SOMALI JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE

Vol. 2, Issue 1, (July 2017)

A Framework for Ultrasonic Doorbell System

with Object Detection
Ahmed Muktar; AbdulAziz Ahmed; Ahmed Salad

 The main objective of this project is to develop and build an

Abstract— The idea of informing the host about a visitor at the integrated smart home automation system using IC,
door started much before the electrical bell was invented until microcontroller technologies that is obtained from the market
this modern world that bells based on smart technologies that that provide cheap budget service compared to the budget of
made easy human life. The framework of ultrasonic doorbell the conventional doorbell systems.
systems with smart object detection and distance measuring
using Arduino Rev.3 is an access system that automatically sense
and indicate the presence of guests and rings the bell. An
ultrasonic transducer that converts the Electrical power into II. LITERATURE REVIEW
ultrasonic sound waves and vice versa plays important role in The idea of a device to announce callers at a door or gate is
generating and transmitting a high frequency sound waves to quite old. At least since medieval times, mechanical knockers,
detect a guest/intruder and receive reflected or response wave often elaborate architectural statements, could be found on
back to terminal in Arduino board then ATmega328
Microcontroller that take decisions processes the signal wave also
doors. Shopkeepers often suspended a bell to announce
calculates the distance of the person detected, then shows customers. Mechanical doorbells, including those operated by
response to the LCD display and generate a signal to activate the a twist of the wrist, were quite common in early Sears
output terminal connecting to Piezo buzzer in order to make Catalogs. The first remote electric signal device, having all the
alarm when there is an intruder or guest arrives. The success characteristics of early electric doorbells, was in 1831. This
rate of measures implemented indicates accomplishments we invention is attributed to Joseph Henry, who later served as the
have made during our findings also designing, coding and first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
implementing using software simulation and connecting Doorbells trigger a sound that lets you know that you have a
hardware components. visitor no matter where you are in your home. With a wide
range of color, style, and materials options, it can be hard to
Index Terms— Doorbell system, Object detection, Ultrasonic
sensor,
choose just a single doorbell for your front door. Doorbells
come in many shapes, sizes and methods of operation, with
the most common type of doorbell today being a simple push
button. Doorbells were invented as another means of alerting a

T
I. INTRODUCTION
homeowner know a visitor was at the door outside (prior to
he history of the doorbell is a long one, starting from this door knockers were the method of choice).
the early 19th century and advancing with the times.
These days, doorbells are everywhere! They are used A. Mechanical doorbell systems
for practical visitor-announcement needs, along with security This type of doorbell system is the simplest, due to the fact
and safety. They can also set a mood or deliver a carefully that it uses no electricity. Bells are attached to the inside of
planned first impression that the home or business owner the door and there is a level on the outside of the door. When
might want to express. the level is turned, the bells ring inside. If you are going for an
The practice of informing the host about a visitor at the old fashion look to your curb appeal, a mechanical doorbell is
door started much before the electrical bell was invented. ideal. Mechanical doorbells became popular in the Victorian
Door knockers were in vogue. The door knocker which is still era because of their simplicity of design and remain popular
found in medieval castles or homes with vintage designs has a today for the same reason and because they a unique addition
part attached to the door and is connected to another part by a to any front door. A mechanical doorbell is simple design that
hinge. It can be lifted up and used to strike the .door making a is installed directly into the door (not adjacent to the door like
wooden ‘knock sound’ or a metal clang. Not very ornate or most modern bells). A simple "turn" knob on the exterior rings
audible. The other common type of doorbell used in those a bell that is located on the interior side of the door. These
bells were usually ornate in design and varied styles were
days was a string attached to a large bell (something like a
available.
school bell). It took a fair amount of effort to ring those bells
continually until the host eventually was informed. B. Wired doorbell systems
These wired doorbells are the most common kind in use.
The doorbell consists of the actual doorbell unit and a
transformer. The transformer reduces normal 120-volt power
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Vol. 2, Issue 1, (July 2017)

