limits the card size to 32 GB.
Are you sure you did not insert the microSD card upside down in the chime?. Unplug the chime from the wall, insert the memory card with the printing toward the front speaker side of the unit and then plug it back in.
I have over 40 sounds on my chime. However, if you do not replace all of the default sounds. If you do not have a custom sound, the default sound will play if you trigger that slot.
I am using an old 2Gb microsd card, It works fine on my PC, yes it is Fat32, yes microsd was inserted correctly, it doesn´t fit if is in the wrong side. I unplugged it but it has back up batteries so the chime stays on.
Can you play sounds with a number greater than 30? I thought 30 was the maximum for the Hubitat driver even thought the chime can play up to 125. I am going to try with another microSD. I will let you know if it works.
Thanks for your help.
I have a total of 45 custom sounds on my Ecolink chime. All of the sounds work through Hubitat. I am using the "Ecolink Chime Siren" driver. Be sure you are not using the "Ecolink Siren" driver.
It worked as soon as I placed a 32Gb MicroSd. Too bad the sound is not too loud even though the volume is set to 100%. Now I am going to play with it, I am going to use it primarily as a deterrent device (dogs barking, household noises, etc). Thanks for your help
There are several things you can do to control sound volume.
You can adjust the volume on the device itself.
You can adjust the volume in the device driver.
You can use Audacity to increase or decrease the volume of the individual sound file.
Some of the specific sound slots in the Ecolink chime are assigned to siren sounds. By default they play at a much higher volume than the normal slots. If you need high volume/repeated sounds, you should be using those slots. For example, I use slot 14 to report a water leak in the basement. The volume is plenty loud to wake me in the middle of the night should the sump pump fail. For routine announcements like the door being opened when someone enters or leaves the house, the volume is more subdued. The maximum volume on the Ecolink is 105 db which should be adequate for sounds inside. Anything louder can damage your hearing.
