My neighbor asked me to look at her wireless doorbell, which suddenly
stopped working properly. The buttons still work if you move them close to
the unit but they no longer work mounted on the outside of the door frame.
We've replaced the 3 "D" cells in the base unit and the 12V cells in the two
buttons but still no joy.

Any ideas?

--
Bobby G.

"Robert Green" wrote in
:

My neighbor asked me to look at her wireless doorbell, which suddenly
stopped working properly. The buttons still work if you move them
close to the unit but they no longer work mounted on the outside of
the door frame. We've replaced the 3 "D" cells in the base unit and
the 12V cells in the two buttons but still no joy.

Any ideas?

--
Bobby G.




Any Wifi wireless ethernet around?
Or a wireless camera somewhere?
Look in those kind of culprits.
A lot of them are on the same or closeby frequency.

On Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:02:40 -0500, "Robert Green"
wrote:

My neighbor asked me to look at her wireless doorbell, which suddenly
stopped working properly. The buttons still work if you move them close to
the unit but they no longer work mounted on the outside of the door frame.
We've replaced the 3 "D" cells in the base unit and the 12V cells in the two
buttons but still no joy.

Any ideas?

How about replacing the button cell battery in the button unit(s).
When the voltage drops so does the signal strength and thus the range.

On Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:11:25 -0500, wrote:

On Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:02:40 -0500, "Robert Green"
wrote:

My neighbor asked me to look at her wireless doorbell, which suddenly
stopped working properly. The buttons still work if you move them close to
the unit but they no longer work mounted on the outside of the door frame.
We've replaced the 3 "D" cells in the base unit and the 12V cells in the two
buttons but still no joy.

Any ideas?

How about replacing the button cell battery in the button unit(s).
When the voltage drops so does the signal strength and thus the range.

Note to self: Read the origiinal post to the end.

(I have that problem too.)

On Jan 26, 1:02*pm, "Robert Green" wrote:
My neighbor asked me to look at her wireless doorbell, which suddenly
stopped working properly. *The buttons still work if you move them close to
the unit but they no longer work mounted on the outside of the door frame..
We've replaced the 3 "D" cells in the base unit and the 12V cells in the two
buttons but still no joy.

Any ideas?

--
Bobby G.

If the battery of the button (transmitter) is removed or loses contact
the bell (receiver) may have to be re-programmed. I don’t know about
your doorbell but I know the brand IQ America does.

"Molly Brown" wrote in message
...
On Jan 26, 1:02 pm, "Robert Green" wrote:
My neighbor asked me to look at her wireless doorbell, which suddenly
stopped working properly. The buttons still work if you move them close to
the unit but they no longer work mounted on the outside of the door frame.
We've replaced the 3 "D" cells in the base unit and the 12V cells in the
two
buttons but still no joy.

Any ideas?

--
Bobby G.

If the battery of the button (transmitter) is removed or loses contact
the bell (receiver) may have to be re-programmed. I don’t know about
your doorbell but I know the brand IQ America does.

Good point and a reason to hate some of the newer gadgets that have volatile
memories, no way to read the current settings and are programmed by button
pushes. Fortunately this unit uses DIP jumpers (little black Berg clips) to
set the unit's parameters. I didn't have my trusty tweezers with me
yesterday to pull them nor a magnifying glass to read the teeny, tiny
instruction booklet that's been folded about 16 times and stuffed into the
little package containing the replacement doorbell button that my neighbor
bought because she thought the button had gone bad.

All three buttons (two original and one replacement) activate the unit, but
not from outside the house!

--
Bobby G.

On Thursday, January 26, 2012 2:02:40 PM UTC-7, Robert Green wrote:
My neighbor asked me to look at her wireless doorbell, which suddenly
stopped working properly. The buttons still work if you move them close to
the unit but they no longer work mounted on the outside of the door frame.
We've replaced the 3 "D" cells in the base unit and the 12V cells in the two
buttons but still no joy.

Any ideas?

--
Bobby G.

I had one of these units. Made in China POS construction. Will work for maximum of two years and then the electronics are kaput in my estimation. Chuck it and replace or put in a wired unit.

"Roy" wrote in message
news:32421173.303.1327784047978.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@prhb20...
On Thursday, January 26, 2012 2:02:40 PM UTC-7, Robert Green wrote:
My neighbor asked me to look at her wireless doorbell, which suddenly
stopped working properly. The buttons still work if you move them close
to
the unit but they no longer work mounted on the outside of the door
frame.
We've replaced the 3 "D" cells in the base unit and the 12V cells in the
two
buttons but still no joy.

Any ideas?

--
Bobby G.

I had one of these units. Made in China POS construction. Will work for
maximum of two years and
then the electronics are kaput in my estimation. Chuck it and replace or
put in a wired unit.

The electronics look simple enough to last forever. Obviously they don't.

--
Bobby G.

Followup:

The neighbor's problem was solved by replacing the front door unit with a
wireless unit from Carlon/TruValue for $20 that alleges to transmit to 150
feet. Model # upon request. The $10 unit alleges 75' so I splurged and
bought her the $20 one, which also plays Dixie, the Star Spangled Banner and
some other tunes that are easily (maybe too easily) changed from the
doorbell button. It worked well enough that I'll be getting one for us, too
because our side door unit failed and we just never bothered to replace it.

