A building has several apartments. Each one has a doorbell, and 4 wires
coming to the doorbell. One set is (I assume) for the downstairs main door
and the second one is for the door of the apartment.

When I went to replace the old doorbell, the button at the main entry door
worked and two wires were connected. The apt. door button didn't work and
two wires were disconnected. I couldn't get the apt door bell to work by
connecting the two wires to the doorbell at the "rear door" section. In
fact one of the wires sparked when I touched it to the terminal.

When I installed the new doorbell, the same thing happened. The entlry
door still works when on the "front door" terminal and "transformer", but
no joy with the apt door. I put a cheap meter on all four wires to
discover which was the transformer wire for each set of two. I got odd
readings, something like 50 and 75 volts AC. I figured this was incorrect
since the actual voltage should be around 16VAC, and indeed I could touch
the wires with no problem.

So what's happening?

Why do I get a higher reading than it should be? Is it because the wires
were not connected to anything? Oh, I put the neg test lead into an
extension cord on the neutral side (assuming that the plug it was pluged
into was wired correctly) and use the pos test lead on the wires coming
out of the wall.

What likely caused the arcing when I touched one of the 2nd pair of wires
to the doorbell?

Is it likely that the second pair of wires has its own "transformer" lead
rather than just taking power from the transformer wire from the first
pair?

I assume there's been this problem for a while since the 2nd pair of wires
(apt front door) was disconnected. Any way to track down what the problem
might be?

Any additional info you need?

--
charles

Charles Bishop wrote:
Why do I get a higher reading than it should be? Is it because the wires
were not connected to anything? Oh, I put the neg test lead into an
extension cord on the neutral side (assuming that the plug it was pluged
into was wired correctly) and use the pos test lead on the wires coming
out of the wall.

For openers, do not use the house outlet neutral for your neg lead.
the doorbell trasformer's output has no connection to your AC
wiring.

try this site for basic info:

http://home.howstuffworks.com/doorbell3.htm

In article , "Leroy"
wrote:

try this site for basic info:

http://home.howstuffworks.com/doorbell3.htm

This was helpful, and yet, not helpful. I know how a doorbell works, that
the push button is only a switch in one leg of the circuit, but haven't a
clue what might be wrong with the setup I've found. I was looking for test
suggestions on how to track down the problem.

In short, there are two push buttons, and one works, with its wires on
trans and "front door". The second push button has its wires at the
doorbell, but unconnected, and that's how I found them. connecting them to
trans and rear door doesn't work, and one of them arcs when I touch it to
"trans" terminal.

It's possible that there is a problem in the walls, but I'm not sure how
to test to see if this is the case.

As usual, sometimes typing out the problem can help. I think I'll
disconnect the front door setup and connect the rear door pair and see if
this works on its own. I should also check for continuity.

--
charles

Charles Bishop wrote:

In article , "Leroy"
wrote:

try this site for basic info:

http://home.howstuffworks.com/doorbell3.htm

This was helpful, and yet, not helpful. I know how a doorbell works,
that the push button is only a switch in one leg of the circuit, but
haven't a clue what might be wrong with the setup I've found. I was
looking for test suggestions on how to track down the problem.

In short, there are two push buttons, and one works, with its wires on
trans and "front door". The second push button has its wires at the
doorbell, but unconnected, and that's how I found them. connecting
them to trans and rear door doesn't work, and one of them arcs when I
touch it to "trans" terminal.

It's possible that there is a problem in the walls, but I'm not sure
how to test to see if this is the case.

As usual, sometimes typing out the problem can help. I think I'll
disconnect the front door setup and connect the rear door pair and
see if this works on its own. I should also check for continuity.

There's a good chance the back door wire was shorted inside the wall.
Someone may have driven a nail through it, or it may have just broken
and shorted inside the door trim from being pushed in and out too many
times when replacing doorbell buttons.

Run a new wire to the back door.

--
Steve Bell
New Life Home Improvement
Arlington, TX

In article

,
(Charles Bishop) wrote:

In article , "Leroy"
wrote:

try this site for basic info:

http://home.howstuffworks.com/doorbell3.htm

This was helpful, and yet, not helpful. I know how a doorbell works, that
the push button is only a switch in one leg of the circuit, but haven't a
clue what might be wrong with the setup I've found. I was looking for test
suggestions on how to track down the problem.

In short, there are two push buttons, and one works, with its wires on
trans and "front door". The second push button has its wires at the
doorbell, but unconnected, and that's how I found them. connecting them to
trans and rear door doesn't work, and one of them arcs when I touch it to
"trans" terminal.

It's possible that there is a problem in the walls, but I'm not sure how
to test to see if this is the case.

As usual, sometimes typing out the problem can help. I think I'll
disconnect the front door setup and connect the rear door pair and see if
this works on its own. I should also check for continuity.

Just forget about typing to think, and try drawing to think. Can you
draw a schematic of the system? If you can, then you can troubleshoot it
by yourself. If you can't, then you can't troubleshoot it even with help
from a bunch of drunks on usenet.