Simple Musical Door Bell Circuit

A very simple musical door bell circuit can be built and installed in homes, the design features a replaceable music chip option, and an adjustable ringtone duration, as per the user preference, we'll learn the entire circuit procedure through the following article.

Today we can find a huge range of door bells in the market in all shapes, sizes and specs, and we have all the options of choosing the right one for our home.

Finding the Right Doorbell

However searching for the right door bell that would have the most pleasing sound according to our preference could be quite tedious and normally we tend to succumb to the retailer's views and choice and finally buy the one that the shopkeepers endorses us to buy.

The idea of the musical doorbell presented here is simple and yet provides the user with some very useful features which are normally absent even in the most sophisticated of the door bell models available ready made in the market.

Circuit Operation

The proposed circuit allows the user to select the musical chip as per his/her own choice which may be replaced with another tune whenever the user needs it, just for a change.

Another useful feature is the duration for which the bell sounds, which is adjustable here, and the user has the facility to determine for how much long the door bell should play once the door bell button is pushed and released.

Circuit Diagram

The diagram above depicts the proposed musical door bell circuit, the various stages may be understood with the following explanation.

The BC547 transistor along with the associated preset and the 100uF capacitor form a simple delay OFF timer circuit, where the preset and the capacitor determines the delay for which the sound output may be sustained once the indicated push button is pressed momentarily.

BC557 Function

The BC557 transistor functions like a switch and triggers ON/OFF in response to the conduction of the BC547 stage.

The collector of the BC557 can be seen linked with a COB which is the acronym for Chip On Board device, which is an embedded musical tune IC. This IC is programmed internally to produce the specified tune as soon as a 3V potential is applied across its supply terminals. The sound signal is acquired from the extreme right copper layout strip of the chip.

Since the output from the COB could be very low in current, it needs an amplification before the programmed sound can become loud and audible across a give area.

The third transistor 2N2222 is positioned to accept the weak sound signals from the COB and amplify it over the connected 8 ohm speaker.

Video Demonstration:

How COB (Chip on Board) Works

These COBs are plentifully available in the electronic spare part market today, and these come with a diverse range of different tunes such as Christmas melodies, birthday songs, new year tunes, congratulation wishing tune, animal sounds, and many other customized speech forms depending upon the users specifications.

In case you are unable to find these chips, a decent alternative could be in the form of the IC UM66 which are much popular and easily available in the market anywhere across the globe or could be also procured from any online electronic store.

The shown push button attached with the circuit is supposed to replace the home bell push button and may be extended to any distance, this will not affect the circuit performance.

When the push button is pressed, the BC547 switches ON and continues to conduct even after the switch is released due to the stored energy inside the 100uF capacitor.

The BC557 transistor responds to this and also switches ON supplying the required 3V potential to the attached COB, which now begins buzzing with the embedded piece of programmed tune.

The musical signal from the COB is forwarded to the next amplifier power transistor which instantly amplifies the music signals driving the connected speaker with a loud musical door bell sound.

The music continues only as long as the 100uF capacitor is able to sustain, and the music stops as soon as the 100uF is completely discharged.

The 100k preset may be set as per the user preference for enabling the desired length of the musical tune in response to every push of the bell button.

About the Author

I am an electronic engineer (dipIETE ), hobbyist, inventor, schematic/PCB designer, manufacturer. I am also the founder of the website: https://www.homemade-circuits.com/, where I love sharing my innovative circuit ideas and tutorials. If you have any circuit related query, you may interact through comments, I'll be most happy to help!