On wiring up a Ring external siren I used the transformer plugin 2nd Gen, when i turned it on it didn’t work. I called Ring Support and they suggested I swap the wires round.
I said they are identical so no way of knowing which is positive or negative?
When I swapped them it worked.
How as an installer am I supposed to know which is positive and negative?
Currently it’s a 50/50 chance it will work.
Any insights on this?
there is a thin ridge on the -ve wire - its not the easiest to see, but you can feel it.
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I’ll have a look next time I get a plugin adapter, I’m sure I checked last week and couldn’t see any difference.
Why not just have a red for +?
Hi @GaryExBT. Is this an official Ring Product that you ordered? I recently purchased a Plug-In Adapter Gen 2 for my new Doorbell Wired and I have Red/Black leads on it. Here is a picture of what I have.
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Hi Tom, I have seen these before. Now they come plane white on both cables.
These are the UK versions
Hi @GaryExBT. Thanks for getting back to me with that picture. I’ll check with my team and see if the white wires are due to this being a UK version. I can certainly see how this can be confusing!
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Thanks Tom, as you can see, they are identical and it’s not the odd one or 2, it’s all of them in the UK.
it didn’t matter previously for doorbells as it doesn’t matter which way round they were, but the sirens, I found out the hard way it’s polarity conscious.
Hi @GaryExBT. I’ve shared this information with my team and they have confirmed that one of the wires has a small ridge on it that you can feel. The wire with the small ridge is the negative wire. I’ve made sure that your feedback will be passed on about this experience. If you have any other questions, please give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here. If you are outside of the US, please visit here to see how to contact support.
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Hi Tom, i have 2 original Ring plugins and i have double checked and i can assure you there are no rideges on either cable.
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This is madness. The cables should have been different colours. I want to connect to my siren. I can’t feel a ridge. Does it cause any damage to the siren and / or the rechargeable battery if connected with the wrong polarity? how can you tell if it is wrong or correct?
Hi, no there is not ridge, different colour’s nothing.
Its just 2 white cables.
I have advised Ring support and nothing has changed. 
You should not wire the siren up incorrectly.
The power is polarity continuous, be careful, you could damage either the transformer or siren.
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