As an update to the previous post http://elliottjohnson.net/blog/kevs-piano-doorbell/

Kev rang me up a month ago and let me know that he had installed his new doorbell button and run the wire back to the installation above his hearth. He was ready to wire up the last bit and test.

With some effort we were able to pull the piano frame away from the wall. Kev drilled a hole through the aluminum harp through the spruce soundboard and we fed all of the wires for each of the solenoids through.

The first tests fired the wrong solenoids, which didn’t happen in our earlier tests. We opened up the project box and found that some of the wires were grounding out on the metal lid. Using electrical tape, we insulated the wires and that got things working as they should.

No need to modify the solenoid strike timing, the tempo of the chime or anything else. It sounded really good. Check out the video below!

Kev did some minor clean ups to the wiring by covering them with some aluminum U-channel and concealed the doorbell wire by cutting a small groove in the wall that follows the baseboard, running the wire in the recess, and filling over it with plaster. He already had done a section and it looked perfect.

Finally he wrote to me the next day saying that in the evening the doorbell was illuminated by the 5V supply, which was a pleasant bonus surprise. All in all it was a lot of fun to collaborate on and is an awesome feature of the home that turned out exactly as we hoped.