Uniden U-Bell (Hikvision rebrand) and mechanical doorbell (doesn't ring and no buzz)

jplee3

n3wb
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Hey all,

I just got one of those Uniden U-Bells (Hikvision rebranded) and was testing it out earlier today. The mechanical doorbell stopped working upon installing and as far as I can tell, there's no buzzing like many others have reported. I'm not quite sure what the issue would be in this case but I have a Ring (and have tested both a Ring 2 and Ring Pro) with my setup and no issues whatsoever with those. I recently upgraded my transformer to one of those Utilitech 8-24v transformers that can support various voltages up to 24v as well.

I initially had the voltage set on 24v/20va and upon turning the breaker back on after connecting the doorbell, I'd hear a 'half-chime' but pressing the U-Bell doorbell nothing worked. I tried reducing the voltage to the 16v/10va and pretty much got the same thing upon turning the breaker back on. I also tried connecting the resistor to both poles on the mechanical chime unit and that appeared to completely silence it. I also tried switching the wires around at the doorbell to no avail (of course, now that I think about it, I only did this with the resistor in place - if that was preventing the chime from going off completely then all that wire swapping would have been pointless).

Do you guys know what the issue might be here? I keep reading around and hearing people talk about their mechanical chimes just buzzing or ringing multiple times due to voltage issues. In my case though there's no buzzing and no ringing. The weird thing, as I mentioned before, is that I didn't have any issues like this with any of the Ring doorbells.

Ideas/thoughts/other things I should try?
 

Bob NWI

Young grasshopper
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I have mine working with no hum. The voltage I measured with only the chime connected is 19volts at doorbell wires. The chime operates fine. Not sure if this helps.
 

jplee3

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Thanks all! I heard back from Uniden support and they had me attach the included resister at the doorbell - that seemed to resolve the issue mostly. Although the doorbell rings really fast it seems. But it does seem to work. Next step will be setting some time out to remove the Ring, drill some new holes and re-install this one :)
 
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Thanks all! I heard back from Uniden support and they had me attach the included resister at the doorbell - that seemed to resolve the issue mostly. Although the doorbell rings really fast it seems. But it does seem to work. Next step will be setting some time out to remove the Ring, drill some new holes and re-install this one :)
I’m having the same problem you originally described. Can you tell me if they had you wire both legs of the resistor to the doorbell terminals, or just across one leg?
 
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