Wiring Ring that has already been bypassed

[Lawrence71]

Hi folks, cautious DIYer, so just looking to confirm something. I got a wired Ring for our neighbors who have been without a doorbell at all. Seems the previous owners had had some sort of smart doorbell system and took it with them. When I got to the part with the chime box it looks like things were already modified from the previous owners.

The Ring instructions talk about jumpers and the like, however it looks like nothing is currently attached to any part of the chime system. I'd /expect/ that I could just connect white to white, since the wires had been detached from each other and red was already connected to red. (As far as I can tell, the transformer is in the garage and the two sets of wires are just to/from transformer and to/from switch.)

So my questions are:

1) Can I just bypass any part of the existing chime system or do I have to figure out how that should have been originally wired and then use Ring's instructions, and:

2) How do I tell which circuit the transformer is on so I can turn off before attempting to attach? Since the circuit is already broken, can't just check at the transformer, can I?

If this were my own house instead of my neighbors' I'd be a little less cautious, but don't want to end up making a little problem into a big one...

Thanks,

David

 

[brianmoooore]

Looking at your pic, it does appear that all that's been done is to disconnect the two white wires from the chime.
If this is correct, all you need to do is to connect the ring doorbell in place of the existing push switch, and then connect the supplied 'jumper' between the two white wires. The object of the exercise is simply to connect the transformer directly to the site of the bell push. The Ring instructions just cause confusion.
As far as I can tell, the 'lump' in the middle of the jumper is just a fuse.