Dumber than a doorbell? (NuTone LA174WH won't work with any smart bell?)

January 1, 2019 11:14 AM

My parents have a house with a NuTone LA174WH electronic wired chime. Apparently these do not play well with "smart" doorbell cameras like the Ring, and perhaps not even NuTone's own Knock. We learned this the hard way by buying a Ring Pro and installing it, only to have it not work at all. What changes would we have to make to the existing doorbell to install a "smart" doorbell of any kind?
posted by Seeking Direction to Home & Garden (3 answers total)

It’s likely you could do this by constructing a 24VAC trigger circuit using a 24V transformer and matching relay. Basically 24VAC transformer -> smart button -> 24VAC relay coil -> transformer on the doorbell switch side, and put the Normally Open contacts of the relay to the two contacts of the electronic doorbell you’re using.

I make no assertion this is a good idea.
posted by doomsey at 11:31 AM on January 1, 2019 [3 favorites]

I'm not sure what you are asking. Are you asking if you can use both the existing mechanical chime and add a camera/electronic based ?

In short, no, you cannot easily use both. That's *generally* true for any mix of mechanical chimes and non (eg mechanical and electronic chimes can't mix as well).

You can do as doomsey suggests and wire/run a secondary trigger for the electronic camera via any number of methods (might be a fun raspberry pi project.. heh).
posted by k5.user at 9:31 AM on January 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: We ended up returning the Ring and getting a battery-powered one, bypassing the existing doorbell. Thanks for your help, everyone!
posted by Seeking Direction at 10:58 AM on January 13, 2019