Ring Doorbell

Note: I am creating a Ring-like, open source, free smart doorbell in the form factor of a Nest Hello doorbell.

Installing a Ring doorbell was a lot more work than I expected. Having done this myself, I would not do it again, and instead would hire a professional.

The Ring installation was very simple, but running the doorbell wires was a challenge.

The image above shows the Ring installed and the approximate location of the old doorbell, which is outlined in black on the right. I wanted the Ring to face visitors as they approached the door.

A Ring doorbell allows my wife and I to communicate with anyone who rings the doorbell via a SmartPhone. Ring uses 802.11n Wi-Fi and connects to Echo.

Step 1. Remove old doorbell.

My old push button doorbell was hardwired using low voltage. I did not shut the power off, but you probably should.

Remove the old doorbell. Use an Exacto knife to remove the silicon caulk and remove the wires from the doorbell. Wrap the nodes in electrician's tape.

Step 2. Determine how to run wire to new location

Once I removed the old doorbell, I hammered a very long thin nail through the small wire hole, through the sheet rock and into my office. I widened the hole, and pulled the doorbell wires through.

I then had to determine the best route from the wire's current location to the final location.

This required drilling holes, cutting holes in the sheet rook, re-plastering to match the textured walls and repainting the walls.

This was too much work!

An alternative would have been to run new wires from the doorbell unit through the attic and then down to the push button doorbell.

Step 3. Run new wire

I used the same solid gauge wire as used by the old doorbell and ran wire from the old location to the new location.

Step 4. Patch the mortar

Once the old doorbell was removed and the new wire run, I had to remove a plastic ring from the mortared stones, which made the hole pretty large. I then patched the mortar between the stones to fill the hole where the old doorbell was attached to the exterior stones. Luckily, I had some mortar left over from some yard work (40lb bag of mortar).

The "plastic" patch sold in small quantities doesn't have the look or feel of actual mortar.

Step 5. Drill holes

To get the Ring mounted in my preferred location, I had to drill through the mortar and stones and up through the door frame. These holes required special drill bits and a lot of patience.

Step 6. Follow Ring's Directions

The easy part was hooking up the Ring doorbell following the supplied directions.