Astec 63DV fault

Waesfjord

Hi all,

I'm back on the forum again as the house alarm is acting up again, and hoping that I can get some advice on what may be wrong.

Last time out, I was getting spurious alarms when system armed on the loop which has three shock contact sensors (a soubdle and a single patio door) in series. I replaced all three sensor elements on these positions, which gave me some peace for about a year or so.

However now, I'm back getting the same spurious alarms, typically in middle of night when I'm home (i.e. partical set), however sometimes (albeit seems less frequent) when we're out (full set). the frequency of occurrance is about once a week or so.

Is there something other than the sensors that could be causing this spurious alarm - maybe loose wiring in the control box or loose/faulty terminating resistor in the last contact in series.

If anyone coudl advise, I would appreciate it, as need to avoid the cost of alarm replacement, the wofe wants the security of having the alarm, so only option is repair.

Thanks.

altor

brian1976 wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm back on the forum again as the house alarm is acting up again, and hoping that I can get some advice on what may be wrong.

Last time out, I was getting spurious alarms when system armed on the loop which has three shock contact sensors (a soubdle and a single patio door) in series. I replaced all three sensor elements on these positions, which gave me some peace for about a year or so.

However now, I'm back getting the same spurious alarms, typically in middle of night when I'm home (i.e. partical set), however sometimes (albeit seems less frequent) when we're out (full set). the frequency of occurrance is about once a week or so.

Is there something other than the sensors that could be causing this spurious alarm - maybe loose wiring in the control box or loose/faulty terminating resistor in the last contact in series.

If anyone coudl advise, I would appreciate it, as need to avoid the cost of alarm replacement, the wofe wants the security of having the alarm, so only option is repair.

Thanks.

It may be a loose connection or the cable itself.
If you have any spare cores on the cable then you could change the cores in use and see if that helps. You will also need to change them in the control panel too, just make sure you turn off the mains to the panel before removing the cover. The alarm will activate but just put in your code to turn off the alarm.

Waesfjord

altor wrote: »

It may be a loose connection or the cable itself.
If you have any spare cores on the cable then you could change the cores in use and see if that helps. You will also need to change them in the control panel too, just make sure you turn off the mains to the panel before removing the cover. The alarm will activate but just put in your code to turn off the alarm.

great thanks. I'll have a look in the daylight tomorrow - I don;'t think the neighbours will appreciate another alarm going off now if I check

altor

brian1976 wrote: »

great thanks. I'll have a look in the daylight tomorrow - I don;'t think the neighbours will appreciate another alarm going off now if I check

Always best to warn in advance

KoolKid

brian1976 wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm back on the forum again as the house alarm is acting up again, and hoping that I can get some advice on what may be wrong.

Last time out, I was getting spurious alarms when system armed on the loop which has three shock contact sensors (a soubdle and a single patio door) in series. I replaced all three sensor elements on these positions, which gave me some peace for about a year or so.

However now, I'm back getting the same spurious alarms, typically in middle of night when I'm home (i.e. partical set), however sometimes (albeit seems less frequent) when we're out (full set). the frequency of occurrance is about once a week or so.

Is there something other than the sensors that could be causing this spurious alarm - maybe loose wiring in the control box or loose/faulty terminating resistor in the last contact in series.

If anyone coudl advise, I would appreciate it, as need to avoid the cost of alarm replacement, the wofe wants the security of having the alarm, so only option is repair.

Thanks.

The only true way to find what the problem is on an alarm loop is to check the resistance on the entire circuit . See post 9 here for more details if you have access to a multi meter.

Waesfjord

KoolKid wrote: »

The only true way to find what the problem is on an alarm loop is to check the resistance on the entire circuit . See post 9 here for more details if you have access to a multi meter.

Thanks Koolkid. I have a multimeter so can run this tets tomorrow.

The instructions in post 9 included were are follows:

Disconnect the zone from the panel & remove any end of line resistors,
Set you meter to continuity and connect the pair to the 2 meter leads.
on a lenght of cable long enough to reach all your windows on zone 3.
Make a note of the reading in ohms. One by one tap evey sensor & open and close every contact. After a tap or an open close the resistence should return to the around the same value. If it does not disconnect that device , close of the pair wired into it & move on. Replace any that you had to close off.

As I understand above, you advise to replace the MM in line instead of control panel, remove the end of line rsistor, leaving all the contacts in series with MM, then test each contact to see if you can isolate the faulty one.

I follow all that, however my question is the highlighted sentence above, as don't follow why that is mentioned at all? A length of cable could allow you to test resistance of each contact in isolation by bypassing other contacts in MM loop, however the steps above don't state to do that - can you please clarify what I'm missing with respect to use of length of cable. cheers

KoolKid

If you are connecting the MM to the pair at the panel the length of cable is simply to extend the cables of the MM so you can have it in your hand at each window.
If all the points are close enough to each other another method I use is to disconnect the pair at the panel & short them out. Remove the EOL resistor & series in the MM there. Its the same thing you are still measuring the resistance of a closed loop.

Waesfjord

ah yeah, see what you mean now, thanks. I'll just get the wife to do the open close of doors and bang the sensors instead :P

KoolKid

brian1976 wrote: »

ah yeah, see what you mean now, thanks. I'll just get the wife to do the open close of doors and bang the sensors instead :P

Remember to set the meter on auto ranging if possible.