I’m just curious if you got yours to work without having the chime controller installed. My house never had a doorbell. No chime box or transformer that I’m aware of.
So we had an electrician install a transformer, but no chime box since it would most likely be a smart doorbell and didn’t really need it.
Since installing the v2, we’ve been having issues with it and I wanted to rule out the chime controller being an issue. Thanks all.
I haven’t done this (I use the Chime Controller), but I’m curious about the kinds of responses you’re going to get, and I’m especially curious about how/where you wired the Chime Controller into your installation. I would guess it’s in between one of the conductors in the 2-conductor wire and one of the transformer terminals with the white wire of the Chime Controller left disconnected (as described in the alternate wiring instructions article).
When you say that you’ve “been having issues” with the Doorbell, what details can you provide? Describing the problems your experiencing might help others to understand what’s happening, and sharing things like your Doorbell’s firmware version could also be helpful.
I didn’t install it at all. 
I never seen anything that said it was required, so I just left it in the packaging. I only bring it up now out of curiosity because I’ve been in touch with Wyze support, and they mention this after I asked if the controller was required;
No where (from what I’ve seen on the website) does it say the chime controller is a required component for the doorbell to function. When I first installed it, it connected and gave live video perfectly. When the button was pressed it would notify my phone (at least to my recollection, it’s been a few months now since it’s worked.)
So all this has me questioning is it the lack of chime controller that is the root cause of my issues.
This is my second v2 doorbell. The first one was installed fine and worked great for a few weeks. Then started having connections issues, it would often say offline with the flashing orange circle. I would power cycle it to get it to reconnect. Did that for another few weeks until it stayed permanently offline, no orange circle or anything. I assumed it was completely dead, so Wyze replaced it.
The second v2 doorbell, when installed didn’t appear to power on at all. No orange circle, nothing. Checked the connections, breaker on and off. Nothing.
Maybe I’ve been completely blind and it does say somewhere that the chime controller IS required and I just totally missed it.
Oh, so you want to rule out the absence of the Chime Controller as the issue. I guess that makes more sense.
The Help Center site seems to stress the importance of the Chime Controller, even if the home’s mechanical chime is broken:
To protect Wyze Video Doorbell v2 from power surges!
We highly recommend installing Wyze Doorbell Chime Controller to your non-functional chime to ensure there’s proper power connecting your doorbell. Also, the fuse wire in the included chime controller protects your new doorbell from high voltage that may cause damage.
So they recommend it, and I can imagine how someone might wire that into the circuit just to have the fuse there for protection. I have this vague recollection of reading elsewhere on the Forum that someone from Wyze might have suggested omitting the Chime Controller from the installation if having it in place was causing problems, but I’m not finding that post at the moment, and my memory is fallible. If you poke around, you can certainly find examples of Forum users who describe successful operation of Video Doorbell v2 without the Chime Controller.
The bullet points you shared jibe with another Help Center article.
Do you have adequate power at the location where you installed the new Doorbell? Did you test? (I recently described doing that in a different topic. I don’t know if that will be helpful to you or not. I’m including it here just in case.)
If the first Video Doorbell v2 unit Wyze sent you had connection issues, then I wonder about at least three things:
The answer to the first question is probably a “yes”, but it’s something I’d want to check at that location.
The answer to the second question is probably also a “yes”, especially since you had an electrician install a transformer for this purpose, but I’d still want to know the power rating of the transformer and the actual power reading at the Doorbell’s location.
The answer to the third question is still an unknown, but I’d want to know this because some Video Doorbell v2 firmware updates have been released specifically to address connectivity issues.
I’m also still not sure what you mean when you say that you checked the connections. I imagine that you determined that the things that are supposed to make contact with each other (wires to terminals) were actually in contact, but that’s not the same as testing the voltage in a circuit.
I would guess that you should be able to get this thing working (assuming the current Doorbell isn’t a defective unit) either with or without the Chime Controller (which I think probably isn’t the issue), and even without an actual chime in the house, because the end of the Chime Controller Installation Guide seems to indicate that it’s possible. I’m interested to learn if anyone else “chimes” (
at myself) in and what else I might be missing.
So your using the VDB v2 without the chime controller right now? It’s just transformer straight to camera? What is the exterior of your house made up of? Type of construction? There could be issues with the materials used to exterior your house causing degradation of Wi-Fi signal to the location. What Wi-Fi equipments do you have? Where is the Wi-Fi source compared to the doorbell location? Some of the issues you’re talking about makes me think that there might be an issue with the Wi-Fi signal making it to the doorbell location? When the first doorbell V2 was starting to flash orange, was it at night, when the IR lights were turning on or after someone pressed the doorbell button? This may indicate a power to the doorbell location issue, but since you’re not using mechanical chime. I wouldn’t think there would be an issue with that.
