I have an AD110 connected to 2 mechnical chimes all wired to a new 16VAC 30VA transformer. I've also attached the included chime kit to the first mechanical chime. However, about 2 ago I noticed a humming noise from the 2nd mechanical chime. Until I find the resolution, I've disconnected the secondary chime. I was wondering, do I need a chime kit for the secondary chime as well? The wiring was done when I moved in and the previous owners used Cat5E 24AWG wiring connected to a regular (non-video) doorbell
I am including a diagram of my wiring (which I pulled from the ring website) but I think the same would follow for amcrest.
2nd Mechanical Chime Hum
2nd Mechanical Chime Hum
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Re: 2nd Mechanical Chime Hum
Hate to say that Ring and Amcrest cameras are not built by the same company and because Ring system might work ok with 2 indoor chimes I believe Amcrest has stated that the Doobell camera can only connect to 1 indoor chime..
Can it be done sure. Should it be done as the picture above no. The second CHIME should be connected to a Relay AKA Electromagnetic Switch.
Also 24awg wiring is to small for the Camera doorbell unless it is using a 4 on 4 wire to make it around 18awg.. Even at that it might not be right in 2 ways. 1 if it is not real Cat5E and if the length is too long
Can it be done sure. Should it be done as the picture above no. The second CHIME should be connected to a Relay AKA Electromagnetic Switch.
Also 24awg wiring is to small for the Camera doorbell unless it is using a 4 on 4 wire to make it around 18awg.. Even at that it might not be right in 2 ways. 1 if it is not real Cat5E and if the length is too long
Be Safe.
Re: 2nd Mechanical Chime Hum
Thanks for the valuable input.
Im not an expert electrician but how would I tell if its not real cat 5E and does it even matter if its real 5E or not? I looked at the markings on the cable and its listed as "UTP 5E ISO/IEC 11801 TIA VERIFIED ... 321ft...". The lengths fall below the 100 meter limit for ethernet so I didnt think they wouldnt be real. Didnt know they had fake cat 5es to begin with. I'm pretty sure each cable has been cut below 90 feet each based on their travel to the transformer. That would put the connection between doorbell each chime under 200ft.
The original doorbell was connected with just 1 wire at both transformer and doorbell and chime but I can attach each on 4s at all ends if necessary. My main concerns are I dont want a fire hazard.
As for the 2nd chime, I will leave it unconnected. It will give me chance to create a wireless chime possibly using a esp32 device I have lying around.
Im not an expert electrician but how would I tell if its not real cat 5E and does it even matter if its real 5E or not? I looked at the markings on the cable and its listed as "UTP 5E ISO/IEC 11801 TIA VERIFIED ... 321ft...". The lengths fall below the 100 meter limit for ethernet so I didnt think they wouldnt be real. Didnt know they had fake cat 5es to begin with. I'm pretty sure each cable has been cut below 90 feet each based on their travel to the transformer. That would put the connection between doorbell each chime under 200ft.
The original doorbell was connected with just 1 wire at both transformer and doorbell and chime but I can attach each on 4s at all ends if necessary. My main concerns are I dont want a fire hazard.
As for the 2nd chime, I will leave it unconnected. It will give me chance to create a wireless chime possibly using a esp32 device I have lying around.
Re: 2nd Mechanical Chime Hum
wow that is some distance. I will guess that it would have to be Real Cat5E or there would have or should have already been issues at that distance.
Anyway markings on the outside of cable on fake cable looks real, and real way of testing is at the cable ends. Copper wire will be orange or copper color all the way even if you scrap layers off the cable. Fake will turn a silver color when scraped. Another way is fire test. If we think about Copper pipes in a house being used for plumbing the plumber puts heat to it with a torch (It don't damage the pipe well even with small wires real won't react the same way the fake one do (Fake ones melt away)
Main issue with CCA is that it has a higher resistance then copper and can make power supplies work harder then needed. Distance of wire even in good wire will cause the resistance of the wire to get higher. Taking a short piece of wire and checking the resistance of the cable it will be rather low. Take same wire add length to it and measure again and now the resistance will go up. With fake wire aka CCA that resistance is even higher and things change as the wires heat up and becomes worse..
Wires that are 24awg if added together would be better. I mean taking 2 24awg wires together would cause it to be 21awg and 3 19awg and as I said before 4 would be same as 18awg. At that distance even 18awg might be to little.. Remember we are working with Constant Voltage now running the wires where before the Doorbell Camera was put in place the voltage would only travel the wire when the button was pressed.
My guess is that your Transformer is going to be hot and would be interesting to know what the Voltage is at the doorbell. if around 200 feet of wire I would guess between 10v and 14v depending on wire size at 200 feet. on 24awg wire that would be around 32% voltage drop.
Anyway markings on the outside of cable on fake cable looks real, and real way of testing is at the cable ends. Copper wire will be orange or copper color all the way even if you scrap layers off the cable. Fake will turn a silver color when scraped. Another way is fire test. If we think about Copper pipes in a house being used for plumbing the plumber puts heat to it with a torch (It don't damage the pipe well even with small wires real won't react the same way the fake one do (Fake ones melt away)
Main issue with CCA is that it has a higher resistance then copper and can make power supplies work harder then needed. Distance of wire even in good wire will cause the resistance of the wire to get higher. Taking a short piece of wire and checking the resistance of the cable it will be rather low. Take same wire add length to it and measure again and now the resistance will go up. With fake wire aka CCA that resistance is even higher and things change as the wires heat up and becomes worse..
Wires that are 24awg if added together would be better. I mean taking 2 24awg wires together would cause it to be 21awg and 3 19awg and as I said before 4 would be same as 18awg. At that distance even 18awg might be to little.. Remember we are working with Constant Voltage now running the wires where before the Doorbell Camera was put in place the voltage would only travel the wire when the button was pressed.
