Eugene's DIY Den

I've wired hundreds of these over the years, but I'm just wondering is there a knack in doing it? Firstly, should I be putting the twisted stranded wires under the screw's head or under the washer beneath the screw head, above the lead to the reed switch? Also two problems I've always had are that the wire squeezes out from under the head when tightening and also the screw head drags the wire core around in a circle, putting excess tension on the wire when it's short. Maybe it's better to take the screws out first, make an eye in the core then tighten? Alternatively I could just use small ring crimps.

I don't know. How do I check? There's no option to change it in the Devices menu. I presume the option to change it is buried in one of the other menus?

Just spent the last couple of hours interacting with the MSP for my alarm's SIM regarding login. I always seem to have this problem when I try to access my account, then I have to explain to them that I can't receive password reset codes because the SIM is in an alarm.

No, I thought about that. I'm qualified in this area, so it rules out me doing all the silly things ? Good point though.

I remember I had an issue before when it wasn't activating on bell, or there was a delay when it activated after the external sounder operated, so I must have changed those settings. Now I have to try and remember how I did this.

Ok, I'll disconnect two legs of the loop and see what results I get.

That's possible. Is 0v on this panel connected on the board to earth? (or is this the case in general for panels?)

One leg of the loop is removed from the terminals in the control panel, I wouldn't be measuring the resistance of a circuit that's powered. So the circuit is open and no current can flow in the loop to influence the meter.

I'm trying to identify what's causing a false trigger on a zone and think it's possibly a contact that's not closing properly (When I close a window slowly, the contact doesn't close, so maybe the magnet is too weak for the spacing., or the reed switch is just gone bad. This is a new problem) Resistance is 9 MOhm for the loop open and 38 ohms it's closed. I would have thought that the 9 MOhm is low and the loop resistance should be higher on open circuit. Weather is really damp, so I'm thinking condensation on the insides of contacts or oxide deposits are contributing to the low reading. Interestingly, resistance is 7 MOhm with probes one way and 9 MOhm with them reversed, so maybe coupling of voltages or electrochemical action between wires and screws is responsible.

A quick question. I opened my control panel (HKC SW10 70) and noticed I just get a repeated beep. Without trawling through the installation manual, can anyone tell me the menu option for to enable the internal sounder for tamper events? Also, is activation of the sounder per each tamper on zone, or does it have to be either on/off globally for all tampers?

What's the approximate line-of-sight range (for the radio signal) of those?

Just found the answer: Option 858 and 859 set to "Yes".

Is it possible for a zone type to be "entry/exit" on full set and "alarm" on part set A or B?

Can I use a double knock option on the same zone to only trigger an alarm after several operations of the PIR?

Yes, I just confirmed that.

So should it specify zone number, name, followed by type of alarm triggering event? I'll check if this actually does happen and report back. If it doesn't, does it mean I have detailed alarm event reporting turned off in the menu somewhere?

Something in the shed triggered my alarm last night. I'm thinking warm air currents in front of sensors or tamper contacts stick/slipping in this heat because of expansion/contraction or maybe bats. Does this panel differentiate between an alarm triggered by a sensor in a loop on a zone or the alarm triggered by a tamper going o/c on that zone? The panel just says a"Alarm" with the zone name. These false triggers are infrequent, maybe one or two a year, but always seem to happen in really hot weather.

If remanence is the cause it should be possible to demagnetise using a hand held demagnetising tool.

I replaced three contacts which didn't reliably open every time a window was opened during a test. Tapping some of the contacts worked and they'd open a few times, but would then get sticky again. I'll probably have to replace them in another few years again, that's as long as they last. All contacts that give trouble are on windows that never open. Two theories as to why. One: The few mA of current flows when contacts are closed for months or years causes a build up of material that permanently causes the contacts to grip together. Even if they have stuck together and tapping releases, there's still a locking effect. Two: Contacts become permanently magnetised just like a screwdriver when held shut for long periods, causing them to stick. Opening and closing regularly demagnetises them. The material they're mad from should have a low magnetic remanence, but maybe it's just enough to cause stickiness.

No, they're just simple reed switches with magnets. Problem is I have 16 of them wired in series, so identifying which one triggered would be a problem. However I have a radiator located under a window behind curtains and if heat was trapped and caused a large temperature increase, this may be the issue if the magnet/contact spacing is too great and the magnet is weakening at that contact. However all the 16 sensors have a gap of a cm or so, but the alarm is installed 4 years and this is the first time I've had a false alarm on this zone.

My HKC10W70 panel activated at 2.30 am and sent me three SMS messages. The first was the the alarm zone activated, the next was "alarm gross" and the third told me I had unset the alarm. What does "alarm gross" mean. I don't think I've ever seen that before on alarm activation. The cause of the alarm activating was a contact opening. Usually I have lots of trouble with these sticking on windows I never open rather than opening spontaneously, even if I replace with new ones.

Managed to get the mobile company to give me a temporary password this morning to login to my account. An agent from the skeleton staff they had on late last night didn't know this was possible and insisted I had to take the SIM out and put it in a handset.

If for instance I had to power down the board and disconnect the panel battery, or trigger an alarm by activating a sensor.

You mean hot plugging the GSM board? What about the the contacts on the SIM being misaligned during insertion?

Quick question. I asked over a year ago about disabling the external sounder when I'm working on the alarm and you told me that this isn't an option in the engineer's menu, but I can just program the ext. bell to be something different. How do I do this? (I can probably figure it out from the diagram in the installation guide, but you guys are familiar with this stuff).