AVD1001-100NAS - Second Doorbell Not Triggering Older Digital Chime

[MikeMCT]

Getting sooooooo close to a completely working system, but unable to resolve one last issue...

Our residence has a two-button (front & back) doorbell system, vintage 1992. The digital chime might well be as old as the house itself, and no documentation can be found anywhere in our house or online. It's a three-wire lashup (front-back-common) and requires a diode (which was connected to the front doorbell switch). We're trying to retain this chime if at all possible as it is one of the musical units that has 2-3 dozen little tunes that it can play (and there are some sentimental family favorites in that list!).

I replaced the original (functioning) 16V 10VA xfmr with a new Hampton Bay 16V 30VA (1875ma) unit and can see the proper voltage at the chime wiring and at both doorbell switches. I installed two Essential Wired doorbells and their power kits (which was entertaining as the chime didn't have screw terminals, so I had to do some wire stripping/cutting/splicing). The power kit switches are set to "0" and the doorbell are set to Digital.

Both doorbells associated to the residence WiFi and we are seeing video in the apps and getting phone calls when the buttons are pressed. However, while the front doorbell triggers the house chime just fine, the rear doorbell does not.

I have some IN4001 diodes on hand and can add them to the system if warranted. Scanning the Community and web, thought, it seems that most modern smart doorbells incorporate the diode functionality internally? Not sure if this holds true for the Arlos?

Any thoughts would be most appreciated!

Thanks,

Mike

[StephenB]

You shouldn't need the diodes.

I'd double-check that the rear power kit is still in the "O" position.  Your symptoms are consistent with it being in "X" (bypass).

Is it easy to switch the wires, to connect the rear doorbell to the front chime input (and vice versa)?  Might be useful to know if the problem is in the doorbell, or somewhere else.

[MikeMCT]

Stephen, thanks for the reply!

Confirmed both power kits set to "O" (which is how they were OOB, but double-checked).

Good idea on process of elimination! (Should have tried that earlier...) Swapped doorbells and no change; front door circuit triggers chime, back door circuit does not. So doorbells seem to be OK and problem apparently lies elsewhere...

Thanks,

Mike

[StephenB]

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@MikeMCT wrote:

Swapped doorbells and no change; front door circuit triggers chime, back door circuit does not. So doorbells seem to be OK and problem apparently lies elsewhere...

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If you can easily swap the power kits, I'd try that next. 

You could maybe test disconnecting the power kit from the back circuit - though if that works, I don't recommend leaving it that way.  The doorbell is of course always drawing some power, the power kit diverts the normal draw (when the doorbell isn't pressed) so it doesn't pass through the chime.  In addition to preventing misbehavior like continuously chiming, it also protects the chime from possible damage (including overheating).

[MikeMCT]

Stephen, thanks for the follow-on suggestions. Tried swapping power kits, and lifting the back door circuit power kit, but still no joy. (BTW, thanks for the background on what the power kit is/does...I don't believe that I've seen that explained anywhere else.) I also tried removing the device and doing a factory reset to "clear the decks", but no change. Methinks that there's something janky with the chime itself, unless you have any other ideas?

Sidebar: I got a bit of start when reconnecting the doorbell and the LED came up alternating white and amber, until I realized that I might have dragged down the internal battery.  Sure enough, after about 15-20 minutes it went to solid white and I was good to go. Up until then, I hadn't realized that there was an internal battery and that it also keeps the bell/camera alive in the event of a power failure. Any estimate on how much backup time that battery would provide during a power outage?

Thanks,

Mike   

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@MikeMCT wrote:

Up until then, I hadn't realized that there was an internal battery and that it also keeps the bell/camera alive in the event of a power failure. Any estimate on how much backup time that battery would provide during a power outage?

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I don't know how long it would last (never had opportunity to test it).  Also, I'm not sure it would be able to power the chime during a failure.

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@MikeMCT wrote:

Methinks that there's something janky with the chime itself, unless you have any other ideas?

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Unfortunately not.

One option would be to exchange the rear doorbell for an AVD2001.  That doesn't use the powerkit - unlike the AVD1001, it runs off a battery which is trickle-charged from the transformer circuit.

But that might also behave the same way.

[MikeMCT]

Stephen, thanks for all the suggestions. At this point, I am going to cut my losses and use the system in its current state. Most important, given the layout and feng shui of our home, is that the front bell chimes (which it does). We can live with the back bell just calling our phones. I'm going to chalk it all up to an old, dodgy digital chime, and if we ever get around to upgrading the latter we'll see what happens then...

Sidebar: when I powered down the system to rewire and test, I found that the doorbells stayed active (on their internal batteries) for 10-15 minutes or so. Nice to have a little backup but nothing to write home about!

Thanks,

Mike