SOS !!-home alarm help needed please

longforgotten

Total solutions, when it went wrong there was no sound from the internal box, it had locked out, ignoring any button pressed. It was only the alarm outside making a noise.

Anyway, turned the power off today and all was quiet, so presumably the internal battery is working. Went and looked up at the alarm box outside and the red lights that usually bop to and fro are no more. Wonder if the ice we had yesterday might have effected the outside box.

We are now in the process of finding someone in the area to come and check it out.

At this point should I be opening a book as to what's wrong with it LOL.

Fifer

Chances are a 15 year old Ni-Cad in the external bell-box is on the way out and the cold overnight temperatures caused it to dip below the trigger voltage for a low battery alert (the warbling noise). I'd get the bell box battery changed.

longforgotten

The alarm guy turned up this pm....

Tried to understand, it'll mean more to you than me. The internal battery was dead because the voltage from the panel is only 7 volts. Will need a new panel. Also a new box for outside to comply to noise pollution rules. The quote will be wending its way in the post and I didn't ask how much as I just couldn't face it.

Now I've had a sweet cuppa, how much do you reckon it'll cost ?

totalsolutions

What is the panel output voltage? If its 7v then all is well with the panel...nicads are typically 1.2v so if you have say six up there that's 7.2v.

Just replace the batteries and try it out, the fitter is only doing what you can do and knows no better really.

fwor

It certainly sounds like the alarm fitter is creating some work for himself, but it's hard to be sure. A recent lightning strike nearby could have damaged the charging circuit and you'd probably not see the symptoms for a few days.

~However~ I've got a "typical" old bell module here which has a NiCad pack rated at 6 volts, so that would charge just fine from a 7 volt supply.

As Fifer says, the NiCad pack in the bell box probably just needs changing and it's not an expensive part, but if you don't like messing around on ladders you don't get a lot of choice.

Maybe get a second opinion from another company? My guess is that the quote will be not far shy of £200 all-in, but you'll probably find out tomorrow...

longforgotten

Is it easy to change the batteries in the outside alarm ?

fwor

They no doubt vary, but the one I have here is a board with a relay, the NiCad pack and the screw-down connector for the cabling, plus a wire to the tamper switch.

So no, if you were thinking in terms of standard AA Nicads, no it's not that simple (in mine, at least).

Generally they are designed so that you just replace the whole board and throw the old one away.

Fifer

That's true. The rechargeable in most bell boxes is soldered to the PCB, so you need to either use a soldering iron, replace the board, replace the bell box or (if the leads on the battery are of a workable length) use the cheat's method of snipping the leads from the old battery and attaching them to the new battery with connector blocks (checking you have the polarity right).

Linbox

fwor wrote: »

It certainly sounds like the alarm fitter is creating some work for himself, but it's hard to be sure...

~However~ I've got a "typical" old bell module here which has a NiCad pack rated at 6 volts, so that would charge just fine from a 7 volt supply....

Maybe get a second opinion from another company? My guess is that the quote will be not far shy of £200 all-in, but you'll probably find out tomorrow...

1. TS said 7v from the panel not the bell
2. The engineer should have offered to show the customer the readings to cover his as*
3. Calling some one else out would have caused another callout charge. Unless it was a back hander - and then I would have stiull cahrged the customer for cheking up on someone else unless they agreed to buy the kit.

longforgotten

Have had time to ponder on things as I've been away for a couple of days.

The guy initially said that the internal battery was dead and tried to show me the readings related to the 7 volts ( I admit I didn't look and took his word for it ). The battery was only nine months old so unless we had bought a duff battery then there must have been something a miss. Yet the bit I don't understand is why , when we turned off the electricity, the alarm did not go off. At this stage in implies that the internal battery is not dead.

I now thinks its a double whammy. There's something wrong with the box outside as well as inside. I may as well think that way anyway as there is no way we are capable of changing the battery in the box outside .

15 years is not a bad run. The company that came out do work for the police authority too, so while we expect it may all end up costing a bit ,at least we will have peace of mind at the end.

We can't have a go at fixing this ourselves and therefore resigned to what we've been told by the company. It's gone 15 years without a service so perhaps its down to us not looking after it better !

Many thanks for all your help. :T :T :T