Old-style wiring to integrate v2 with bell

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Hello, my mother’s doorbell was installed over 50 years ago and is a simple bell triggered by the button at the door. That means, if someone pressed that button for five minutes then the bell will ring for five minutes. No “ding, dong” here. So the Wyze setup tuts assume that the transformer is inside the house with a simple access panel. You’ll see a picture of my transformer and its wiring. It produces 16v AC and I’ve moved the two wires at the remote button directly to this transformer so the Wyze is acting as a camera at the door.

But I’m not clear how to integrate the chime controller in this simple setup because I don’t have the “modern” chimes and its interface. As you can see this transformer has output for “Load” and “10va”.

So my question is how to integrate the Wyze chime controller with this transformer? This is probably in the forum somewhere but it did not appear in my searches.

Sam

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What’s the chime type, and is it compatible? That’s what I don’t know, and it’s what I think you really want to know, because Chime Controller doesn’t connect to the transformer: It’s supposed to connect to a compatible chime.

I suspect the chime might be the issue here because of this part of your post:

This makes it seem like it’s one of the chimes that rings based on the state of the circuit. In other words, if someone closes the circuit by pressing a simple button, that supplies power to the chime and the chime will ring as long as power is applied. Once someone stops pressing the button and opens the circuit again, the chime stops. Is that accurate?

If that’s the case, then part of your solution may involve replacing that chime with a compatible mechanical “ding-dong” chime.

The other part of this system that you probably want to replace is the transformer.

How did you determine this? That’s not the rating of the transformer in the photo.

The “LOAD” label just tells you which side of the transformer is the “load” side where you can connect your low-voltage AC wiring. This is in contrast to the “line” side which connects to your standard household ~120 V AC. Your transformer’s rated output appears to be 10 V (VAC), 5 VA. (It’s difficult to tell your transformer’s apparent power (VA) rating based on the photo because that number is obscured by two wires, but an online search of the model number (MT-70a) indicates that this is a 10V 5VA transformer.) Video Doorbell v2 wants to see a minimum 16V 10VA transformer:

:high_voltage: An existing wired mechanical doorbell and chime is required to install Wyze Video Doorbell v2. The existing circuit must have a minimum voltage of 16V-24V and power output of 10VA.

This is probably a good time for me to mention this: :warning::high_voltage:  I am not an electrician.  :high_voltage::warning: I have done a lot of troubleshooting with my own Video Doorbell v2, however, and I really like the product.

Thank you for including the photo! That’s very helpful! :+1:

What additional information can you supply regarding the actual chime? A photo of that might be helpful, as well. I’m also curious about this part:

What wires did you move, and what was the wiring situation before you moved those?

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You are correct in this transformer’s ratings. I was pleased when I measured its voltage as 16.0 volts which is just inside the Wyze minimum requirements. It works as a camera and notifications.

I believe I will have to purchase a chime kit and integrate the Wyze chime controller to have a chime.

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Okay, good. I wondered if you’d actually measured it. :+1:

That measurement doesn’t totally surprise me, because with the 16V 10VA transformer I’ve used with my Video Doorbell v2 I’ve consistently read in excess of 18V when measuring with a digital multimeter. If you’ve been able to measure your mom’s transformer’s voltage, then you should also have the ability to confirm and test the wiring within the system so that any new chime (and/or transformer) gets wired correctly, and the installation should be pretty straightforward from there.

The thing that does surprise me some is how far out of the rated specification your measurement is: If it’s rated for 10V but you’re measuring 16V, then that’s 60% over spec, which seems like a lot to me. Because of that, the transformer’s age, and the low apparent power (VA) rating, I’d be inclined to replace it with something newer that’s rated for Wyze’s stated requirements.

The thing I don’t know about Wyze doorbells’ transformer requirements (all of the current models specify ≥10VA & 16-24V AC[1]) is how necessary the apparent power output is. Your mom’s current transformer is rated for half of Wyze’s requirement, so I’d be on the lookout for problems related to inadequate power if you proceed, things like the camera losing its Wi-Fi connectivity, flaky chime performance, or other aberrant behavior. My recollection of other Forum users’ experience with this is that replacing the transformer with something that meets the recommended ratings can solve those problems[2][3].

One other thing I wondered after my original post relates to the current chime. If it’s dependent on someone holding in the doorbell button in order to make it ring for the duration of the press, then I’m curious if it would be possible to connect an adequate transformer and Chime Controller into the system with this existing bell and use Video Doorbell v2’s Digital Doorbell Chime Type setting with an appropriate delay/duration (“Ring Tone Length”) so that a single press of Video Doorbell v2’s button would allow power to pass through Chime Controller long enough to get a good ring from the current bell. I don’t know if something like that would work or not, and I don’t know enough about the wiring in your system to suggest anything, but it’s something I’d probably play with myself in that situation (because I’m curious and stubborn).

The easiest and most straightforward solution here is likely to be replacing both the transformer and mechanical chime, though. It will be an adjustment for your mom to get accustomed to hearing a traditional ding-dong doorbell, but that’s what I would expect to cause the least amount of headaches from an installation and troubleshooting perspective.

  1. The product page for Duo Cam Doorbell actually says “10-24V AC”, but I don’t know if that’s accurate, because articles within the Help Center for Duo Cam Doorbell specify that the “existing circuit must have a minimum voltage of 16V”. ↩︎

  2. ↩︎

  3. Wyze Doorbell Cam v2 disconnects and stops working after a few days without a factory reset - #4 by john-meek & Wyze Doorbell Cam v2 disconnects and stops working after a few days without a factory reset - #5 by john-meek ↩︎

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I am in agreement with your assessment. The current doorbell setup is straight out of an elementary school’s science experiment about electricity: wires connected to battery, switch and an electromechanical bell.

I don’t have visibility yet how Waze’s chime controller works, and certainly how the everyday chime boxes are set up. There probably is a straightforward way to wire in this bell, but for all that research to save a few bucks on a chime unit is likely a sunk cost.

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I think that pretty much answers one of my original questions:

I don’t fully understand everything that happens with it, either, even after watching a teardown video, but, like I said, I’m not an electrician, and I’m also not an electrical engineer. An actual electrical engineer has posted about how to make Video Doorbell v2 and Chime Controller work with “incompatible” chimes, but that’s a newer electronic chime and not something as old as what your mom has.

Those are fairly simple in their operation as long as you get the wiring correct when you install them. That and an upgraded transformer are what I would expect to be the easiest solution in this case.