This circuit emits a beep and/or illuminates a LED when someone touches the door-handle from the outside. The alarm will sound until the circuit will be switched-off.
Q1 forms a free-running oscillator: its output bursts drive Q2 into saturation, so Q3 and the LED are off. When part of a human body comes in contact with a metal handle electrically connected to the wire hook, the body capacitance damps Q1 oscillations, Q2 biasing falls off and the transistor becomes non conducting. Therefore, current can flow into Q3 base and D3 illuminates. If SW1 is closed, a self-latching circuit formed by Q4 & Q5 is triggered and the beeper BZ1 is activated.When the human body part leaves the handle, the LED switches-off but the beeper continues to sound, due to the self-latching behavior of Q4 & Q5. To stop the beeper action, the entire circuit must be switched-off opening SW2. R3 is the sensitivity control, allowing to cope with a wide variety of door types, handles and locks.