My guess is that your Transformer is going to be hot and would be interesting to know what the Voltage is at the doorbell. if around 200 feet of wire I would guess between 10v and 14v depending on wire size at 200 feet. on 24awg wire that would be around 32% voltage drop.
Be Safe.
Re: 2nd Mechanical Chime Hum
I took the time last night and did some more calculations and I overestimated, by alot 
. Better than underestimating I say. So I took more precise measurements and calculated wire runs at: 45ft from doorbell to transfromer, 20ft from transformer to Mechanical chime 1 (with the chime kit) and 13ft from transformer to chime 2 (the disconnected chime). This would account for slack wire as well. I will probably just go ahead and replace the wires with proper 18awg wires if thats necessary. If i'm to go ahead and replace the wires, in terms of future-proofing, do you estimate 18awg wires would be sufficient enough when upgrading the video doorbell (lets aim for the next 3-5 years or so)? Replacing the transformers is easy, but wire runs are a bit more difficult and costly. Also, I can leave seconday chime disconnect in this case. If I'm going to add it back with a future video doorbell, do you know whether its necessary to use the EM switch or is this more of a one-off case with the AD110. I will likely do some voltage measurements with the current setup on the doobell this weekend as getting to it is a bit harder. Thanks for the all the info.
. Better than underestimating I say. So I took more precise measurements and calculated wire runs at: 45ft from doorbell to transfromer, 20ft from transformer to Mechanical chime 1 (with the chime kit) and 13ft from transformer to chime 2 (the disconnected chime). This would account for slack wire as well. I will probably just go ahead and replace the wires with proper 18awg wires if thats necessary. If i'm to go ahead and replace the wires, in terms of future-proofing, do you estimate 18awg wires would be sufficient enough when upgrading the video doorbell (lets aim for the next 3-5 years or so)? Replacing the transformers is easy, but wire runs are a bit more difficult and costly. Also, I can leave seconday chime disconnect in this case. If I'm going to add it back with a future video doorbell, do you know whether its necessary to use the EM switch or is this more of a one-off case with the AD110. I will likely do some voltage measurements with the current setup on the doobell this weekend as getting to it is a bit harder. Thanks for the all the info.Re: 2nd Mechanical Chime Hum
So at 45 feet that is better and while there are others that say they are working at 120 feet so on and so on. I don't live by the life of another I live by the numbers..
For a Ad110 that is normally running daytime under 200ma of current constant I did my numbers from 500ma.. So 500ma at 45feet with 24awg Copper wire (Real) is less then 7.21% drop and is still within ok specs.. Personally I like to keep it under 5% but that is my self.. Then that same 45 feet at 18awg and same 500ma of current that takes it to less then 2% voltage drop.. Now there are so many things that can happen, Night time running the IR, High Traffic scene and higher demands for current on the system of double the current lets say 1amp that is still under 3% voltage drop...
Seeing your cables are already ran Personally I would take 4 wires of the 24awg and carefully strip them and put together and that you could use now and if in the future you were to upgrade to maybe Amcrest was to release a POE Doorbell then the Cat 5e is still there and no need to pull cable again for future update.. Key is no damage to the very thin wires and with 4 it is a lot better then just running down 1..
I don't know why Amcrest system was setup to work with 1 doorbell. I personally can't find that info anymore.. I will admit I have installed 2 on a Amcrest doorbell camera however only difference between mine and your is that I was using Digital Chimes and because of the lower current requirements from your Mechanical and my Digital chimes is 1 area at play The other is my Distance of wires. 18awg 42 feet to first and 32 feet to the second chime. I was prepared to install a relay and transformer for the second but it worked so I left it. What is odd is that at the first chime I get 15.821vac and at the second when testing it only registers at 9.26vac and in truth it might be that the meter is just to slow to get real voltage seen and I have not tested it with my Scope as it just wasn't that important to me. Also keep in mind in my setup my system don't see much action so if you are in higher traffic area or live a better life style then I Relay would be safest bet..
For a Ad110 that is normally running daytime under 200ma of current constant I did my numbers from 500ma.. So 500ma at 45feet with 24awg Copper wire (Real) is less then 7.21% drop and is still within ok specs.. Personally I like to keep it under 5% but that is my self.. Then that same 45 feet at 18awg and same 500ma of current that takes it to less then 2% voltage drop.. Now there are so many things that can happen, Night time running the IR, High Traffic scene and higher demands for current on the system of double the current lets say 1amp that is still under 3% voltage drop...
Seeing your cables are already ran Personally I would take 4 wires of the 24awg and carefully strip them and put together and that you could use now and if in the future you were to upgrade to maybe Amcrest was to release a POE Doorbell then the Cat 5e is still there and no need to pull cable again for future update.. Key is no damage to the very thin wires and with 4 it is a lot better then just running down 1..
I don't know why Amcrest system was setup to work with 1 doorbell. I personally can't find that info anymore.. I will admit I have installed 2 on a Amcrest doorbell camera however only difference between mine and your is that I was using Digital Chimes and because of the lower current requirements from your Mechanical and my Digital chimes is 1 area at play The other is my Distance of wires. 18awg 42 feet to first and 32 feet to the second chime. I was prepared to install a relay and transformer for the second but it worked so I left it. What is odd is that at the first chime I get 15.821vac and at the second when testing it only registers at 9.26vac and in truth it might be that the meter is just to slow to get real voltage seen and I have not tested it with my Scope as it just wasn't that important to me. Also keep in mind in my setup my system don't see much action so if you are in higher traffic area or live a better life style then I Relay would be safest bet..
Be Safe.