I set up my new Duo doorbell Cam and chime wirelessly per the instructions and app prompts. I went back to hook up the cam to the existing doorbell 20vac power. This also went flawless, however I seem to have an extra wire with two terminals on the ends.
I tried to find the instructions on the app, but it is hidden apparently.
The Wyze website currently says to “refer to the app” - which I cannot find.
The Wyze website also only shows a video for an older version of doorbell and I’m not sure I want to trust that. The extra wire for the older model has a “fuse” in it and the wire I have clearly does not. Something about shorting two live lines doesn’t sit right with me.
The camera appears to be working fine, Do I need to install the extra wire and where can I get updated instructions?
No! That is the jump wire to use in the chime box for by-pass purposes. If everything is working, put the wire back in the box and enjoy your doorbell.
The Doorbell only requires 2 wires to function. Each wire will connect to each side of the transformer. If your doorbell is working fine, then you should have no issue.
Did you have an existing home chime?
Here is a video someone did who hooked upon their wires to the existing doorbell
I wonder if you’re talking about the video in the Wyze Duo Cam Doorbell Installation Guide. If that’s the case, then those instructions will work, and steps 3 and 4 in the “Wired Installation” section tell you what to do with the jump wire that you’re asking about, but that’s only if you want to bypass a home’s built-in chime, as @fmills1d indicated.
This is a good question:
If you do, and if you want to use it, then please be aware that installing Duo Cam Doorbell to work with a home’s built-in chime might be problematic without an additional component that isn’t included with the Duo Cam Doorbell package. Numerous posts here on the Forum have reported unwanted sounds (particularly from standard mechanical chimes) such as buzzing, humming, and “phantom” rings (when the doorbell button hasn’t been pressed), and the solution to these tends to be the Chime Controller, which recently became available again. Note:
Yes, that was the video on the Website I saw. The third wire shown has a fuse and I was not about to install a jumper wire that would short out what might potentially be a live voltage.
Yes, I have an existing mechanical door chime. At this point I’m not concerned about using it as the wireless chime that came with the Duo has be covered. I was also very surprised that my Alexa recognized the door bell with no interaction from me and not only rang but announced with her voice that there was someone at the front door.
I get that. I think at some point Wyze changed from offering a fused wire (like what’s shown in the Video Doorbell (v1) replacement parts kit) to a non-fused jumper, but some of their Help Center articles seem to use “jump wire” and “fuse wire” interchangeably, which can be confusing.
If things are operating as expected with your current installation, then I’d be inclined to follow @fmills1d’s advice:
If you notice unwanted sounds at any point, though, then I think you have a couple of options, and you can still leave the jump wire in the box:
Disconnect the wires from the FRONT and TRANS terminals (if that’s the kind of standard mechanical chime you have) and connect these together with a wire nut in order to completely bypass the chime.
Obtain and install the Chime Controller. Note that the Duo Cam Doorbell documentation doesn’t include instructions for this, so your best bet would be to go to the Help Center section for Video Doorbell v2 (which is the product the Chime Controller actually ships with) and follow instructions there and/or ask in the Forum.
I’m glad that’s working for you! There have been a lot of complaints on the Forum about inconsistent Alexa responses, especially with doorbell button presses. The announcements of person detection that you’re seeing are a benefit of being a subscriber, I think.
If you have Wyze app linked in Alexa, your cams/devices are automatically connected. A benefit of Wyze communicating with AWS servers. Doorbells have actions, announcement for person detection and another for doorbell button press. The announcements are slightly similar but different. You can turn them on or off individually, but person is controlled by cam plus status in the Wyze app to be active in Alexa for announcement on an echo device.
