Does this ring any bells with anyone?

[rab]

Todays task on the SWMBO list was to get the front door bell working.

It hasn't worked in the  3 1/2 years we've lived here!

 

Soon found out why;  we have a wireless bell push on the door,

but, as far as I can see, no actual bell unit.

 

However, in my search for said bell unit, I found a doorbell transformer

(Friedland D752) wired to the mains, but with nothing connected to the output.

 

It threw me at first as it had three output connections; couldn't see why an earth connection was needed on a low voltage output, especially when there was no earth connection on the input.

 

After some googling I found that it had 3 ouputs; 3, 5 or 8V. Having decided we were going

to get a new bell I thought I'd check the transformer was working,with a view to possibly using it to power the bell.

 

This was where it got interesting/confusing.

I set the (analogue) multimeter to 10V dc, and when I put the probes on a couple of terminals,

the needle flipped up, then dropped back again.  This happened whichever combination of terminals I used.

 

A bit more googling revealed that the output could be ac. so tried again with the meter

set to low voltage ac, but got no movement on the meter at all.

 

Any thoughts/suggestions appreciated

Edited August 9, 2021 by rab

[Jeremy Cumberland]

It appears to just send a pulse. Or possibly two pulses (which would make sense with three output terminals - are you sure they are different voltages?). A doorbell transformer that sends two pulses sounds to me that it is meant to drive a ding-d*ng chime, not a brrrrrrrrrr fire-alarm type bell. The first pulse ought to occur when the doorbell is pressed, the second occurs when it is released.

 

Edit: Well, would you believe that d-o-n-g is censored. Why?

Edited August 9, 2021 by Jeremy C

[33C]

I'd just knock....

[Free At Last]

A wireless bell push suggests that there once was a wireless bell/chime.
These could be moved from room to room and plugged into a 13a socket.
The previous owners may not have left it.
 

Edit - The push is normally battery operated and I imagine they will have expired by now.

Edited August 9, 2021 by Free At Last

[Jonboy]

My parents had one such unit wired to both front and back doors. Front door went DingDong , back door just went ding….

Edited August 9, 2021 by Jonboy

[Hroth]

And the reason for the wireless bell might have been because the Friedland unit had become faulty.

 

It should be AC output as its merely a transformer.  The different voltages are possibly arranged in a similar manner to this diagram, which is for a higher output transformer..

In the case of the Friedland transformer unit, connecting across the outer terminals would provide 8v, the right pair 5v and the left pair 3v, all AC.  Your bell push would be connected in series with one of the low voltage wires before going to the bell, not on the mains side!

 

1 hour ago, Jeremy C said:

A doorbell transformer that sends two pulses sounds to me that it is meant to drive a ding-d*ng chime, not a brrrrrrrrrr fire-alarm type bell. The first pulse ought to occur when the doorbell is pressed, the second occurs when it is released.

 

A ding-d@ng bell usually has a solenoid driven plunger with a spring that hits two sounding plates.  When you push the doorbell, the plunger is driven across, to make the ding. The d@ng is produced by the spring pushing the plunger back.

 

I'd either get a new wireless doorbell, or if you want a traditional system, get a new transformer (or battery) set rather than trying to get the Friedland transformer to work.

 

Even B&Q aren't terribly expensive

https://www.diy.com/departments/byron-white-wired-mains-powered-door-chime-kit/8711658431710_BQ.prd?rrec=true

though it might be useful to look for something similar on that internet auction site!

 

 

 

 

Edited August 9, 2021 by Hroth

[kevinlms]

I would buy a new one. As someone who wasted money buying a pure cordless one - the battery in the bell unit went flat after about a month of use and didn't notice until people started complaining.

 

Ended up sick of changing batteries. Funnily the door mounted one didn't go flat. I guess because it was only on when the button was pressed. The bell unit one I guess was on all the time 'listening out' for the door button being pressed.

 

So I got one from Aldi I think, that has the bell unit as a mains unit and the door unit is wireless.

So far no trouble (except for when the plug fell out the power board, as it has once!) and not had to change the battery.

 

I run cables for a living and didn't want to do a door bell. The hard part was choosing the chime to keep SWMBO happy.

[Hroth]

5 hours ago, kevinlms said:

The hard part was choosing the chime to keep SWMBO happy.

 

I know someone with a wireless doorbell that has a "barking dog" as one of the chimes...

 

Agree completely with your suggestion that a wireless doorbell with a plug in chime unit is a better idea than continually replacing batteries.  Battery ones are rather similar to the clockwork doorbell that my grandmother used to have. It needed winding up each time you answered the door...

 

[Michael Hodgson]

A lot of couriers, delivery drivers etc never bother ringing the doorbell because they come across so many that just don't work.

[Free At Last]

11 hours ago, Hroth said:

A ding-d@ng bell usually has a solenoid driven plunger with a spring that hits two sounding plates.  When you push the doorbell, the plunger is driven across, to make the ding. The d@ng is produced by the spring pushing the plunger back.

 I had this type of door chime.

One morning I heard  a ding but no d0ng. I didn't think too much into it and answered the door.
Later that evening I could smell a 'burning paxolin' type smell in the hall, checked in the electric cupboard but all was well, I then put it down to the carbolic soap I had just bought that had a strong smell.

