Gardtec 360/580 'tamper Zone'

[Guest Foobar]

Hi folks,

We're currently having some electrical work done on the house and when we arrived home last night the alarm was displaying the 't' system message, listed as 'tamper zone' in the manual.

The alarm (Gardtec 360/580) can go through the set and unset phases but a second after, say, the 'un' display shows, the system then moves back to the 't' message and beeps repeatedly until the master code is entered. At this point the display remains as 't'.

I know the guy had to turn the electric off for a while (although this obviously wasn't long enough for my vcr to lose its time) and the nature of the work - adding a couple of plugs sockets and relocating a light switch and so on - may have done something to the alarm, which is causing it to think that it has been tampered with? (The guy does all the work on the house and he didn't touch the alarm so we know this to be a false positive if it is that).

So much for the back story. Does anyone know what we must do to get the system back on its feet and working properly again?

(I don't know if it would be in any way related to this).

Thanks in advance.

[Zak]

A "t" showing indicates that there is a tamper. Either a cable has been damgaed to one of the detectors or someone took the lid off a device and didn't put it back properly.

The alarm would have rung - should have rung when it went into tamper. Does this guy have your alarm code? Were you there the whole time (no)? If the alarm rang when it went into tamper then you can get this guy to think back to find out what he was doing at the time to localise the fault.

Really, you will need an engineer to check the cables and find the fault.

[Guest Foobar]

I wasn't the one who got in to find the alarm as it was. The person who did told me that the box was beeping away ("making strange noises") and she entered the code to quieten it. The alarm itself wasn't going off as far as I'm aware. Nor does he have the alarm code, again as far as I'm aware. I don't know much more than that, I'm afraid.

The guy doesn't like to bother with the alarm so when he comes round it isn't set. It must be something he's done while doing the electrical stuff. I think - though I'll have to check to be sure as I heard it second hand - that he did mention that he may have knocked the detector in the kitchen (and it is located above where he was working). Given what you've said this may well be the cause.

Thanks for the reply.

[Zak]

It is never anyone's fault When the culprit finds out that you know that there is no way it wasn't him, suddenly a viable reason for activation is forthcoming, as in your situation. If the box was "beeping away" and needed a code to silence it, that is your tamper alarm. If he knocked the kitchen PIR he may have dislodged the spring or caused a problem with the cable. Sorry, but no such thing as "wasn't me" in that situation.

[Guest Foobar]

When the culprit finds out that you know that there is no way it wasn't him, suddenly a viable reason for activation is forthcoming, as in your situation.

To be fair he never said he didn't do anything, and he did mention that he may have knocked the sensor. He's a honest chap who just happens to have a bit of a phobia when it comes to alarms I suspect what actually happened is that the alarm began beeping away and he didn't dare tackle it, so he left it.

It turns out that he had in fact knocked the sensor as he thought he might have done. We looked at it last night and the cover just needed clicking back into place.

It's a relief that we could solve this ourselves; it would have been a real shame to have to call an engineer out for something which turned out to be this simple.