Zigbee Solution for Detecting Closed Circuit (Arlo Doorbell Press)

Hardware
1

I have a Arlo Doorbell. It could connect to an existing doorbell - but unfortunately, I just have 230v there and not even both poles - just the “plus” that can be connected to make the existing bell sound.
My idea was to put a zigbee device behind the doorbell, that let’s me know once the contacts are connected. First I tried a aqara water leak sensor. But it shows wet as soon as it is connected to both contacts - so the resistance is too low.
Do you have any other ideas how I could make this work? is there a device that is specificly created for noticing closed circuts?

and yes… arlo sucks… no mail notification, no doorbell notification in IFTTT, Aarlo integration in homeassistant only works very spotty (not their fault…)… So I need a workaround :confused:

2

btw. maybe there is a way to make the water leak sensor less “reactive”? adding an additional resistor?

3

Esphome would be a lot easier, but the door sensor from Xiaomi Xiaomi MCCGQ01LM control via MQTT | Zigbee2MQTT can be used for this.

There is a long thread here somewhere. Found it. Portable rain drop sensor made with Xiaomi door sensor

4

I’d think a regular switch without neutral would work? Those have contacts to sense a closed loop to make old switches work.

5

thanks! will try! Should have similar devices around somewhere.

6

does not work unfortunately - the resistance is too low :frowning: - so it is always showing “closed”

7

What exactly is this “switch” that still has a connection when it is open?

8

It’s an arlo doorbell. It is designed to also slow-charge from the connection - that’s probably why.
But as they do not have a usable api and not even the google home integration is stable, I was trying to hack around this. But hey… since it now does not even work with google home anymore - I’m probably not going to invest much time in this … … …

9

I know it is an Arlo doorbell, you already said so. But what is it physically? Where do you try and connect the sensor to?

10

there are two contact on the back of the doorbell - to charge and at the same time connect to existing chimes (mine is not compatible though)

11

Could you use a modified door/window contact sensor? If the current is that low anyway, I’d think bridging the reed sensor with your push button would make them show open/closed.

12

Thats exactly what I tried. But they are showing closed all the time as the resistance is never high enough.

1 Like
13

Poking about with a multimeter may reveal something.