Build a Simple Home Alarm Circuit Using 555 ICs

This is a Simple Home Alarm Circuit Using 555 IC's. This circuit can be simplified by using a single 74C14 IC. This IC is also known by the following numbers: 40106, 40014, and 74HC14.  These are CMOS chips and are characterised by low current consumption, high input impedance and a supply voltage from 5v to 15v. (Do not substitute 7414 or  74LS14. They are TTL chips and operate on 4.5v to 5.5v and have low impedance inputs.)

 Simple Home Alarm Circuit Diagram

The 74C14 contains 6 Schmitt Trigger gates and 4 of these gates (Schmitt Inverters) are used in this circuit.
The circuit consists of a number of "building blocks" and the first consists of two transistors in a very clever "bootstrap" arrangement. The first transistor is turned on via the 3M3 and 47k. The second transistor is not turned on and the output is HIGH.

A small signal from the electret microphone will consist of positive and negative excursions and the negative excursion will turn the first transistor OFF. This will turn the second transistor ON and the left lead of the 100n will be pulled towards the 0v rail. The 100n is uncharged and the right lead will also be pulled towards the 0v rail and the input of the  74C14 will see a LOW. This will make the output HIGH and turn on the BC547 transistor.

When the second transistor turns ON, it also pulls the 2u2 down and this removes the "turn-on" voltage to the first transistor. The two transistors remain in this state for a few seconds while the 2u2 discharges and the voltage on the base of the first transistor rises. When this happens, the two transistors change state and the 2u2 charges. When the circuit is waiting to detect audio, the 2u2 is charged via the 47k on the base of the first transistor and 47k collector resistor of the second transistor (plus the base-emitter voltage drop of the first transistor).

Simple Home Alarm Circuit Diagram A

 To exit the property, the EXIT button is pressed and this puts a HIGH on pin 1 of the IC so that any signal from the electret mic is not passed to the siren. The EXIT delay is determined by the value of the 100u and 2M2. Normally-open and normally-closed switches will also send a LOW to trigger the siren.