Super Basic Wiring Question

gord · 5 Jun 2019 at 22:53

This is probably the most basic wiring question ever asked but I just want some confirmation I'm safe to do this, and then you can ridicule me either way.

I'm taking my doorbell chime (photo below) out of the wiring equation. Do I simply disconnect the two wires going to the screws and join them together and that's it?

If it makes a difference this is a lit push doorbell on a 12v transformer, which I'm hoping to use with a Nest Hello and wanted to just get rid of the chime completely. I've measured the voltage across the push switch terminals and it's 12v despite this chime only being 8v rated.

Any help is much appreciated.

NoobCannon · 6 Jun 2019 at 06:49

Yes if you want to by pass it then connect what i assume are the 2 lives.

Would find a better way that just twisting them together tho.

gord · 6 Jun 2019 at 09:08

NoobCannon said:
Yes if you want to by pass it then connect what i assume are the 2 lives.

Would find a better way that just twisting them together tho.

Superb, cheers. I've got some of those screw connector things so I'll use one of those.

Syla5 · 6 Jun 2019 at 12:37

Would be better to disconnect them at the other end where they spur from surely?

gord · 6 Jun 2019 at 12:55

Syla5 said:
Would be better to disconnect them at the other end where they spur from surely?

What advantages would that give? My preference is to leave it as close to how it is so when I sell the house I can take my Nest with me and just put the chime back. But if it's not safe then that's my main priority.

Syla5 · 6 Jun 2019 at 14:21

Purely from a safety perspective. If they aren't connected to the power, they cant be a risk. Maybe this is to much belt and braces not sure.

I am no expert, but if the feed in is a live and a neutral, I wouldn't wire them together, I would isolate them in separate chock blocks and then wrap them in electrical tap. From the pic above one wire seems to have a black line on the sheathing, is it on both or just the one?

gord · 6 Jun 2019 at 14:47

Syla5 said:
From the pic above one wire seems to have a black line on the sheathing, is it on both or just the one?

Hmm, ok. I'd need to check to be sure but there's definitely a wire with black line on it going to one of the switch terminals at the front door. I assumed this formed a loop, so essentially the black sheathed wire that's twisted there is just the cable from the transformer and gets extended to the front door. Then other wires are switch to chime and chime to transformer.

So they will still be part of the powered loop after as it'll just go cable from the transformer > twisted connector to extend the cable to the front door > Nest doorbell > cable back > twisted connector to extend it back to transformer > transformer.

Syla5 · 6 Jun 2019 at 15:01

Just thinking about this, if you are taking the chime out of the equation, what are you actually leaving in the equation so that you know when people are at your door? Is the old switch still in place and wired to the new door item?

Or have you replaced everything and you are looking for the easiest way to remove the chime so it no longer works but will leave it in place so you don't have any making good to do?

gord · 6 Jun 2019 at 15:17

Syla5 said:
Just thinking about this, if you are taking the chime out of the equation, what are you actually leaving in the equation so that you know when people are at your door? Is the old switch still in place and wired to the new door item?

Or have you replaced everything and you are looking for the easiest way to remove the chime so it no longer works but will leave it in place so you don't have any making good to do?

Essentially, your second question is what I'm doing. Replacing the switch and chime with a Nest Hello video doorbell and a Google Mini for notifications, along with our phones. The Nest just requires the 12v power that my switch is currently getting but I don't want the chime in the equation (it makes a horrible sound). I'll probably leave the chime on the wall as I will rewire it back in when we sell the house.

Syla5 · 6 Jun 2019 at 16:05

gord said:
Essentially, your second question is what I'm doing. Replacing the switch and chime with a Nest Hello video doorbell and a Google Mini for notifications, along with our phones. The Nest just requires the 12v power that my switch is currently getting but I don't want the chime in the equation (it makes a horrible sound). I'll probably leave the chime on the wall as I will rewire it back in when we sell the house.

Then just disconnect the two wires that come out of the transformer and feed the current door switch and chime, that means you only need to go to one place when you want to reconnect the system as well.

gord · 6 Jun 2019 at 16:16

Syla5 said:
Then just disconnect the two wires that come out of the transformer and feed the current door switch and chime, that means you only need to go to one place when you want to reconnect the system as well.

Are you saying feed new wires from the transformer to the front door? And then leave all of the existing wiring in place to swap back to later? Not sure I can do that.

Syla5 · 7 Jun 2019 at 10:21

OK, so you still need the power to go from transformer to switch, and switch to nest, then nest to transformer to make the loop. I assume that you will run a new wire from the transformer to the nest, then loop the switch return in to the nest at some point? I also assume the nest will reside in a different location to the Chime meaning you cant just use the in and out from the chime to feed the nest.

If that's the case then yes you can just put the 2 wires screwed in to the chime together in a chock block or wago connector.

gord · 7 Jun 2019 at 11:22

Syla5 said:
OK, so you still need the power to go from transformer to switch, and switch to nest, then nest to transformer to make the loop. I assume that you will run a new wire from the transformer to the nest, then loop the switch return in to the nest at some point? I also assume the nest will reside in a different location to the Chime meaning you cant just use the in and out from the chime to feed the nest.

If that's the case then yes you can just put the 2 wires screwed in to the chime together in a chock block or wago connector.

The switch will be gone too. The Nest Hello will go where the switch is on the outside of the house and has 2 connector terminals which don't matter on polarity. I've already got 2 wires going to the switch so I was just planning to use those, which just leaves the removal of the chime from the loop.

Syla5 · 7 Jun 2019 at 11:28

Yes, so your old switch is replaced with the Hello, using the existing wires. If the Nest is going to go where the chime was just use the in and out wires on the chime for the Nest.

gord · 7 Jun 2019 at 11:34

Syla5 said:
Yes, so your old switch is replaced with the Hello, using the existing wires. If the Nest is going to go where the chime was just use the in and out wires on the chime for the Nest.

Cool, so just to make sure you're saying what I think you are. Replace old switch with the Hello, connect the two wires going to the screw terminals on the chime and done?

I feel like we've done a big circle, but I'd prefer not to blow up the Nest or the house and appreciate your feedback. And I have to remember this is all on a 12v stepped down circuit so we're not talking huge voltage..

Syla5 · 7 Jun 2019 at 12:27

You still need to power the nest in the same loop and the hello needs to be wired to the nest.

The wire loop should be transformer to hello, hello to nest, nest to transformers.

gord · 7 Jun 2019 at 12:53

Syla5 said:
You still need to power the nest in the same loop and the hello needs to be wired to the nest. The wire loop should be transformer to hello, hello to nest, nest to transformers.

Are you referring to the little Nest chime puck thing you get in the box because I don't think I need that when not using a mechanical chime?

Otherwise, there's no other device in the loop as far as I am aware. Sorry, I may have confused things earlier when referring to the new device.

gord · 10 Jun 2019 at 09:00

Just to put this one to rest, got the Hello all set up at the weekend and everything appears to be working well. Did exactly as originally planned, joined the two wires from the screw terminals on the chime and away we went. Cheers for the advice all.