How can I get power to my Ring door bell?

riverhawk

Member
A few years ago I had an Elk installer wire my house. They never connected any doorbell. The wiring is there, but it's loose in the Elk panel and hanging out by the front door. I bought a Ring doorbell and wanted to wire power to it instead of dealing with batteries. I would just like to get power to it and I'm not looking to have Elk monitor button pushes. I took some pics of my panel. I noticed an open spot on "Out 3", but I believe it's 12VDC and the Ring says it needs 12VAC(I wouldn't even know how to convert that). I'm also not too familiar with wiring things.  Any place in my panel I can just get power to the doorbell? Thanks.
 
 
25p5o28.jpg
kyhj7.jpg
mkgm4y.jpg
2a47yv.png
 
You can purchase the doorbell AC transformers at any big box hardware store if you want to install one near your panel.
 
Guessing too that the main M1 PS is supplying power via the Elk 16.5 VAC  (ELK-TRG1640)
transformer. 
 
My OP2 panel uses an Elk 24VAC transformer.
 
Personally I would power the Ring Doorbell via an autonomous AC power supply and not the one you have in place today for the Elk Panel.  That is me though.
 
riverhawk said:
Any place in my panel I can just get power to the doorbell?
 
The M1 panel provides 12V DC from the VAUX terminals, but you won't be able to use that with the Ring.  The Ring requires 8-24V AC plus a series resistor.  So you'll need to get a separate transformer for this.  I don't see a spec on how much current the Ring requires, but a transformer like this one should be adequate.
 
Refer to this Ring web page on how to wire things.
 
If you aren't handy with a soldering iron, get these resistors with wire pigtails that you can connect with a wire nut (you'll only need one resistor).
 
https://www.amazon.com/2Pcs-Load-Resistor-25ohm-Signal/dp/B00X73LP5Q
 
Or, if you do like to solder, you could get one of these resistors:
 
https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Mounted-Aluminum-Wirewound-Resistor/dp/B0087ZD4QM
 
Thanks for the replies. I was hoping there was a spot in the elk panel that I could just punch the wires into. I think the best solution for me is to pull away the doorbell wire from the elk panel and hook it up to the electrical panel with a transformer the conventional way.
 
riverhawk said:
Thanks for the replies. I was hoping there was a spot in the elk panel that I could just punch the wires into. I think the best solution for me is to pull away the doorbell wire from the elk panel and hook it up to the electrical panel with a transformer the conventional way.
 
Yes, you can certainly do that.  If you don't have a conventional doorbell connected to the transformer, you will still need to install a series resistor.
 
This doesn't address the OP question, but I was saddened to see your Elk installer put all of the EOLRs in the panel. The M1G has configurable (independent) zones for EOLR; he may as well have left them out and configured NO/NC zones, as appropriate. And then there's the XEP that's mounted horizontally rather than on SWGs.... just saddens me to see this work.  :unsure: Granted, I'm sure it works just fine... 
 
A lot of missteps in the install (notice the supervision EOLR for the output installed at the panel, which is not necessary!) doubled up cable pairs on light AWG and a few other items that all point to the installer not being familiar with the M1 or best practices. I'm sure it works, just not what should be a best practice.
 
Thanks for the help everyone. I took the lazy way out when I saw this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06XDQVP74/ref=sxts1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494044003&sr=1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65

Your help for me going in the right direction at least.

About the install...unfortunately I didn't know enough about it myself to critique it. Sucks. I found the installer that was recommended by the elk website in my area. Seems to work ok though. Minor annoyances included a refusal to upgrade to firmware when I noticed it was behind, hesitant to help me access via elkRp, and they didn't install all my elk accessories(I didn't think they knew how to install my two easy speakers and doorbell elk930)
 
What you see with your install is probably typical of 75% of the mom and pop or national installs out there.
 
Firmware should always be viewed as an as-needed item with embedded hardware. If you don't have issues or the firmware isn't correcting a specific item or adding functionality, it shouldn't be touched. We're not talking a sophisticated server based system or software that requires specific firmware to facilitate an upgrade. Especially in the case of HAI and Elk, firmware should be a last item to push.
 
I would agree with them assisting to have an end user access the panel via RP, especially if the system was under contract. Remember, liability. They delivered a functional system, assuming they did a 100% test prior to handover. There's a lot of things that a novice or inexperienced persons can break within the M1 to prevent the system from functioning properly....even misunderstanding upload/download terminology could wipe the panel clean.
 
As far as what they did or did not install accessory wise would be a discussion of scope, liability or even warranty. If they had to provide a warranty on the system as a whole, if they added components provided "by others" to their system which may or may not function or cause other items to not function properly (as via RP or rules) then it becomes a discussion regarding whether or not a warranty call becomes billable when it's discovered that the core system functioned properly or the additional items caused the issue....basically what happens in the large scale commercial and integration world. Without knowing what was contracted and provided by who, I can't comment as to whether or not there was a misstep, but I'm reading the scenario as a liability question.
 
Back
Top