When I moved into my house, I replaced the wired doorbell and chime with a wireless system. I am now looking to install a Ring Doorbell Pro, which is wired. So, I need to put in a wired door chime. I have two cables coming out of the wall for the door chime that I had not labeled. One cable has three wires - a yellow and green tied together and a black. The second has four wires - yellow and green tied together, black, and red. I do not know where the transformer is. I took a volt meter to every combination of those seven wires and got no reading. Is that because the doorbell is wireless? Any help is appreciated.

Note: I did read every thread related to this.

 

Welcome to the forums.

If you removed a working chime system to install a wireless system...... then the wired system should still be working. If you didn't tape off the wires..... then a short may have burned out the transformer.

How many buttons are there...... front door only..... front and back door ?
Pull out the button(s) and see what color wires are on them.

You are probably going to need to locate the transformer. It's typically on the electrical panel but can be found attached to a basement or attic light.

 

Pete, thanks for the quick reply. Thanks for the quick reply. I have a red and a green wire at the doorbell. They are individually wrapped in electrical tape as are the ones by the chime. The transformer is a different "problem." I can't find its location. We have no basement and I've looked everywhere except the attic. I'm in Phoenix and the attic during the summer is sort of hot. I'll probably check it out because I just can't see any other problem. Also, there is only a front doorbell.

 

One cable has three wires and one has four wires. Doubtful. It sounds like the red was broken or cut from the cable currently with three wires. If that's the case..... the red may be carrying the transformer power.

 

I'm a little confused. Do you mean that the cable with 3 wires (no red) implies I can't hardwire the chime?

 

Have you identified the conductors that come from the door button to the chime location, use an ohm meter, that will take 2 conductors out of the equation for now.
Are the yellow/ green that are connected together in the same cable?
Is there also a black conductor at the door button?
Geo

 

No..... I mean that might actually be a four wire cable with the red wire cut off at the jacket.

 

I found that red wire in the cable at the chime. The red was cut off at the jacket. So I now have 2 cables with 4 wires each at the chime , with the yellow and green at each cable combined. There is a black wire at the doorbell.
I put a voltmeter to the newly discovered red wire at the chime to each of the wires in the other cable and get no reading. I put the ohmeter to that red wire and each of the four wires from the other cable at the chime and get a reading either side of two for each of the wires.
I'm still confused. Aren't I supposed to get a voltage reading using a wire from each of the cables at the chime?

 

If the transformer was working I'd expect to see 16.5vAC at that location.
However..... there may be other splices at the transformer that you haven't seen. That would mean you may only see the AC voltage at the chime location with the button pushed in.

There is no "right" way to wire a chime setup. There is a customary installation like an electrician would use and there are many other ways that someone else could choose.

 

Understand. Thank you for your help and your patience.

 

I decided to try this again. At the doorbell, there is a red and a green wire that was used when the doorbell was wired. At the chime, there are two cables, each with a red and a black and a previously combined yellow and green wire. I have attached the bell wires to each other. I then tested each wire from the chime cable with the wires from the other chime cable. The voltmeter showed 0 or a tiny fraction of a volt. I then used an ohmeter at the chime and tried each wire from one cable with each wire of the other cable. I got reading of 4-8. I tried using wires from only one cable. For that, I got readings of 10-16. I did the same with the other cable and got readings of 0 with the red or black wire and the yellow-green combo. The read for the red with the black gave m a reading of 5.
Does any of the above mean anything for my situation?

 

Ok...... lets expound a little further.
You have 2) four wire cables.

You said "at the doorbell" but you meant pushbutton...... there is a red and green. That means yellow and black are tucked back in the wall or are cut off. You should connect your ohmmeter to the red and green wires of one cable at the chime location. It should show no continuity. When you short the red and green wires at the button.... you should measure a short. If no...... try the other cable.

Once you identify the cable that connects the button to the chime...... the other cable is the one to the transformer and on that cable is where power would be expected.

 

I connected the green and red wires of one cable at the chime and got a 3 ohm reading. I then went to the button and put those two (green and red) wires together. I then went to the cables at the chime and tested the green and red cable wires at one cable, then the green and red at the other cable. I got readings of 7 on one and 4 on the other with the ohmmeter.
I guess this means that my stem is messed up and I need an electrician.

 

Unfortunately that is a problem. It could signify that there are splices in the lines.
If there were...... they'd usually appear at the transformer location.

 

I could never find my transformer.
The funny thing about all this is four years ago, when I changed the wired doorbell to a wireless setup, the wired doorbell was working fine.
Thank you, again, for all your help and patience.
I used to live in Montville, NJ.