Hi. I’v got a 2k doorbell hooked up by wires. When it was connected with the wires the first time, the battery had around 50% charge. Since mounting it, the charging icon has been showing intermittent. At the same time the battery has slowly gone down to a charge of 6-10%. It was 6% for a while, before it rose to 10%. This night it suddenly turned off due to low battery. I then charged the doorbell by usb-cable. It has then been re-attached to the wires, but I’ve seen no charging icon. Battery now about 98%.
The transformator is more than capable to run the doorbell. I had a smaller transformator not working, and changing to a bigger one worked. It’s curious that the doorbell has dropped from 50% to 6%, however, it charged from 6-10%, so it’s clearly capable of doing a charge. But clearly not enough.
Some questions:
Could it be a faulty extensor wire/cable? I’m using the included extendor cable. Are these for sale anywhere, so I could check if this was the case?
Does the intermittent charging symbol indicate something not working, or should it be like this?
Going from 50% to 6% (in about a month’s time) when attached to wires, not normal?
Does the doorbell only charge when the battery is less than a certain battery percentage l?
Does it matter how the two cables are attached, left/right?
Did som troubleshooting and remembered that I have the doorbell added in Homey, which shows me the battery percentage through time. From Nov 16th the weather changed, and it’s been between -2 and 2+ C° since then. More googling, and it seems the battery doesn’t charge in these temperatures. That’s a bummer, but at least I think I found a plausible explanation for the charging suddenly not working. It’s expected 8+ C° tonight, so I’ll see if it the charge is back on tonight.
Guess I’ll have to get used to charging it with usb cable during winter. Seems like that’s the case with all video doorbells….
Good job on figuring it out, I was going to mention if outdoor temperature maybe the cause?
It’s the limitation of lithium ion batteries, a protection circuitry is put in place to protect the battery from being damaged.
From -20°C/-4°F to 50°C/122°F
The devices can work normally within this temperature range. However, please note that the following issues can occur:
3°C/37.4°F: Devices will discharge quickly under this condition.
0°C/32°F: Devices will fail to recharge under this condition.
Below -20°C/-4°F
The devices’ built-in battery may stop working completely until the environment warms up again.
If you want to test that out, remove the doorbell from the outdoor mount bring it in your home and let it warm up a bit, then mount it back outside and see if it will start charging.