Next morning the smell was a bit stronger and I could hear a high pitched noise coming from somewhere in the hall. Tuning my ear in to where it was coming from led me to the door chime unit. I pulled the cover off to inspect it and I touched the solenoid to see if I could feel any vibration and burnt my finger on the baked casing.
It turned out the caller had pressed the bell push so hard it had jammed, hence the ding and no d0ng.

[Michael Hodgson]

3 hours ago, Free At Last said:

It turned out the caller had pressed the bell push so hard it had jammed, hence the ding and no d0ng.

I suppose that's about the only time battery power is an advantage - the battery will run flat rather than continue to draw power indefinitely!

[kevinlms]

6 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

A lot of couriers, delivery drivers etc never bother ringing the doorbell because they come across so many that just don't work.

No, that's just their excuse - talking to customers who answer, is seen as a waste of time!

 

Conversely a late taxi driver mate of mine, if he went to a house where no one was home and discovered that the door bell was one that worked through a series of different chimes, each time the button was pressed, he stayed there long enough to hear all the options!

 

He didn't care, as long as he earned enough to pay the rent and buy his model trains!

[figworthy]

13 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

A lot of couriers, delivery drivers etc never bother ringing the doorbell because they come across so many that just don't work.

 

I had one caller who knocked on the door (which fortunately I heard).  When I pointed out that I had a working bell, he said that his boss said not to use the bells because it wakes babies up.

 

Adrian

[The Johnster]

I live in a house divided into 4 self contained flats, all of which have installed their own various bells.  I have disconnected mine after getting fed up with it being rung by people who want to deliver stuff to one of the other flats or to know if Jim's in, the assumption here being that, despite Jim (names changed to protect the guilty and the stupid) being part of a different household to me, I know everything about his comings and goings.  No, I don't know if Jim's in or when he'll be back if he's not in, stop looking at me as if I'm being awkward you moron.  Then it's 'well, if you see him tell him Geoff called', which again, assumes that I see Jim regularly, which I don't and it might be months before I do but we say hi to each other in the passageway, and it imposes an obligation on me to ensure that this information is passed on, and I don't want such an obligation or to bother to explain this to you, s*d off, Geoff.

 

People who know me know to phone me when they are outside, and I will come and let them in.  If they don't know my phone number, then I obviously don't know who they are and don't want to answer the door to them.  If they want to contact me badly enough, they'll find a way.  I contend that doobells and knockers will become things of the past, and while I can identify with that, being mostly a thing of the past myself, I do not think this is a particularly bad thing!  Even with this system there are a number of people who think that phoning me when they are outside means phoning me when they are several blocks away, and that I will be out in the rain waiting for them; dream on, folks...

 

There does seem to be a beam that is deployed in doorways that destroys the brain cells of people knocking or ringing.  We have a new resident, who has installed a working bell; he lives upstairs.  He'll soon learn.

Edited August 11, 2021 by The Johnster

[kevinlms]

7 hours ago, The Johnster said:

I live in a house divided into 4 self contained flats, all of which have installed their own various bells.  I have disconnected mine after getting fed up with it being rung by people who want to deliver stuff to one of the other flats or to know if Jim's in, the assumption here being that, despite Jim (names changed to protect the guilty and the stupid) being part of a different household to me, I know everything about his comings and goings.  No, I don't know if Jim's in or when he'll be back if he's not in, stop looking at me as if I'm being awkward you moron.  Then it's 'well, if you see him tell him Geoff called', which again, assumes that I see Jim regularly, which I don't and it might be months before I do but we say hi to each other in the passageway, and it imposes an obligation on me to ensure that this information is passed on, and I don't want such an obligation or to bother to explain this to you, s*d off, Geoff.

 

People who know me know to phone me when they are outside, and I will come and let them in.  If they don't know my phone number, then I obviously don't know who they are and don't want to answer the door to them.  If they want to contact me badly enough, they'll find a way.  I contend that doobells and knockers will become things of the past, and while I can identify with that, being mostly a thing of the past myself, I do not think this is a particularly bad thing!  Even with this system there are a number of people who think that phoning me when they are outside means phoning me when they are several blocks away, and that I will be out in the rain waiting for them; dream on, folks...

 

There does seem to be a beam that is deployed in doorways that destroys the brain cells of people knocking or ringing.  We have a new resident, who has installed a working bell; he lives upstairs.  He'll soon learn.

If I'm home, I appreciate people ringing me to give some notice and an ETA. Gives time for a bit of a tidy up and possibly in Covid times to get dressed! But for them to ring me up to say 'I'm at the front door', is just nonsense.

What happened before personal phones? Sometimes the world is mad.

[The Johnster]

9 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Sometimes the world is mad.

Not just sometimes, Kev!

[Jonboy]

11 hours ago, kevinlms said:

If I'm home, I appreciate people ringing me to give some notice and an ETA. Gives time for a bit of a tidy up and possibly in Covid times to get dressed! But for them to ring me up to say 'I'm at the front door', is just nonsense.

What happened before personal phones? Sometimes the world is mad.

Another flat dweller here who rarely answers the door unless a visitor is expected for the same reasons….my favourite being an Amazon driver who handed over one parcel for me and 5 for other 3 of the other 4 flats, one of whom was in and quite annoyed with me for not knowing this, rather than the driver for not trying his door……