External Sounder Not Working

[dazroberts]

Hi everyone,

I have a problem with my house alarm system, the external box does not make any noise when the alarm is triggered. This only came to light recently on entry to the house (when the alarm was set), we didnt reach the control panel in time. The internal sounder went off, nothing from the external one.

The control panel is a Veritas Compact 8 which was installed in 2003/4 to replace an existing antiquated panel. Everything else works fine, internal sounder, setting/unsetting of alarm, using the various zones, etc. It's just the outside box that's the problem.

I've gone through the various trouble-shooting exercises shown in the user/installation guide, but to no avail. However, when I removed the fuse for the external sounder from the control panel it went off ! So it obviously works, just not when it should..

Any ideas what the problem could be?

Thanks.

[camerabloke]

not sure about veritas 8, but on a lot of panels there is something called dual ply or in laymans terms, a delay buit in to the panel so that if you set it off by accident, it will not go full alarm for a programmed ammount of time, generally 10-20 seconds.

try setting your alarm off for longer and see if that works

[CDJ]

Hi everyone,

I have a problem with my house alarm system, the external box does not make any noise when the alarm is triggered. This only came to light recently on entry to the house (when the alarm was set), we didnt reach the control panel in time. The internal sounder went off, nothing from the external one.

The control panel is a Veritas Compact 8 which was installed in 2003/4 to replace an existing antiquated panel. Everything else works fine, internal sounder, setting/unsetting of alarm, using the various zones, etc. It's just the outside box that's the problem.

I've gone through the various trouble-shooting exercises shown in the user/installation guide, but to no avail. However, when I removed the fuse for the external sounder from the control panel it went off ! So it obviously works, just not when it should..

Any ideas what the problem could be?

Thanks.

Not certain on the Veritas but other panels (including Texecom Premier series) have an option were only Internal bells will sound if its an entry alarm (only sensors on entry route activated) rather than a full alarm

hope that helps

[dazroberts]

Thanks for your replies.

I had tested the bell and strobe as per Colin's post, nothing happens.

Everything else works fine bar the bell !

One thought I did have was to power everything down, take batteries out of panel and bell, then power back up again. Hopefully this would clear the problem (it works on PC's!). I havent done this yet in case 1) the alarm system doesnt work at all afterwards, and 2) it sheds no further light on what the problem actually is !

What are your thoughts on this idea? Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks.

Daz.

[Guest anguscanplay]

Thanks for your replies.

I had tested the bell and strobe as per Colin's post, nothing happens.

Everything else works fine bar the bell !

One thought I did have was to power everything down, take batteries out of panel and bell, then power back up again. Hopefully this would clear the problem (it works on PC's!). I havent done this yet in case 1) the alarm system doesnt work at all afterwards, and 2) it sheds no further light on what the problem actually is !

What are your thoughts on this idea? Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks.

Daz.

would agree with your thought there alarms are designed not to be tampered and an engineer would know the correct procedures to get a system restarted

you could just do a final test before calling someone out

set the system exit the building and wait for the buzzer to stop ( dont just false set it )then enter the building the wrong way or trigger a sensor without coming throught the entry route

once the internal sounds loud wait for 60secs

does the bell sound then

if not it sounds u/s and needs looking at

Edited March 15, 2007 by anguscanplay

[CDJ]

Thanks for your replies.

I had tested the bell and strobe as per Colin's post, nothing happens.

Everything else works fine bar the bell !

One thought I did have was to power everything down, take batteries out of panel and bell, then power back up again. Hopefully this would clear the problem (it works on PC's!). I havent done this yet in case 1) the alarm system doesnt work at all afterwards, and 2) it sheds no further light on what the problem actually is !

What are your thoughts on this idea? Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks.

Daz.

You said in first post that the Bell activates when you removed the power from the bellbox. - So it seems to be self activating ok.

That then suggests the trigger from the panel is not working right, either bad connection/short between trigger and -12v (for negative tamper) or perhaps bell is set for neg trigger when panel is positive (or vice versa - though perhaps more likely to have a constantly wailing bellbox if this was the case, I've never tried this, either accidently or on purpose).

You could test the trigger in the panel with a multi-meter to check its changing/sending correct signal when bell activated, however thats assuming that you installed the panel and are confident opening it up and using multimeter.

CDJ

[dazroberts]

Eventually got round to testing out 'anguscanplay's suggestion, to no avail. Still nothing from the box.

CDJ, I did not install the alarm system, it was installed before we moved in (pre 1997), the control panel was changed in 2003/4 by a semi-retired electrician who I cannot get hold (probably fully-retired now).

I do not know enough about these things to carry out what you said in your post.

Unless someone out there has any other suggestions, I guess it's time to call out the experts ! Can anyone recommend someone reputable in the Stoke-on-Trent area??

Thanks.

[trojanhorse]

Eventually got round to testing out 'anguscanplay's suggestion, to no avail. Still nothing from the box.

CDJ, I did not install the alarm system, it was installed before we moved in (pre 1997), the control panel was changed in 2003/4 by a semi-retired electrician who I cannot get hold (probably fully-retired now).

I do not know enough about these things to carry out what you said in your post.

Unless someone out there has any other suggestions, I guess it's time to call out the experts ! Can anyone recommend someone reputable in the Stoke-on-Trent area??

Thanks.

the panel could be programmed to delay the external bell on entry fail. unless you have the engineers code you could be snookered.

have you tried setting off a panic alarm of set the alarm off at the back of the house, ie. avoiding entry delay timers?

if you have a user menu, as with Texecom premier you should have the facility to test the bells by entering your code and pressing menu.

but again, unless you have access to the engineers menu your snookered.

[P_Compy]

If the external box does have a delay on it, how do you get rid of it?