Doorbell - Musical and Continuous Power Doorbells

Musical and Continuous Power Doorbells

As with wireless doorbells, musical doorbells have also become more common. Musical and continuous power doorbells serve as an attempt to bridge the gap between newer digital circuitry and older doorbell wiring schemes. A major difference between the standard setup of a wired doorbell and a musical doorbell is that the musical doorbell must maintain power after the doorbell button is released in order to continue playing the doorbell song. This can be achieved in one of two ways.

For simple SPST doorbell buttons, the chime device employs a rectifier diode and ballast capacitor at the voltage input stage of the circuit. Upon pressing the doorbell button, power is connected through the rectifier diode or series of rectifier diodes called a full wave rectifier, which only allows the current to flow in one direction, into the ballast capacitor. The ballast capacitor charges at a rate far greater than the rest of the circuit needs in order to complete a given song. Once the button is released, the capacitor retains the charge and is able to maintain power for a short duration to the rest of the circuit.

For mixed, wireless and wired, input doorbells, a special doorbell button is needed to maintain power continuously to the doorbell chime. The circuit is similar to the one above, except that the rectifier diode is now moved into the doorbell button housing. Pressing the doorbell button allows both negative and positive sides of the AC power signal to flow into the circuit, while releasing the button only allows either the positive or negative side to flow into the circuit. By differentiating the full and half wave signals, the doorbell is able to function as it does in the previous wired case, while also providing continuous power to the doorbell for other purposes such as receiving wireless doorbell button inputs.