to either 10 or 16 volts, depending on the doorbell. This receivers around your home to expand the sound range, and
adaptation of regular current to a lower voltage makes it they’re portable. But because they’re often battery-powered,
possible for the doorbell to work. When you press the doorbell you have to change or recharge the batteries regularly to
button, an electrical circuit closes, allowing the household ensure the bell works.
current to flow through the devices electromagnet through the Modern wireless doorbells work greatly in large spaces
use of the transformer. Most homes have these. If you live in a because of their long frequency ranges of up to 300 feet and
small or medium sized house, then this type of doorbell more. These spaces include large residences, warehouses,
system is perfect. For traditional wired systems, sometimes the farms, and office buildings without any intricate wiring.
wiring, a certain chime mechanism or a transformer may get Extended range wireless doorbells avoid performance issues in
fuddled, so replacement is required with the help of a terms of wiring and installation because there’s no wiring at
professional. Often, homeowners don’t want to deal with all all. Long range remote doorbells are also beneficial especially
that fancy wiring or spending more cash on repair services. if you have one or more entryways (like a garage or a garden).
Instead, they opt for wireless models. Sometimes, many They have multiple receivers set to the same frequency and
homeowners choose the sleek, elegant, contemporary finishes come with multiple push buttons and chimes that connect to
of a wireless receiver than a traditional chime box that they the same system.
deem unattractive The working range travels at great distances so you can hear
Wired Doorbells can be powered by batteries or the doorbell ring while you’re working at your home office, in
transformers connected to a mains supply. The transformer the attic or garage. If you live in a gigantic house, you can
drops the voltage to between 8 - 12v a/c - a safe voltage for benefit from a wireless doorbell kit that comes with add-ons.
external bell pushes. Transformers are normally external to the These add-ons help extend your existing wireless range.
doorbell and are often positioned in the consumer unit, but can Furthermore, long range doorbells have distinct chimes that
be positioned anywhere (they are ugly boxes are not normally you can sound differently for each push button so you’ll know
visible). Some units have internal transformers which only which entryway the doorbell is ringing. Another advantage of
require a mains connection. Battery wired doorbells are long range doorbell systems is that they have portable ringers,
perfectly acceptable and for typical use batteries should last meaning that you can transport one with you anywhere you
about 3 years - but they have the benefit of a simple DIY go. So whether you’re at home or in some obscure area, you
installation. Some units can either be powered by batteries or can have the bell ringer right in front of you.
external transformers and the sound is produced by 2 different
methods - mechanical or electronic. Mechanical action
doorbells have a hammer hitting metal to produce a ding- III. METHODOLOGY
dong, ringing bell or buzzer sound, whilst electronic chimes Changing lifestyles has triggered the need for better home
have pre-recorded melodies (up to a choice of 17 for some security and automation systems. Doorbells are signaling
models). Unless they are sold as kits, a doorbell will need a devices that guest alert us to show us their present, their
bell push button and bell wire as well - the bell wire must be design and implementation begin hundred years ago and
good quality to prevent "voltage drop" at these low voltages (a began by using for example door knocker which is still found
symptom is that the doorbell will sound feeble). in medieval castles that is attached to the doors, and advancing
Wired doorbells are hard-wired directly into your home’s with times until recent decades that everything become
electrical system and typically consist of a switch located controlled by automated systems .
inside a button device. This switch connects to a terminal that In this project called Ultrasonic doorbell with object
is connected to a transformer. In many systems the detection and distance measurement is a simple system
transformer is located in a separate location, such as your designed using Arduino Uno that operates using a ultrasonic
basement, and its function is to lower the voltage running to transmitter and receiver module that transmits ultrasonic
the switch. A wire runs from the switch, and a second wire waves to a specific distance which are used to detect the
runs from the transformer, and these go to the chiming unit. person and then if the person is detected or if a person become
Wireless doorbells don’t require batteries, so maintenance is contact with, the doorbell is automatically turned ON and also
low, and because they function with a constant electrical there is a LCD module that is used to indicate whether object
signal, a wired doorbell is dependable. is detected or not also it indicates the status for the measured
C. Wireless doorbell systems distance of detected visitors.
The LCD screen is an electronic module which is used for
Wireless doorbell systems use radio waves to connect a displaying information. A 16x2 LCD means it can display 16
transmitter switch to the chime, which makes wires characters per line and there are 2 such lines. In this LCD each
unnecessary. This type of doorbell consists of a switch and character is displayed in 5x7 pixel matrix. This LCD has two
transmitter unit inside the button mechanism. A receiver unit registers, namely, Command and Data. In briefly we will
is placed in your home so that when the button is pressed, the discuss LCD and how it counterpart our project or how it help
transmitter sends a signal to the receiver, which chimes. In a in implementation of our project.
wireless doorbell, however, the receiver must be within range
of the transmitter. The maximum distance between the
transmitter and the receiver is usually indicated on the product
label. With a wireless system, you can install multiple

