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Nest Doorbell Battery wiring to transformer and Chime

Patrick-Red
Community Member

Hi,

I had a conventional wired doorbell. I swapped out the doorbell switch for the Nest but that didn't work, The battery didn't charge and the chime didn't work. I then wired it as per the second diagram below, bypassing the Chime and that is fine for charging the battery but no chime.

We use a Google Mini as the doorbell but that is not good enough.

My question - How do I wire the circuit so that the Nest acts like a switch and activates the Chime?

Any help appreciated.

 

 

Both.jpg

1 Recommended Answer

firmwaredev
Bronze
Bronze

The Nest Doorbell (Battery) is designed to be connected just like a regular doorbell switch, so you attach it in series to the chime as in the first diagram on the left.   It can both charge, and activate the chime when connected that way.  However, there are few things to look at:

 

1.   There is a software setting in the Home app to turn on activation of the doorbell chime.  If that's not set, it won't ring the chime.

2.  If the above is set properly, it's possible that your transformer is insufficient.   This is pretty unlikely, but possible.  Check the specs in the documentation and make sure your transformer is sufficient.

 

3.  On the charging issue, the battery will be charged when connected.   However, the rate of charge is very low.  It can only trickle charge the battery due to being in series with the chime. High current draws would trip the chime and potentially cause damage to the chime solenoid.

It's interesting that you observed faster charging with it connected directly to the transformer.  I'm thinking that was probably just a coincidence and due to variance in temperature or activity level of the camera at that time, as it should charge at roughly the same rate regardless of how attached.  As far as I've observed, it isn't able to determine if it is in series with the chime or not, and the small increase in voltage not having the chime in series I don't think would make enough difference to change the charging rate.  But,  it's a data point you observed, so I won't dispute it.      The charging rate (low) has been confirmed by some folks that are running plug-in transformers as well (of course without a chime).    In any case, as you said, you can't ring the chime connected that way.  It has to be connected in series to ring the chime.

View Recommended Answer in original post

9 REPLIES 9

firmwaredev
Bronze
Bronze

The Nest Doorbell (Battery) is designed to be connected just like a regular doorbell switch, so you attach it in series to the chime as in the first diagram on the left.   It can both charge, and activate the chime when connected that way.  However, there are few things to look at:

 

1.   There is a software setting in the Home app to turn on activation of the doorbell chime.  If that's not set, it won't ring the chime.

2.  If the above is set properly, it's possible that your transformer is insufficient.   This is pretty unlikely, but possible.  Check the specs in the documentation and make sure your transformer is sufficient.

 

3.  On the charging issue, the battery will be charged when connected.   However, the rate of charge is very low.  It can only trickle charge the battery due to being in series with the chime. High current draws would trip the chime and potentially cause damage to the chime solenoid.

It's interesting that you observed faster charging with it connected directly to the transformer.  I'm thinking that was probably just a coincidence and due to variance in temperature or activity level of the camera at that time, as it should charge at roughly the same rate regardless of how attached.  As far as I've observed, it isn't able to determine if it is in series with the chime or not, and the small increase in voltage not having the chime in series I don't think would make enough difference to change the charging rate.  But,  it's a data point you observed, so I won't dispute it.      The charging rate (low) has been confirmed by some folks that are running plug-in transformers as well (of course without a chime).    In any case, as you said, you can't ring the chime connected that way.  It has to be connected in series to ring the chime.

Thank you for that very detailed response. So, when you press the doorbell button it disconnects the leads from the battery charger and shorts them for a period instead - is that correct?

I will revert to the original circuit and take better notes (it is some months since I installed it). Perhaps it had something to do with the battery being lowish and needing more current for a time? 

I also see now that the transformer is 8VA instead of 10 🙄 Ok, will try reverting and if there are issues will order a larger transformer. I'll post with an update

Thanks for your help.

Patrick.

Happy to help!  Yeah, something like that would be occurring.  I don't know the exact details of what they're doing and how, electrically, but to make the chime ring they would have to effectively short across the terminals (or at least drop down to a very low impedance) for a brief period.  Given the design is fundamentally a battery one and doesn't run directly off of the incoming power, that wouldn't be very hard to implement.  

On the 8VA AC transformer, I have seen folks using those without issue, but I've only seen a couple of examples.  It's possible that is a contributing factor, since that's at least going to be on the low end.   As you said, just need to give it a shot (with the setting in the app for the chime), and see how it does.

I don't think the state of the battery would make any difference for ability to ring the chime.   I've actually had mine at close to zero charge (because of cold temperatures where it can't charge at all), where it reverts to a safe mode where it doesn't record video and only supports button presses.  It rings the chime just fine in that state.  More likely this issue is that the software setting is wrong, or the transformer is overall insufficient to power both the doorbell and the chime at the same time.

Hi,

Reconnected the chime and nothing.. but 10mins and a cup of tea later everything is working ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It works whether "Have an electric chime?" Is set to yes or no.

The Battery is also charging.

So, barring a mistake on the first installation, I think the issue was the delay (possible caused by my borderline low-power transformer?). If I'd waited a while it might have worked 🙄.

Thanks for your help esp the info that the power leads act as a closed switch when the button is pressed, which was confusing me.

Regards,

Patrick.

Weird!  Well, at least it's working, and hope it stays that way.  There have been reports of general flakiness with regard to the chime due to marginal transformers.  If that continues, that still might be an avenue to investigate.

Oh, and actually it was the "Ring Indoor Chime" setting, I was speaking of.  But presumably that was already on for you...

firmwaredev_0-1646494798080.png

 

aatienza
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey folks,

 

Thanks for visiting the Community. 

 

Since this thread hasn't had activity in a while, we're going to close it to keep content fresh. Feel free to submit another post, and provide as many details as possible so that others can lend a hand.

 

Thanks,

Archie

MplsCustomer
Bronze
Bronze

@Patrick-Red 

The Google Nest Doorbell (Battery) is only trickle-charged, at a level low enough to prevent tripping the indoor chime. Perhaps your transformer is not adequate to charge the doorbell when the chime is connected.

Here is what Google Nest says about trickle-charging the doorbell (in the context of cold weather):

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/11830989?hl=en

Here is what Google Nest says about doorbell compatibility with transformers:

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9247132?hl=en

This post has comments from another customer on the battery doorbell's ability to charge:

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Cameras-and-Doorbells/Nest-Doorbell-Battery-draining-while-ha...

Thanks for the reply,

As per reply above, I'm going to try to wire the chime in again and see how it goes. My Transformer is 8VA which is at the min for Global (not sure why there is a difference between global and NA..)

Regards,

Patrick