Mains doorbell to Arduino

Question

I'm an electronics noob and I'm looking to create a doorbell which hooks in to an Arduino board in order to alert me when I don't hear the doorbell. I've read 'Software alert when doorbell rings. Doable?' and this looks like it's going to put me on the right tracks, but I need a hand in figuring out what doorbell I should buy and how to wire that to the Arduino board without damaging it or me.

I'm looking at buying a doorbell like this (but not specifically this). I would like the doorbell to keep on working alongside the Arduino board. But I'm such a novice that I don't even know the correct questions to ask beyond that. I don't know if it matters but I live in the UK.

Answer 1

I would use an opto-isolator between your doorbell and your Arduino. Make sure you get one that is suitable for the voltage and current your doorbell operates with. Measure those values with a multimeter if unsure. If your doorbell operates on AC mains then you might want to use a rectifier circuit as well because if you just throw away the negative half of the cycle your Arduino might not "see" that the button has been pressed.

Detecting that someone pushed the button should otherwise be fairly straight forward. Just have a look at the Arduino "button" example.