Hello, I have a pro 2 but my mechanical chime was not on the approved list. I have a power unit v3 which has no bypass holes, so per another post, I just bypassed by removing the Ring v3 power unit, and the wires off the chime screws, and just connected the ‘transformer’ wire to the ‘front’ wire (in other words, connected Ring directly across the transformer in effect). Everything was working, and voltage was good (about 20V) tested with my multimeter, and what the app said. However, after a few hours the Ring just totally disconnected, with no light on the front on, and even after resetting breaker, never could get it working again. One thing though is I did forget to disable the mechanical chime in my device settings, would that cause an issue like this? Anything else from my information here that can cause this?
I’m experiencing pretty much this exact problem. See my posts over here:
My current situation is that I went to bed last night with a Ring doorbell transformer newly installed and reporting good voltage with my multimeter and the app and I woke up to a completely dead Ring Pro 2. Attempting to reset it has resulted in it just rebooting repeatedly and reporting 6V even though my multimeter reports 18V when I check the wire disconnected from the Ring. I’m concerned at this point that direct wiring could’ve damaged the Pro 2.
In my case, I deleted the device and re-added it. When you re-add, there is a question about whether you used the Power Kit or directed wired, so I selected direct wired and also made sure the chime was appropriately set to none. Worked great at first and then nothing and I can’t get it working again.
Thanks for the reply, yes very similar to my situation. I was also beginning to think that connecting it straight across the transformer may have damaged it. Maybe this device is new enough that they do not have much experience yet from customers on bypassing or something, but I do know I had forgotten to set the chime in device settings from mechanical to none, so not sure if that can cause this issue (although you would think it would be more robust than that, but maybe a defect). I am considering exchanging it for a new pro2 and either setup from the start without the power unit, or change my mechanical chime to a Ring tested compatible one (thinking Newhouse CHM3D) and put power unit across it since maybe just more experience by ring on that setup and thus better chance of working.
If you connect the transformer directly to the Ring unit then it is not going through what is in effect a resister from the induction solenoid used to makes the chime unit work. Even if the chime is electronic and simulated, then that circuit board has an internal resistance. The problem with directly connecting the transformer to the ring is when someone pushes the button then that becomes a direct short across the power leads. You need to drop the current and voltage by going across some resistance that would be equivalent to the resistance of the induction solenoid coil. Before you fry a $250 unit with a direct connection to the transformer, I would place an inline resister to limit that current. Too much resistance and you will get a low voltage reading. Too little resistance and the unit will fry. Ring should be able to provide us some idea of what resistance works best depending on the transformer output voltage. If they don’t know, then I will try to get a potentiometer to test and see what resistance will provide the minimum correct current that matches with the description.