Help electrician doorbell voltage

Willemjm

Willem
Corporate Member
Wifey purchased an electronic doorbell with camera. It needs 8-24V AC

Testing at my door bell button, the meter jumps between 6V and 131V? Cycles that way continuously.

So I don’t want to connect the new electronic bell until I know what gives.

Any idea why the voltage alternates that way?
 

Willemjm

Willem
Corporate Member
Use an analog meter. It averages rather than samples.
I don’t have one of those handy.
My guess is the door bell unit which connects to the button is solid state, probably not a transformer and the VA should be OK, just not sure if it is compatible.
 

AllanD

Allan
Corporate Member
Do you have it set to AC or DC?
I would test your meter next by testing a wall outlet, a flashlight battery, and a car battery to make sure it is not a faulty meter. If you have it set to DC and are measuring AC I think it would average out to 0. If the meter is rectifying the AC into DC it may read wrong. but I am not an electrician.
 

Willemjm

Willem
Corporate Member
Do you have it set to AC or DC?
I would test your meter next by testing a wall outlet, a flashlight battery, and a car battery to make sure it is not a faulty meter. If you have it set to DC and are measuring AC I think it would average out to 0. If the meter is rectifying the AC into DC it may read wrong. but I am not an electrician.
AC, meter works fine, reads a steady 121V from an outlet.
 

bowman

Board of Directors, Webmaster
Neal
Staff member
Corporate Member
Shouldn't be moving from 6 to 131. I had to replace a doorbell & transformer earlier this year. The one i got had different taps for different voltages, pick the one you want to use.
 
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JNCarr

Joe
Corporate Member
Depending on how old the doorbell is, the button may not actually apply power to it, but just trigger it. You need to measure the voltage from the transformer going into the doorbell. I would guess that's either 12 or 24VAC. In no case should there be over 60 volts (more likely 24) at the button since that is supposed to be low voltage. Either your meter is wacky or you have a serious issue. My guess is you have an open circuit - does the current doorbell work?

Volt meters, whether analog or digital measure RMS (root mean square) AC voltage and absolute DC voltage. The old analog meters and cheapie digitals only approximate RMS and better meters are much more accurate.
 

Echd

C
User
If you connect the doorbell, it will tell you if it can or can't use the source, assuming it's one of the common brands. You won't hurt it, it's smart enough. It is- or is supposed to be- a low voltage source so it's pretty safe.

That said I bought a pair of Blinks for my parents last year for Christmas and their transformer cannot support it. I have no idea where their transformer is, they have no idea where the transformer is, and I am NOT crawling in their crawlspace to look, so it has been running off batteries and taking entirely too many pictures of the dogs for a year now.
 

Willemjm

Willem
Corporate Member
Thanks for all the replies, appreciated.

I figured my meter was on auto voltage, once I selected the range it measured a steady 6 mV, which is surprisingly low. The button actually has a little circuit board in it.

Decided to let the camera doorbell function on its own and not bother with trying to find the transformer.

The
 

Canuck

Wayne
Corporate Member
Thanks for all the replies, appreciated.

I figured my meter was on auto voltage, once I selected the range it measured a steady 6 mV, which is surprisingly low. The button actually has a little circuit board in it.

Decided to let the camera doorbell function on its own and not bother with trying to find the transformer.

The
So Willem, will you be just taping off the wire leads to the old doorbell button and placing the battery operating ring bell/camera over the old doorbell hole?
 

JNCarr

Joe
Corporate Member
If you're getting 6mV, one of three things - either you are trying to read AC on the DC setting or trying to read DC on the AC setting or you have a completely open circuit and you are just reading random noise on the line. If the old doorbell/button works, that rules out the latter.

The fact that you have to switch to manual range setting on your meter indicates it may be a bit flakey - the automatic setting should correctly range set and read everything from mVs to 100s V.
 

Gofor

Mark
Corporate Member
If you connect the doorbell, it will tell you if it can or can't use the source, assuming it's one of the common brands. You won't hurt it, it's smart enough. It is- or is supposed to be- a low voltage source so it's pretty safe.

That said I bought a pair of Blinks for my parents last year for Christmas and their transformer cannot support it. I have no idea where their transformer is, they have no idea where the transformer is, and I am NOT crawling in their crawlspace to look, so it has been running off batteries and taking entirely too many pictures of the dogs for a year now.
You might want to check where the doorbell chimes are mounted. On our house, the transformer is at that location, under the chime cover.
 

Willemjm

Willem
Corporate Member
Folks, I gave up on using the old doorbell and just put the Ring camera doorbell in as a separate system with it's own chime. So I have two doorbells now, the visitor has the choice which one to push. The camera is sensor activated and works really well. Can talk through my phone to the doorbell.

I'm not an Electrician, but I have wired my whole shop including 3phase, single phase and have done a lot of Electrical Industrial work as a Plant Engineer during my young days. Thing is if we don't work with this stuff every day, we can get really rusty.

So the mystery of the old doorbell remains. It works just fine, the chime rings when the button is pushed, but the chime does not ring if the button wires are connected to each other. There is a little PC board in the button and if that is bypassed, the connection does not ring the chime. So it follows that the push button has to be compatible with the circuit. Both my meters measure 6mV at the button wires. One is a Fluke 787B the other is a cheaper model. If there is a 24V Transformer which I cannot find, I guess they have a pretty big resistor in the circuit somewhere and the thing is digital, I guess.

LOL, and I know the difference between AC/DC both in electrical. Outside of electrical, I believe there is a different meaning.
 
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