Accord XPS alarm system

timberflake

We've came home tonight and our ADT Accord XPS alarm system is going off. The lcd display is blank and we have no idea what the code is (we're in rented accomodation and our landlady doesn't know either). We're rang ADT and they've been most unhelpful, telling us that there's nothing they can do until 9am tomorrow morning.

We just want to shut the thing off, does anyone have any suggestions? We can't afford the £150 to call an engineer out! HELP! ITS DRIVING US NUTS!

fwor

Anyone who has spent any time working on recent burglar alarm systems should be able to advise you on this.

But they would be very irresponsible to do so on an internet forum - they are designed to be difficult to turn off, and any advice that makes it easy could be used by the wrong people.

Your best approach (IMHO) would be to tell your landlady that ~she~ needs to call out an engineer, because it's ~her~ burglar alarm. If she doesn't, your local authority Noise Abatement team may get called by your neighbours, and that could be a tad inconvenient for your landlady.

timberflake

Well it seems to have stopped now, seems the battery in the alarm box died. After about 5 mins there was a high pitch beep coming from the lcd panel, its seems it went into tamper mode (as we removed it to see if there was a bettery we could remove). Can anyone advise if its going to kick off again or have we killed it?? There was a flashing battery on the lcd which means Mains Fail

Jockthearab

Most alarms are only meant to 'sound' for a certain period of time. I'd assume that's why your alarm has now gone silent. There's probably just been a slight power cut (or somebody tried tampering with it?! ) that's set it off. Normally in my street a slight powercut means loads of alarms going off...

Fwor is right that it's up to your landlady to get it resolved. When the engineer does come to reset it, please get them to show you how to use it and set a user code that you want & write it down somewhere 'safe'. I don't know how long you've been living there or plan to stay where you are, but I'm surprised you haven't been given the user code or manual. Remember to either pass on the user code or reset it ti factory settings at the end of your tenancy to prevent something similar occurring in future!

JtA

fwor

timberflake - I would strongly recommend that you ~don't~ leave it with the mains turned off. If your external bell box has a Self Activating module (most do) then when the battery in the control panel discharges below a certain level, the external alarm will start to sound and (if you are unlucky like my nextdoor neighbour a few years ago) it will probably happen at some really inconvenient time of day (four o'clock in the morning in my neighbour's case).

timberflake

fwor wrote: »

timberflake - I would strongly recommend that you ~don't~ leave it with the mains turned off. If your external bell box has a Self Activating module (most do) then when the battery in the control panel discharges below a certain level, the external alarm will start to sound and (if you are unlucky like my nextdoor neighbour a few years ago) it will probably happen at some really inconvenient time of day (four o'clock in the morning in my neighbour's case).

I don't quite understand what you mean. I live in an apartment block and each apartment has its own alarm box outside the apartment door. Our alarm box was going off when we came home from work today and after 2 1/5 hours it coughed, spluttered and died, seemingly because the battery died. How could it start up again if the battery gets lower??

chuckles1066

timberflake wrote: »

I don't quite understand what you mean. I live in an apartment block and each apartment has its own alarm box outside the apartment door. Our alarm box was going off when we came home from work today and after 2 1/5 hours it coughed, spluttered and died, seemingly because the battery died. How could it start up again if the battery gets lower??

Alarms are legally allowed to sound for 20 minutes maximum.

Then, the system is supposed to perform a self-check and if the original alarm condition is present, the alarm fires up again for a further 20 minutes......and so on ad finitum.

If yours was live for over 2 hours then you have an alarm condition still unresolved.......either a zone open or the tamper circuit has been compromised.

timberflake

chuckles1066 wrote: »

Alarms are legally allowed to sound for 20 minutes maximum.

Then, the system is supposed to perform a self-check and if the original alarm condition is present, the alarm fires up again for a further 20 minutes......and so on ad finitum.

If yours was live for over 2 hours then you have an alarm condition still unresolved.......either a zone open or the tamper circuit has been compromised.

Whats does that mean though? Is it going to kick into life again? Its been silent now for over 40 mins.

timberflake

Ok...........................................its Started Again!

fwor

Ok, while waiting for the engineer (hint!), make sure that you've carefully replaced any panels that you removed, making sure that no springs have dropped out, and turn the mains back on. If you're lucky, it will reset itself after 20 mins.

As Chuckles says, it will probably start again on an indefinite cycle, but hopefully the engineer will be able to get there quick enough.

chuckles1066

timberflake wrote: »

Ok...........................................its Started Again!

Is there no indication anywhere as to which zone is compromising your system?