The range is yet to be thoroughly tested, but it works from the side of the
door where the old one didn't. The method to vary the frequency is very
odd - five exposed through the case metal links you can clip with very small
wire cutters or nail clippers. One way changes only for many people.

The old unit now serves as the side and basement door bell. The new unit
also uses much cheaper batteries - 4 AA's and two button cells instead of 3
D's and a 12V alkaline "stack" battery. The tradeoff is that the new unit
sounds tinnier and isn't as loud. It comes with a beltclip and that made me
think I might get two of them - mount one inside and clip one to my belt for
when I am working in the backyard where I sometimes can't hear the doorbell.

--
Bobby G.

On 2/8/2012 1:43 PM, Robert Green wrote:
Followup:

The neighbor's problem was solved by replacing the front door unit with a
wireless unit from Carlon/TruValue for $20 that alleges to transmit to 150
feet. Model # upon request. The $10 unit alleges 75' so I splurged and
bought her the $20 one, which also plays Dixie, the Star Spangled Banner and
some other tunes that are easily (maybe too easily) changed from the
doorbell button. It worked well enough that I'll be getting one for us, too
because our side door unit failed and we just never bothered to replace it.

The range is yet to be thoroughly tested, but it works from the side of the
door where the old one didn't. The method to vary the frequency is very
odd - five exposed through the case metal links you can clip with very small
wire cutters or nail clippers. One way changes only for many people.

The old unit now serves as the side and basement door bell. The new unit
also uses much cheaper batteries - 4 AA's and two button cells instead of 3
D's and a 12V alkaline "stack" battery. The tradeoff is that the new unit
sounds tinnier and isn't as loud. It comes with a beltclip and that made me
think I might get two of them - mount one inside and clip one to my belt for
when I am working in the backyard where I sometimes can't hear the doorbell.

--
Bobby G.



I can see it now, some smart ass kid like I was in the middle of the
last century will swipe the outside doorbell button and torment you
and your neighbor until you knock the main unit off the wall. Darn,
if all this technology had been around back when I was a mischievous
little brat, I could have been a very effective sophomoric terrorist.
o_O

TDD

"The Daring Dufas" wrote in message
...
On 2/8/2012 1:43 PM, Robert Green wrote:
Followup:

The neighbor's problem was solved by replacing the front door unit with
a
wireless unit from Carlon/TruValue for $20 that alleges to transmit to
150
feet. Model # upon request. The $10 unit alleges 75' so I splurged and
bought her the $20 one, which also plays Dixie, the Star Spangled Banner
and
some other tunes that are easily (maybe too easily) changed from the
doorbell button. It worked well enough that I'll be getting one for us,
too
because our side door unit failed and we just never bothered to replace
it.

The range is yet to be thoroughly tested, but it works from the side of
the
door where the old one didn't. The method to vary the frequency is very
odd - five exposed through the case metal links you can clip with very
small
wire cutters or nail clippers. One way changes only for many people.

The old unit now serves as the side and basement door bell. The new
unit
also uses much cheaper batteries - 4 AA's and two button cells instead
of 3
D's and a 12V alkaline "stack" battery. The tradeoff is that the new
unit
sounds tinnier and isn't as loud. It comes with a beltclip and that
made me
think I might get two of them - mount one inside and clip one to my belt
for
when I am working in the backyard where I sometimes can't hear the
doorbell.

--
Bobby G.



I can see it now, some smart ass kid like I was in the middle of the
last century will swipe the outside doorbell button and torment you
and your neighbor until you knock the main unit off the wall. Darn,
if all this technology had been around back when I was a mischievous
little brat, I could have been a very effective sophomoric terrorist.
o_O

I'm sure you did your best with the tools you had. (-: We used to make
thermite in high school. And zip guns. And contact explosives. And
rockets.

--
Bobby G.

wrote in message
...
On Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:02:40 -0500, "Robert Green"

stuff snipped

Those wireless doorbells are a pain in the ass. I've dealt with several
of them. A place I worked has them because the brick building was too
hard to run the wires, but as their maintenance guy, I think I had to
tinker with at least one of them at least twice a month. There were 3
units, since the building was too large for one receiver and separate
buttons. this was in the late 1990s

I've had them, and they mostly suck, I agree. The worst was a RatShack unit
that kept falsing.

About 6 years later I bought one for my home, which has aluminum siding.
Due to the metal siding, it would not work at all.

It's clear these are flea-powered transmitters.

They are unreliable and a pain in the ass. If at all possible, put in a
wired doorbell.

Not possible here. Finished and rented out basement.

Till then, check the batteries with an actual battery tester. Clean
contacts, and pray...... Also, if it's real cold outdoors, most
electronics tend to run poorly, batteries drop in voltage, etc.

Actually, in DC, in midwinter, it's 63F and was about that high for most of
the night. Maybe global warming's for real. (-: I've been here for
almost 40 years and have NEVER seen such a warm winter. Not that I am
knocking it - it's nice not to have enormous heating bills.

I'll be adjusting the unit's operating frequency next. I didn't get a good
look at the manual since I was on my way to get a new car battery. I've
have more time this weekend.

--
Bobby G.