false alarms....

Diggerdunne

A friend of mine said that he has turned on the light switch in the kitchen and it set off his alarm. The alarm was on part set at the time. He said it has happened two or three times over the past year or so. I thought he was joking but he said he was serious. I would not know where to even try to start to fault find that. Has anyone ever experienced anythin like that before.....

altor

Diggerdunne wrote: »

A friend of mine said that he has turned on the light switch in the kitchen and it set off his alarm. The alarm was on part set at the time. He said it has happened two or three times over the past year or so. I thought he was joking but he said he was serious. I would not know where to even try to start to fault find that. Has anyone ever experienced anythin like that before.....

What comes up on the system as the alarm activation when he disarms the system ?
Is the alarm systems power on the same circuit as the lights in the kitchen ?

Jnealon

I have seen induced voltages cause panels to crash etc.
Usually happens when alarm cables are run along side mains cables, especially fluorescent lights, anything that would have a large starting current, inductive loads etc

Diggerdunne

It is very possible that the alarm panel is fed from the lighting circuit. I do know that the alarm panel is upstairs in the hot press so would of thought it would be fed from Upstairs lights. In terms of inductive loads there don't seem to be many about, just normal pendant lights, but they are on a dimmer....

KoolKid

I have also seen this happen with faulty devices. Particularly a faulty contact.

altor

Diggerdunne wrote: »

It is very possible that the alarm panel is fed from the lighting circuit. I do know that the alarm panel is upstairs in the hot press so would of thought it would be fed from Upstairs lights. In terms of inductive loads there don't seem to be many about, just normal pendant lights, but they are on a dimmer....

Did he say what comes up on the keypad as the alarm activation when he disarms the panel ?

meercat

Had this happen with an old cs350
Ended up replacing the panel as I couldn't find the problem
No activations since

Diggerdunne

no he didnt say what came up on the keypad display, was 3 in the mornin and had no glasses on he said but have told him to read it and write it down if it happens again...

altor

Good advise as this will indicate if it is a power issue or a faulty device.

fred funk }{

It's a faulty device on the system somewhere. The log will should tell you where. Ive seen this several times over the years.

michodl

Just recently I am having the same problem. I have a HKC Securewatch alarm and tonight when I turned off my landing light from the upstairs light switch I hear a click from the alarm sounder. I checked the alarm panel and it said system armed even though the alarm wasnt set. Once disarmed I checked the alarm log and it had registered a power fail and i noticed the time and date had also changed. My alarm installer is unable to get to me for a few days and says he needs to see it to make an assessment.
Does anyone have any ideas why this would happen and any solution would be helpful.

KoolKid

And is it showing power on now?
Its a strange one.It could be an electrical problem also if the power in on the same circuit as that light. Is the problem recreateable .? If you switch the light again does anything happen.
The bit about it arming is baffling . Does the log show it being armed?
The sticky here
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055956748 will give you contacts details for a few installers . There is also a link to the PSA register of all licensed installers. You can search that for someone close to you.

michodl

Thanks for your quick reply. The last two events in the log are 001 system unset and 002 power fail. The only light on the keypad is the power light which is green. The alarm circuitry and battery are located in the hot press so I assume the alarm is getting its power from the lights

KoolKid

If you go back before power fail is there anything about system armed?

altor

michodl wrote: »

Just recently I am having the same problem. I have a HKC Securewatch alarm and tonight when I turned off my landing light from the upstairs light switch I hear a click from the alarm sounder. I checked the alarm panel and it said system armed even though the alarm wasnt set. Once disarmed I checked the alarm log and it had registered a power fail and i noticed the time and date had also changed. My alarm installer is unable to get to me for a few days and says he needs to see it to make an assessment.
Does anyone have any ideas why this would happen and any solution would be helpful.

How old is the alarm system ?
For the system to loose the time it would be down to a complete down power or even a power surge that may have affected the circuit board.
Your system could need to be powered down and powered up again as there may be a problem with the board from this event.

michodl

In response to koolkid the last time the alarm was set was at the weekend and that is in the alarm log.
In relation to altor query when we bought our house 11 years ago there was a scopetronic alarm in the house. We had it upgraded about 3 years ago to the HKC securewatch.

altor

I would try powering the system down and back up then. Turn off the mains, open the control panel, disconnect the battery. Wait 20 seconds, reconnect the battery, close up the control panel, turn back on the mains. Do you have engineer access to the alarm to change time and date ?

michodl

Yes I have engineer access to change the time and date. I will let you know how i get on. Could it be a faulty light switch

altor

michodl wrote: »

Yes I have engineer access to change the time and date. I will let you know how i get on. Could it be a faulty light switch

I would not think so, thats not ruling out an issue with the mains as it could be related if they are on the same circuit. You should check the log in engineering to see if a fault was logged in there rather than the user log.

michodl

Sorry for not getting back sooner. I turned off the power and disconnected the battery. At the moment everything is fine. In the engineers log it has logged a power fail for tuesday nights problem. There are no other faults logged in the log

Jnealon

michodl wrote: »

Just recently I am having the same problem. I have a HKC Securewatch alarm and tonight when I turned off my landing light from the upstairs light switch I hear a click from the alarm sounder. I checked the alarm panel and it said system armed even though the alarm wasnt set. Once disarmed I checked the alarm log and it had registered a power fail and i noticed the time and date had also changed. My alarm installer is unable to get to me for a few days and says he needs to see it to make an assessment.
Does anyone have any ideas why this would happen and any solution would be helpful.

Could the live for the alarm panel be taken from this switch, loose connection maybe

michodl

Sorry for not getting back sooner. The alarm seems to be behaving itself. My alarm guy came the other day and we moved the alarm from the lights circuit to a different one and everything working again. Thanks for all your advice and input