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Start arduino. A 16x2 LCD is connected with arduino in 8-bit

mode. Control pin RS, RW and En are directly connected to
Plan a project GND. And data pin D0-D7 is connected to 0, 1, 2 3, 4, 5, 6
and 7 of arduino.
Draw the basic
Writing a code The module works on the natural phenomenon of ECHO of
concepts
sound. A pulse is sent for about 10us to trigger the module.
After which the module automatically sends 8 cycles of 40
Gather parts Test it KHz ultrasound signal and checks its echo. The signal after
needed NO
striking with an obstacle returns back and is captured by the
YES
receiver. In other words we need to trigger the ultrasonic
Connect the arduino to the sensor module to transmit signal by using arduino and then
Sensor and LCD modules
wait for receive ECHO. Arduino reads the time between
triggering and Received ECHO. We know that speed of sound
Program the is around 340m/s. so we can calculate distance by using given
microcontroller
formula:
NO
Travel time
Distance(d) = × Speed of sound
Test and Simulate 2
Whereas:
YES
Travel time is the difference between the time required the
Run the project wave to obstacle an object and the time it reflected back to
the receiver.
Figure 1: The path needed to achieve our goal in this project

A. Project Operation
The ultrasonic transmitter operates at a frequency of about
40 Kilo-Hertz. That means it continuously transmits the
ultrasonic waves of about 40 KHz. The power supply should
be moderate such that the range of the transmitter is only
about one or two meters. If the transmitting power is less than
one meter, then there is a chance that the person who is one
meter away is not detected. Also, if the range is set to be very
large, then it may lead to false triggering, meaning that, the
objects far away from our door are considered as the visitors
and the alarm rings. This can be a nuisance for us if the alarm
rings for every object or person far away. So, to avoid both the Figure 3: Object detection phenomena.
problems, the transmitting power is kept to an optimum level.
When the distance is measured, if it’s between the specified
distance there means sensor is having a contact with an object
so it activates buzzer bin, LED1 and LED2 then LCD displays
the status and displays counting. Suddenly the buzzer makes a
ring and sounds. If the distance is not the range we predefined,
there is object to be detected.

B. Programming the arduino

The Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping
platform composed of two major parts: the Arduino board
(hardware) and the Arduino IDE (software).
The Arduino IDE is used to write the program that will
interact with your Arduino and the devices connected to it.
When you enter IDE software first you have to define the Trig
and Echo pins. In this case they are the pins number 12 and 13
also you define buzzer, LCD data bins and LED pins on the
Figure 2: Circuit diagram of system design. Arduino Board. Then you need a long variable,
named “duration” for the travel time that you will get from the
In circuit connections Ultrasonic sensor module’s “trigger” sensor and an integer variable for the distance. In the setup
and “echo” pins are directly connected to pin 13 and 12 of you have to define the trigPin as an output and the echoPin as

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an Input, also buzzer, LED and LCD as an output and then signal wave returned back to the Microcontroller.
start the serial communication for showing the results on the
serial monitor. In the loop first you have to make sure that the
trigPin is clear so you have to set that pin on a LOW State for
specific time. Now for generating the Ultra sound wave we
have to set the trigPin on HIGH State for finite time.
Once the code is finished you have to save your project
before you verify or upload it and when you save it takes
specific extension called .hex file stored in a defined file you
have saved on it then you test or verify the code if its Figure 5: No one here
satisfactory. Then you upload it in microcontroller project
using proteus software and simply run in it. Likewise if the signal triggered by the sensor tumbles an
object then some of the wave reflected back to the
IV. IMPLEMENTATION microcontroller pins, then there are many sub processes to be
done this step, first the microcontroller sends signal to LCD
Now in this chapter we are considering the implementation
module that shows there is an object that is detected is a
and testing the whole system components and connecting the
specified distance or the range that is indicated in the code.
all phases and implement them with each other using separate
The figure below shows that there is an objected detected in
physical or hardware components and designing it with its
the range identified. One of the sub processes we can do is to
response using a simulation software called proteus 8
calculate the distance of the object and the sensor, by
professional as we discussed earlier used for simulation in
calculating it from the reflection time of the signal transmitted.
electronic projects.
So in order to get the distance in cm we need to multiply the
The figure below illustrates physical design structure of our
received travel time value from the echo pin by 0.034 and
ultrasonic sensor based project which we used to design a
divide it by 2. Figure 4.5 shows the distance measured from
software called Fritzing which is used to develop amateur or
the object detected processed by the microcontroller.
hobby CAD software for the design of electronics hardware,
to support designers and artists ready to move from
experimenting with a prototype to building a more permanent
circuit.

