Morning Fellas.

We moved into our new (15 old years old) house on Friday. The old occupier gladly supplied the alarm code to the estate agents with the keys. When we entered the property for the first time the alarm was set. So we entered the code and the alarm disabled. There are two key pads to the system, one at the front door and one at the back door and various window and PIR sensors dotted around.

A few hours later the alarm started to sound, once again we entered the code and the alarm reset and disarmed. This happened several times, we eventually worked out that when either the light in the garage or utility was switched on it set the alarm off.

I know the alarm has main power and a lead acid battery in the main control box and one in the bell box outside. Fortunately, its the same alarm as our old house, so I do know the system a little. When the alarm is triggered by the light switch you can only hear the keypad going off, the alarm outside is silent. I'm assuming the following is happening.

1) The alarm has never been serviced and has a very old and totally dead batteries in it.

2) When the light is switched on this causes a power fluctuation on the lighting ring main, which I'm assuming the alarm is wired from with it being low amp rating.

3) The alarm takes its primary source of power from the battery which is now dead and the uses the mains feed to recharge the battery. Hence why we cannot hear the alarm outside.

I think the first course of action (for the cost) is to replace all the batteries in the system, check all the PIR sensors look in good working order before calling out the engineer. I have a feeling the previous owner knew about this, every time we went to look at the house, the garage light was always switched on when no one was in the garage. Alarms bells are starting to ring here

The alarm is a Veritas R8 if anyone else knows the system.

Does my level of investigation sound sensible?

Cheers
Ash

Sounds sensible to me, the dead battery will open up susceptibility to power fluctuations.

Also, most if not all mains fed alarms advise a dedicated supply from the breaker board (fusebox) it may be that yours is piggy backed off the garage light feed, would be worth checking the feed and correcting.

quote:

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Originally posted by r1_pete
Sounds sensible to me, the dead battery will open up susceptibility to power fluctuations.

Also, most if not all mains fed alarms advise a dedicated supply from the breaker board (fusebox) it may be that yours is piggy backed off the garage light feed, would be worth checking the feed and correcting.

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can you set the alarm without the power monitoring part.
ie page 4 of this document
http://www.click24.co.uk/support/intruder-alarm/Veritas%20R8%20User%20Guide.pdf

To Set the System With a Power Fault ...

quote:

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Originally posted by gremlin1234
can you set the alarm without the power monitoring part.
ie page 4 of this document
http://www.click24.co.uk/support/intruder-alarm/Veritas%20R8%20User%20Guide.pdf

To Set the System With a Power Fault ...

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Check the battery fuse while your on, they blow when the batteries go south...

I've checked the external sounder and that works fine.
All the glass fuses inside the main alarm box are fine.
The battery in the external sounder seems OK as it ran with no mains or battery connected
There is 240v to the unit.

The lead acid battery was installed in 2002 and sounds like a box of rocks. It was on its side and looks like itnhas leaked and the terminal are all fuzzy.


Ive ordered one so this is a fair starting point.

No joy. A new battery and all the fuses checked, it still does the same. I'm going to see if I can find the power source at the weekend. If it is hooked to the lighting ring main unwire it and add a plug on to and run it off of an extention tempery to see if that fixed it.

Any other suggestions?

are the lights 'fluorescents' with starters? they generate a huge spike as they start. tungsten also do a similar thing, with a huge dip (inrush current) as they light

I've got the same alarm system and installed it myself about 11 years ago. It's been super-reliable although I did replace the alarm system battery a year or two ago. I think the LED on the control box started flashing or something and when I looked into it, that was a sign of a failing battery.

If the internal sounder is sounding then that might be caused by the tamper protection being triggered or alternatively it may be caused by the bell box which has its own battery usually and is self-activating if it loses connection to the alarm control box. Normally when you get an alarm activation, you type in your code and press the reset button. However, before you press the reset button, look at the LED strip as it should show the 'zone' which caused the activation. You should be able to then trace that zone. One of the zones is designated as the 'tamper' zone if I recall correctly.

I've got both the user manual and the installation manual for the veritas system so let me know if you need any more help. I'm not an alarm expert or anything but I am an electronics engineer and this system was relatively straightforward to install and configure as I recall.

HTH,
Craig.