G410 Doorbell and chime hub losing connection and stops working

Hi,

I have continuous issues with the chime/hub and G410 doorbell losing connection and not recovering. Works at most a couple of hours then goes into ‘network error’ and stays there until I unplug the power from the chime and reconnect. Hey presto it works again. I have put the chime as close as possible to the doorbell behind a brick wall, 30cms. Still dies.

The doorbell is directly powered. The chime strangely only works on the supplied usb cable (this is really strange). I have set my WiFi connection at 2.4Ghz.

It appears the chimes firmware does not try to recover the connection when lost. The WiFi connection between the chime and doorbell appears to be really weak, which is crazy, as the chime needs to be somewhere you can hear it, not in the hall close to the door…

Seems I will need to send this back.

Anybody else have this issue and a possible solution?

Thanks
Tim

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I don’t have any quick fixes. Mine is also placed on a brick wall and I have the chime inside the house at a pretty far distance.

A few questions to try and narrow the scope of the issue:

  • Does the doorbell get enough voltage? What were you replacing when you installed it (traditional doorbell or another brand video doorbell)? Have you ever upgraded your transformer?
  • What type of network do you have and what is the signal strength of the chime itself? The chime is in the critical path, so having it stable on the network is key.

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the reply.

Doorbell

  • I have a DC Transformer 14V/2000mA, measured just now at 14.25V. Should be fine
  • Comes from an old printer, I had no video bell before this one.
  • I will put a higher voltage transformer there to check
    Doorbell Signal
  • In the app this is showing Current Signal: Strong.
  • Explanation of this in the app is “The intensity of the signal received by the doorbell is related to the installation distance …”
  • This is RUBBISH as I have pulled out the power supply of the doorbell. There is no doorbell to report this back.
  • Restarted the chime and still says the signal is strong … something wrong here.

Network

  • 2.4Ghz (split the SSIDs to ensure not going onto 5Ghz)
  • Signal strength to the chime hub -67dBm which is fine (also shows this in the router app)

I also kicked out Apple Home to check if this was interfering … no effect.

I will reset to factory and see if this helps.

Thanks again

Tim

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reset everything to factory. seems to work again … I’ll see how long this lasts

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Hope that lasts for you. Everything else should be fine, and barring any crazy interference your set up seems sound. If issues arise again it might be bad hardware and then you should contact support and see what they can do for you.

Thanks Robert. Did not last unfortunately. Now in discussion with technical support, to look at the logs, but expect they will need to send me a new unit.

Found the fix :grin:

It was the power supply to the chime hub.

  • used an Apple 5V/1A charger NOT ENOUGH CURRENT
  • spec on the chime hub is 5V/1A
  • needs a 5V/2A (10W) at least to be safer to cover the peak demands of the hub
    Now running for 2 days non-stop. Thus pretty certain this was the problem.

Aqara supplies a USB-A to USB-C cable with the hub. There is a reason Aqara is not supplying a USB-C to USB-C cable as the hub has problems negotiating with a standard USB-C charger to get 5V instead of 9 or 12V from the charger. My other USB-C to USB-C chargers do not know what voltage to supply, and thus put out 5V at a low current, so the hub does not work at all … now I know … only works with the older USB-A chargers at a minimum of 2A … or by tricking the USB-C chargers to supply at 5V.

AQARA, please fix your HW as the majority of USB-C chargers out there in the market are multi-voltage and thus the hub should be able to work with them …

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Great news! And thanks for sharing. Others will likely find this useful.

Hi Robert,

Almost a full solution. The 5V/2A power supply is from a Samsung phone charger. Could only hold up to 2 days, then dropped. Can be the charger itself and not the chime…

So to rule that out I have now used a Raspberry Pi 5 USB-C power supply from GeeekPi with easily enough clean power (5V/5A) as well as being able to manage any peaks. This has been continuously powering a Raspberry Pi 5 without any problems and is pretty cheap.

I’ll run this for a while and come back (already running a day).