IGot2P wrote:
On 1/26/2012 3:02 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.

12V cells?


Any ideas?

--
Bobby G.



I think that's common, and not cheap.

I'm thinking the sets operate around 400 MHz but doubt if anywhere near
wifi.
I don't know if there is a frequency adjust, but I would suspect the
frequency is off.
They are cheap enough to replace the whole thing.

Greg

"gregz" wrote in message
...
IGot2P wrote:
On 1/26/2012 3:02 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.

12V cells?


Any ideas?

--
Bobby G.



I think that's common, and not cheap.

I'm thinking the sets operate around 400 MHz but doubt if anywhere near
wifi.
I don't know if there is a frequency adjust, but I would suspect the
frequency is off.
They are cheap enough to replace the whole thing.

I spent some time today testing the various frequency setting jumpers with
no joy. Put a huge metal pot over the WiFi hotspot with no joy. While the
doorbell may not be in the 400MHz range, the harmonics from the hotspot
could be strong enough to "step" on the doorbell signal. I've taken home a
dead, water damaged button to look at the circuit board.

Occasionally a little piece of wire extending the antenna helps. The WiFi
router is unfortunately set up about ten feet away from the doorbell. My
neighbor did not want to turn off the router because it's twitchy to
restart. In fact, I am going to donate one of my old, flea powered UPS's to
her so that it doesn't get locked up when there's a power blip. I think
it's the WiFi unit, but I was surprised that putting it under a big metal
pot had no effect on the doorbell's range. She has some other wireless gear
in the house so RF interference seems likely. I am going to try to figure
out the frequency of this unit (no FCC ID that I could see) and then we'll
look to buy a unit with a different frequency to see if that works any bette
r. As you point out, they're cheap enough that any more hours spent
debugging this one would be a waste compared to just getting a new one.

--
Bobby G.


--
Bobby G.

On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:51:55 -0500, "Robert Green"
wrote:

"gregz" wrote in message
...
IGot2P wrote:
On 1/26/2012 3:02 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.

12V cells?


Any ideas?

--
Bobby G.



I think that's common, and not cheap.

I'm thinking the sets operate around 400 MHz but doubt if anywhere near
wifi.
I don't know if there is a frequency adjust, but I would suspect the
frequency is off.
They are cheap enough to replace the whole thing.

I spent some time today testing the various frequency setting jumpers with
no joy. Put a huge metal pot over the WiFi hotspot with no joy. While the
doorbell may not be in the 400MHz range, the harmonics from the hotspot
could be strong enough to "step" on the doorbell signal. I've taken home a
dead, water damaged button to look at the circuit board.

Occasionally a little piece of wire extending the antenna helps. The WiFi

That doesn't prove much. It's just a variation on "inadequate range".

I have a radio in my shop which always worked fine. When I started
trying to fix my old computer in the shop, the moitor interfered with
the FM reception on the one stattion I listen to, 88.1FM (so I
swticherd to internet radio, but there are still times I'd rather just
turn on the radio.) Months later I went through a period where the
radio worked fine even when the monitor was on. A few days. Then it
went back the old way, and turning the monitor on when the computer
was running ruined the radio reception. I have no idea yet why
sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn/t

router is unfortunately set up about ten feet away from the doorbell. My
neighbor did not want to turn off the router because it's twitchy to
restart. In fact, I am going to donate one of my old, flea powered UPS's to
her so that it doesn't get locked up when there's a power blip. I think
it's the WiFi unit, but I was surprised that putting it under a big metal
pot had no effect on the doorbell's range.

Doies the pot have to be grounded? I've never understood this, so I'm
not saying it has to be. But there was some reason in the past I
began to think that. .

She has some other wireless gear
in the house so RF interference seems likely. I am going to try to figure
out the frequency of this unit (no FCC ID that I could see) and then we'll
look to buy a unit with a different frequency to see if that works any bette
r. As you point out, they're cheap enough that any more hours spent
debugging this one would be a waste compared to just getting a new one.

--
Bobby G.

"micky" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:51:55 -0500, "Robert Green"
stuff snipped

I spent some time today testing the various frequency setting jumpers
with
no joy. Put a huge metal pot over the WiFi hotspot with no joy. While
the
doorbell may not be in the 400MHz range, the harmonics from the hotspot
could be strong enough to "step" on the doorbell signal. I've taken home
a
dead, water damaged button to look at the circuit board.

Occasionally a little piece of wire extending the antenna helps. The
WiFi

That doesn't prove much. It's just a variation on "inadequate range".

If an added antenna wire extends the range just enough for the unit to work,
that would be OK with me and my neighbor, I think. I just haven't been able
to figure out where the antenna is on the doorbell button unit!

I have a radio in my shop which always worked fine. When I started
trying to fix my old computer in the shop, the moitor interfered with
the FM reception on the one stattion I listen to, 88.1FM (so I
swticherd to internet radio, but there are still times I'd rather just
turn on the radio.) Months later I went through a period where the
radio worked fine even when the monitor was on. A few days. Then it
went back the old way, and turning the monitor on when the computer
was running ruined the radio reception. I have no idea yet why
sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn/t

Well, at least she's got a constant problem - it doesn't work/not work. It
doesn't work at all anymore at the range it used to.

router is unfortunately set up about ten feet away from the doorbell. My
neighbor did not want to turn off the router because it's twitchy to
restart. In fact, I am going to donate one of my old, flea powered UPS's
to
her so that it doesn't get locked up when there's a power blip. I think
it's the WiFi unit, but I was surprised that putting it under a big metal
pot had no effect on the doorbell's range.

Doies the pot have to be grounded? I've never understood this, so I'm
not saying it has to be. But there was some reason in the past I
began to think that. .