Figure 6: Combined detection and distance measuring

Overall whenever the signal wave generated and transmitted

is reflected back or there is an echo shows that there is an
object detected the LCD shows and prints it on time. As the
figure indicates LCD printed the distance, and object detected
once on the screen.
The design of the project was built based on least materials
available that would best provide stability, speed, and
accessibility during operation, the design uses several key
hardware components mainly Ultrasonic sensor, Arduino Uno,
Figure 4: Design prototype of the project lcd 16x2 screen and many other elements that basically needed
in our project also prescribed and discussed in chapter 3.
The Arduino microcontroller is a piece of equipment
A. Software Simulation designed to use in multidisciplinary projects. The hardware is
an open source interfaced with a standard programming
Using proteus as an electronic simulation software we can
compiler. The microcontroller houses everything that is
easily design and simulate the project to detect if any obstacle needed. It has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be
met during triggering signal from the ultrasonic sensor, In used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz quartz
order to generate the ultrasound you need to set the Trig on a crystal, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header and a
High State for 10 µs. if the generated signal doesn’t reflected reset button. It contains everything needed to support the
back an object when triggered then the ATmega328 microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer with a USB
microcontroller makes decision by sending an output signal to cable or power it with an AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get
LCD module showing that there were no objects to be started. The programming for the Arduino is a language
detected using a phrase “No one here”. The figure below is a similar to C++, a low level language. In the project
LCD module shows that there is no object detected through implementation we used protoboard or as in common
the process of triggered signal by means there is no echo breadboard to connect the components and other external

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elements we want as an additional feature. Figure below whether the is a person detected, also the microcontroller
shows how we constructed, built the doorbell based project. calculates the distance of the person detected using the speed
of sound because the sensor uses sound wave to operate with
velocity of 340m/s. if there is person detected it shows it in to
the LCD as shows in the figure below. An additional feature
we added is the 2 LEDs that continuously works if there is no
one detected or if someone there, Potentiometer that controls
the LCD display, also buzzer that makes an alarm when
person is detected.

Figure 7: Hardware construction of the project

When we program and upload it to the microcontroller, we

can operate it using external power source or the USB cable
itself from the laptop for testing. If the components is
powered, the 40Hz ultrasonic sensor starts generating signal
for triggering and sending a sound wave in one second or one
Figure 9: Some one here with a distance
thousand milliseconds to detect a person, after one second it
resumes two microseconds for the next trigger, in that process
the sensor does continuously with the help of the
microcontroller. The range of the sensor is four meters and can V. CONCLUSION
detect object from that distance, but we are able to manipulate The initial attempt of constructing the project was
and choose detecting distance using the arduino preformed after each piece of hardware was tested in different
microcontroller. project to make sure accuracy of each hardware element.
We have selected fifty centimeters or half meters to detect The software was verified and compiled with no errors. The
from a person is present or not, Whenever the triggered signal software was successfully uploaded to the Arduino
is not tumbled a person, there will not be a reflected wave at microcontroller. Simulations and Calibrations were performed
the receiver or in other words an echo will not be delivered to ensure accuracy. The outcome of our first attempt either
then the controller doesn’t have a signal to process, below software or hardware resulted in a crash to the ground. Some
figure it shows that there is no object. of the minor issues faced during this first attempt were: faulty
connection wires, mismatched assembling, and poor battery
life of the main source of power, and even so in making or
creating the code that took more time to succeed compiling
and also uploading it to the microcontroller.
The final attempt was made after some changes made. The
code was edited later and replaced, after it have failed more
times, and so in simulation whether hardware or software
there are additional features added also and some elements
was replaced with a new one, recalibrated and tested for
functionality. We are still in the testing phase of the project.
Although the code and hardware seems to functioning
successfully.
Overall, this has been a learning experience. With the
different methods and attempts. All the work and alterations to
the system have been made successfully. The first attempt
Figure 8: No one here. showed minor errors but the second attempt should be
successful and yield great results. The goal is to detect,
Likewise if the triggered signal is tumbled a person, there
measure and providing stability and easier to access
will be an echo signal or reflected wave at the receiver, the
microcontroller will process the signal receiver to define efficiently.

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