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triggers - spooky


chris2k

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Are these Haloween sequences, by chance? Have you seen other evidence of other spooky events in/around your house lately? :shock:

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it is bell wire, about 100ft long. and yes it probably is near power wires too, but i cant move it., theres wires everywhere lol
it happened alot more today than yesterday, it could be the button is too sensitive, im going to check that out tomorrow.

-also does anyone know how to set the triggers so if somone is standing there and keeps pressing the button it ignores all the presses and just plays once?

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Since it is not differential signaling, Cat 5 probably won't help much. It might be possible to add a bit more pull up resistor in parallel with what is on the card, but I haven't looked at what is there already, or what is recommended, let alone what is reasonable.

The other idea might be to use a shielded cable. Even TV coax might work well. Connect the shield to the common ground on the adapter, and use the center conductor for the input channel.

But mostly I asked to get an idea of what the limits are, as I need to do something similar as well.

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Using the input is extremely cool. It works perfectly. I have it set to stop zara radio and start a singing pumpkin choir. I created a sign that says " Whatever you do... Dont push this button!!!" and of course everyone pushes the button, but most are hesitant, they think something is going to jump out at them. i think they get dissapointed when nothing does lol.
I just need more singing pumpkin sequences now. we are going to really get sick of "this is halloween" and "grim grinning ghosts" really soon!

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It sounds like a slight charge is building up on the wire then occasionally discharging, simulating a button press. Is it twisted wire, or straight-through? You might try putting a .01 ufd capacitor at the switch end (or larger) just so it will hold the charge better, and not randomly discharge.

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Chris,


Please pardon my intruding on your thread, I'm new here and curious since I may very well wish to add interactive triggers at some point. 100 feet of bell wire is a fairly large inductor so I wonder if you're seeing induced voltages?

Do you know what the trigger voltage is for the device?


If you simply disconnect the doorbell button, does the circuit still trigger?




John

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Active trigger is 0V, inactive trigger is 5V, courtesy of a pull up resistor on the LOR header board. Testing with the button removed would be a good way to prove that it is not the button itself.

Side thought that doorbell button doesn't have any sort of LED, or other illumination? If it had an incandescent lamp, it would probably read as closed all the time, but an LED might not.

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-klb- wrote:

Active trigger is 0V, inactive trigger is 5V, courtesy of a pull up resistor on the LOR header board. Testing with the button removed would be a good way to prove that it is not the button itself.

Side thought that doorbell button doesn't have any sort of LED, or other illumination? If it had an incandescent lamp, it would probably read as closed all the time, but an LED might not.

KLB,

Yes, those are just some of the many possibilities; I have actually seen simple mechanical switches operate erratically due to thermal expansion or contraction, highway vibration, faulty springs, moisture, ESD (static), unknown electrical components (of the sort you mentioned) and the list goes on.

As you divined, I suggest it may be useful to simply eliminate the switch as a cause, and then proceed with more trouble shooting.

Incidentally, if it helps Chris2k , the circuits used to prevent more than a single trigger per switch operation across a specified interval of time are called “switch de-bouncers”. Mechanical switches can sometimes produce scores or hundreds of “activations” due to “contact bounce”. The circuits typically used to stop this are called “one-shot monostable multivibrators” and for normal de-bouncing have a timeout in milliseconds. However, you can make one-shots with timeouts lasting seconds, minutes or days if needed to prevent retriggering during any interval you care to define.

John
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Ok, this will cost a little bit of money. http://cgi.ebay.com/2-CH-RF-Wireless-Remote-Control-Momentary-Toggle-Latch_W0QQitemZ200387874570QQcmdZViewItemQQptZBI_Robotics?hash=item2ea80c4f0a&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

I've seen these mentioned in other threads like this on here and Planet Christmas. Many people use RF switches like this to get around a lot of these issues.

I'm not endorsing this particular product; I know almost nothing about it. I'm using it simply as an example.

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jabbusch wrote:

one-shot monostable multivibrators

Oh, that's what this is for. Than why does my wife have one?
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  • 3 weeks later...

Sorry i took so long to reply.
basically the frequency of this happening became less and less over the weeks , but anyway i tried to get rid of much slack in the trigger wire as possible, i think i only cut out about 2 additional feet, and now it seems to be working. no false triggers in about a week.

Just a heads up though to anyone thinking about using triggers: Although it is extremely cool, it gets very annoying very fast. Kids love "pushing the button"

I can now recite "this is halloween" and "grimm grinning ghosts" word for word.

and in my sleep.

thanks,
Chris

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chris2k wrote:


I can now recite "this is halloween" and "grimm grinning ghosts" word for word.

and in my sleep.



You mean you could not recite them before from sequencing them? ;)

If not then go back and recheck your sequences till you here it like little voices ALL THE TIME.

Could not resist .



Chuck
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cmoore60 wrote:

chris2k wrote:

I can now recite "this is halloween" and "grimm grinning ghosts" word for word.

and in my sleep.



You mean you could not recite them before from sequencing them? ;)

If not then go back and recheck your sequences till you here it like little voices ALL THE TIME.

Could not resist .



Chuck


Lol, your right

the problem now is that its against my will!, some little kid will just be standing there waiting for the song to finish, just so they can push the button again, and watch me go mad!
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