Burglar alarm -typical
 

So at 11pm on Saturday night the burglar alarm starts making a noise - not fully activated but both sounders (either end if the house) emitting a high pitched whining. Neighbours not happy and who can blame them.

Look at the keypad next to the front door, no power.

Look at the panel and no power accompanied by a nasty burning smell.

Open up panel - fuse gone on input. Replace it and the alarm powers up but lasts about a minute before the fuse goes again and this time a nasty burning smell. The backup battery has obviously been doing its job but it is now goosed as it is 15 years old. And now of course the alarm sirens are fully activated as there is no juice across the tamper circuit.

So I end up pulling apart an old AT PC (knew there was a reason I kept it) and using the power supply to give me 12V so I can at least get a night's sleep.

So I guess a new alarm panel is the order of the day, but I just hope I can get something compatible with the existing wiring etc. as have 3 remote keypads and two sirens. Don't mind replacing the keypads, sirens etc. but the wiring is all embedded in the walls etc. from when I re-modelled the house. Anyone know about modern alarms ... I fitted this one myself but as I say it was 15 years ago :eek:

The PSU and the fuse that feeds the alarm supplies all the sensors, bell boxes, charging circuits within in the bell boxes, keypads, remote dialers etc. As well as the panel's own battery charging circuit.

A short or fault somewhere will blow the fuse and damage the Alarm's voltage regulator/rectifyer (if the fuse is of a high rating and/or not a fast-blow item); Now I know the past couple of days we've had some pretty heavy rain, so water ingress into your bell box would be a possibility; Shorting it out and blowing the fuse on your alarm panel.

In short; you need to find what caused the fuses to blow and overload the panel's PSU' circuitry. Otherwise the new panel could fall to the same fate. I know our alarm's PSU is rated for 1amp Maximum, so whilst a partial short/fault might not sink enough current to blow a 10amp computer PSU, it could create enough fault current to blow a 1 amp alarm PSU.


As for new alarms; not a clue. Haven't looked at anything current for ages. Although I've always liked Texecom and Galaxy (Honeywell)

If you decide to get a new alarm, and it might be worthwhile, you sound plenty competent enough to do the installation.

I had a new one fitted when my original one went TU in a similar way to yours, in the middle of the night of course! I did not install it as the supplier did that as part of the deal. He used the existing wiring with a few mods and it works perfectly.

Les

Oh, I know the Galaxy's are ok on old wiring/sensors. At work ADT recently replaced our system and reused half of the old PIRs and wiring..some of the PIRs are the best part of 20years old :eek:

Suffice to say its on a maintained contract; otherwise we would not have been less impressed (although in truth I'm not that impressed, personally).

Thanks guys,

I doubt its water ingress as I did the original install myself and sealed both siren boxes up tight as well as organising the wiring such that water running on the cables couldn't flow into the circuit board etc. Plus it has actually been pretty dry here.

The interesting thing is that it is only blowing the power supply fuse rated at 160mA whereas the three fuses on the board itself are OK. Some of the resistors on the board have a bit of charring round them so I guess no matter what the panel is probably passed its sell by date.

I called a guy up and he wanted £95 to even look at it. So I think I will just bite the bullet and get the ladders our, have a look at the siren boxes and if all looks well get a new panel and fit it myself. I would love to get away without changing the keypads but I think I am probably in dreamland there.

So who makes decent wired alarm systems these days... Google here I come.

Try somewhere like here: -
Home Burglar Alarms, Security Alarm Systems, Kits And Accessories

If I were you I would replace the lot, the bits are very cheap. Keep most of the wiring obviously, if it is good.

PIRs have moved on a lot in recent years. For instance these: -
Intellisense IS215TQ Quad PIR Detector
at £9 each are very good.

Is your backup battery ok?
If its goosed it will just fry the charge circuit/power supply.
where u located(pm if u like) I may be able to help