To be most effective as a "Faraday cage" I assume it should be grounded, but
I also think the RF output of the router would be seriously attenuated by
the pot, grounded or not. With her understandable reluctance to shut down
the router, it's going to be hard to "indict" it as the cause. I
recommended that she relocate the chime's base unit to be much closer to the
doorbell unit than it is now. Right now, we've relocated the doorbell
switch to the center of the wooden front door, behind the storm door and it
works from there. Still, she would rather have it along the edge of the
doorframe but it doesn't work there. She may be better off with the "inside
the storm door" mounting arrangement because the last switch got wet and
corroded and the tiny microswitch has failed.

I told her I could fix the corroded switch by wiring it to an alarm contact
so that if anyone opens the storm door, the unit will fire. She liked that
idea. Attaching the doorbell switch to alarm contacts has another benefit.
I can locate the "guts" of the doorbell switch inside the house and much
closer to the base unit. In fact, I can take a garden variety hard-wired
doorbell button and mount it outside and lead the wire inside to one of her
spare RF doorbell buttons. I'd do that by unsoldering the bad/corroded tiny
pushbutton switch from the circuit board and then soldering wires from the
hard-wired doorbell switch outside to the spots on the board where the old
switch was soldered. That would mean that the RF transmitter was now inside
the house, protected from the weather and closer to the base unit.

All in all, it's probably going to be cheaper and easier just to get a
better/different unit.

--
Bobby G.

On 01/27/2012 08:51 PM, Robert Green wrote:

[snip]

My
neighbor did not want to turn off the router because it's twitchy to
restart.

There should be a way to just turn off the wireless AP. With some, you
just press a button on the front. There's no need to turn off the router
itself.

[snip]

--
Bobby G.


--
Bobby G.




--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us

"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, de-briefed, or
numbered...My life is my own." -- No. 6

"Mark Lloyd" wrote in message
...
On 01/27/2012 08:51 PM, Robert Green wrote:

[snip]

My
neighbor did not want to turn off the router because it's twitchy to
restart.

There should be a way to just turn off the wireless AP. With some, you
just press a button on the front. There's no need to turn off the router
itself.

Thanks for that info. Sadly, I learned a long time ago if I touch it, I
will be blamed for anything that goes wrong with it or anything connected to
it in the future. Forever. (-: It's the Good Samaritan law, paragraph
two.

My advice was to move the chime to a place equidistant between the two bell
buttons. If that's not acceptable, I think it's time to buy a new unit.
This isn't the first wireless doorbell I've seen that just grew deaf over
time. You just don't get a lot of milliwatts of RF out of a 12V stack of
button cells.

So I'm sticking with it with that advice. The doorbell's built with
surface-mount components, which I am notorious for converting into "lifted
trace" circuit boards so I've bowed out of this project. I might still wire
up a magnetic switch to the storm door to ring a small chime for her when
someone opens up the front storm door but that's probably best to be a whole
separate circuit with a different sounding chime from the doorbell.

Lots of times the UPS guy will put a package between the two doors and just
rap his knuckles on the door so a door switch and chime on the storm door
reduces the chances of someone "disappearing" the package before you know
it's there. We had a "crew" of junior mobsters here that was following the
morning Fedex truck and undelivering packages as soon as Fedex dropped them
off but they got caught rather quickly.

We also had a different crew that would arrange for drug deliveries to the
houses of people they didn't know (but that they knew weren't going to be
home) and then pick those up after making sure the cops weren't "onto" them.
A local township mayor had his two dogs killed by a drug swat team when his
house was used as a drop point.

--
Bobby G.

"Robert Green" wrote:
"Mark Lloyd" wrote in message
...
On 01/27/2012 08:51 PM, Robert Green wrote:

[snip]

My
neighbor did not want to turn off the router because it's twitchy to
restart.

There should be a way to just turn off the wireless AP. With some, you
just press a button on the front. There's no need to turn off the router
itself.

Thanks for that info. Sadly, I learned a long time ago if I touch it, I
will be blamed for anything that goes wrong with it or anything connected to
it in the future. Forever. (-: It's the Good Samaritan law, paragraph
two.

My advice was to move the chime to a place equidistant between the two bell
buttons. If that's not acceptable, I think it's time to buy a new unit.
This isn't the first wireless doorbell I've seen that just grew deaf over
time. You just don't get a lot of milliwatts of RF out of a 12V stack of
button cells.

So I'm sticking with it with that advice. The doorbell's built with
surface-mount components, which I am notorious for converting into "lifted
trace" circuit boards so I've bowed out of this project. I might still wire
up a magnetic switch to the storm door to ring a small chime for her when
someone opens up the front storm door but that's probably best to be a whole
separate circuit with a different sounding chime from the doorbell.

Lots of times the UPS guy will put a package between the two doors and just
rap his knuckles on the door so a door switch and chime on the storm door
reduces the chances of someone "disappearing" the package before you know
it's there. We had a "crew" of junior mobsters here that was following the
morning Fedex truck and undelivering packages as soon as Fedex dropped them
off but they got caught rather quickly.

We also had a different crew that would arrange for drug deliveries to the
houses of people they didn't know (but that they knew weren't going to be
home) and then pick those up after making sure the cops weren't "onto" them.
A local township mayor had his two dogs killed by a drug swat team when his
house was used as a drop point.

--
Bobby G.

I wired up one on the mailbox opening for my father. I removed it when I
was remodeling. I occasionally would hear the chime at odd times. I took
the removed remote and looked outside while I pressed it. Neighbor across
the street, two houses up comes out. I gave that neighbor some stuff before
moving. Talking to them, I explained the situation. They said, for a long
time, they would hear the chime and look outside. The mailman would always
be driving up the street!!!

Greg