The only test was with a pen type device that tells you if a wire is live or not (forgot the name of it!) I do have a meter similar to what you show in the other thread. I will see if I can figure it out and get a reading from it.
Yeah, just made sure the connections were good. and that power was “live” using that pen detector.
That is right.
James hardie cement fiberboard. But it still had at least 2 of 3 bars according to the app.
We have comcast/xfinity and use their equipment. XB8 is the router modem combo. also their storm ready cellular/wifi extender. The wifi extender was placed in my front window, which is about 4-5 feet from where the doorbell is. I think there is line of sight (through the window glass) from the extender to the doorbell.
I’m trying to remember. I’m honestly not sure specific times. I don’t believe it would go offline after a button press. I remember checking live feeds at night and during the day. It was pretty random, I think.
That sounds like a non-contact voltage tester. Those are handy because they can help you determine which wire is “live” inside a junction box and also give you some assurance that no power is going into the box if you’ve flipped the breaker switch to do work like replacing an outlet or switch. A multimeter is going to be more useful in a situation like this, though, because what you really want to know is if the wiring at the location where you’re installing a video doorbell is actually delivering enough power to support all of the device’s functions (camera, Wi-Fi radio, speaker, IR lights, etc.). Wyze says:
Important: A 16V 10VA transformer is at the low end of the power supply spectrum.
As I indicated in that other topic, I’ve been able to get by (so far) with the 16V/10VA transformer that was previously powering the “dumb” doorbell in my house, but I also checked the voltage at the original doorbell button early in my installation and read 18.4 V across the wire pair there. Since getting up into the attic is a challenge (and I imagine that having a disability can make having a working video doorbell even more of convenience if not an imperative), then hopefully you can just test the AC voltage across the wires coming out of the wall at the location where you would mount the doorbell.
If you’re able to get in touch with the electrician, then in your situation (without a built-in chime or chime box), I’d consider following Wyze’s advice, which they give at the end of the article I previously linked about the Chime Controller installation and also reiterate in another FAQ.
Important: If you do not have an existing in-house chime or you are unsure of wiring, stop. Contact your local, licensed electrician for assistance.
I really wish this was easier for you, because it seems like hooking it up (even if you want to include the Chime Controller in the circuit just for the fuse to protect the Video Doorbell v2) should be fairly straightforward, but I understand that can be a challenge if you have physical limitations and the transformer isn’t easily accessible.
Which is the doorbell connected to? When you added the extender, did you connect the doorbell to that? Extenders usually use a different SSID than the SSID that the router/combo use.
Before the current issues, I’m pretty sure it would connect to the wifi extender since it was the closest. the extender (or the router) doesnt give an option to create a separate ssid. Its all consolidated to one (6 GHz, 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz are under one ssid)
I do remember reading that, combined ssids could cause issues too, so I disabled the 6 and 5 GHz wifi but still ran into connectivity issues.
What you’re describing seems reasonable to me, and I still suspect a power issue, especially given what you’ve said about the replacement Video Doorbell v2.
I don’t know what your relationship is with the electrician who installed the transformer for you, but if the new Doorbell isn’t powering up at all and this electrician isn’t easy to contact and/or isn’t giving you straightforward answers about the work that was done, then I’d be inclined to look for a different electrician and get another opinion.
I’m still trying to figure out this multimeter. So if I’m doing it correctly and reading it right, when I ran it and touched the two wires (with the meter probes) it appeared to show 1.5v scratches head
They’re not all the same, and I have experience only with the one I actually own. You want to be sure that you have the meter set to measure alternating current voltage (might be labeled something like “ACV” or “V⏦”). If it’s possible to take a picture of what you’re measuring while you’re measuring it and post that here, then that might be helpful. Like I mentioned in the other topic I linked from post #5 above (where I showed a picture of my measurement), using test leads with alligator clips can make this easier so you don’t have to try to hold three or more things at once.
I’ll also reiterate a point that I made before: If you can’t get the electrician who installed your transformer to contact you with its specifications—and now if you’re having difficulty with your multimeter—then I wouldn’t hesitate too much to find a different electrician who’s more willing to help you out, especially since your transformer is in a location that’s difficult for you to access.
I feel your frustration. I recently had some problems with my own Video Doorbell v2 and had to change the connections in the chime box to get it working again.