Premier 48 - Strange Blip Every 30 Sec

[james.wilson]

breff's reply looks favorite if it is your alarm

my comment about the battery was reffering to the panel battery. Is it new, fully charged and big enough etc

[Cicero]

breff's reply looks favorite if it is your alarm

my comment about the battery was reffering to the panel battery. Is it new, fully charged and big enough etc

Good point also. I have a new fully charged but temporary 12V 6Ah battery in there at the moment, it's supposed to have a 17Ah - greater capacity may help to smooth any supply 'dips' (lower source resistance) although, like you say, sounds like it'll be the sounder. Many thanks.

[lawandorder]

The blip is no longer every 30 seconds - it seems to be about every few minutes but not consstently.

I'm pretty sure the 'blip' is from the sounder, it coincides with a momentary subtle dimming of the keypad display and a drop in the supply voltage at the panel, not really measurable on the multimete but you know when the voltage sits at a steady level and then it suddenly drops a bit and returns - looks like there's something happening.

The sounder is a ADE Reson8 with an on-board SAB nicad battery - I'm now wondering if the 'blip' is some kind of not-yet-charged indication from the sounder but there's no mention of it in the installation notes or the ADE website.

I'll keep you posted.

Many thanks for the entertaining 'beep' tales, mine may still turn out to be something silly, I'll report back tomorrow.

sorry breff, hadn't see your suggestion before my last reply - will try this and report back!

I doubt it, I am nof familiar with ADE sounders but if this was the case it wouldn't make the keypad dim.

Reading your first post it seems you have only just installed the system, it is possible that your battery has been sitting around on a shelf for a while and make take a little while to charge for the first time.

I would measure your battery charging voltage with the mains on (obviously be very careful around mains voltages) then remove mains and see what the battery reading is like with no mains.

[james.wilson]

Good point also. I have a new fully charged but temporary 12V 6Ah battery in there at the moment, it's supposed to have a 17Ah - greater capacity may help to smooth any supply 'dips' (lower source resistance) although, like you say, sounds like it'll be the sounder. Many thanks.

6A/h havnt been available for some time, you sure its new?

also is it ok? sure sign of a faulty main battery if the backlights are dimming too much

[james.wilson]

if your sounding as deawing that amount of current it would drastically affect the standby times.

It wont be, it will be your panel dipping its ac.

As breff says stop it doing that and your sounder wills top sounding.

You could put a large cap accross the holdoff connections at the bell.

But to be honest your system voltage should not be dipping so much so that the bell thinks it has had its link to the panel severed.

[Cicero]

I doubt it, I am nof familiar with ADE sounders but if this was the case it wouldn't make the keypad dim.

Reading your first post it seems you have only just installed the system, it is possible that your battery has been sitting around on a shelf for a while and make take a little while to charge for the first time.

I would measure your battery charging voltage with the mains on (obviously be very careful around mains voltages) then remove mains and see what the battery reading is like with no mains.

Actually the battery has been sitting in ciruit for several weeks, I've been running this new system in parallel with my old veritas system while I iron out glitches etc - I just switched over to an external sounder today - I think the battery is OK but as per my earlier note I intend to upgrade it to a larer one soon.

I've just checked the voltage via the Wintex programming software; With mains, the battery sits at 13.8V and the system voltage is 13.8v

When I remove the mains the battery voltage drops to 13.2 and system voltage 12.55v (presumably in-line diode.)

My thinking about the keypad dimming symptom was if there was a momentary 500mA draw on the battery from the sounder, there would be a resultant drop in the network voltage and hence a dimming of the keypad, which seemed to be consistent with what I was seeing. Hope this makes sense?

6A/h havnt been available for some time, you sure its new?

also is it ok? sure sign of a faulty main battery if the backlights are dimming too much

Sorry, just checked - it's actually an OnLine 7.2Ah - I bought it at TLC about 6 weeks ago (I was sure they'd only shown 6Ah on their website.)

With all this talk of batteries maybe I should just go for a new Yuasa 17Ah and be done with it.

[lawandorder]

Actually the battery has been sitting in ciruit for several weeks, I've been running this new system in parallel with my old veritas system while I iron out glitches etc - I just switched over to an external sounder today - I think the battery is OK but as per my earlier note I intend to upgrade it to a larer one soon.

I've just checked the voltage via the Wintex programming software; With mains, the battery sits at 13.8V and the system voltage is 13.8v

When I remove the mains the battery voltage drops to 13.2 and system voltage 12.55v (presumably in-line diode.)

My thinking about the keypad dimming symptom was if there was a momentary 500mA draw on the battery from the sounder, there would be a resultant drop in the network voltage and hence a dimming of the keypad, which seemed to be consistent with what I was seeing. Hope this makes sense?

Sorry, just checked - it's actually an OnLine 7.2Ah - I bought it at TLC about 6 weeks ago (I was sure they'd only shown 6Ah on their website.)

With all this talk of batteries maybe I should just go for a new Yuasa 17Ah and be done with it.

To be fair, yes, a 500 ma load would cause a voltage drop which could cause the dimming of the keypad.

One test you could carry out is to disconnect the s- to the sounder. If the bleeping and dimming stops you will know that it is the panel that is outputting a s- every 30 secs.

If the bleeping continues it would suggest that the panel is removing the hold off voltage momentarily which would certainly point to a dodgy battery. (though the test you have done suggest the battery is ok).

Bit of a mystery really!......... Well to me at least!

[Cicero]

if your sounding as deawing that amount of current it would drastically affect the standby times.

It wont be, it will be your panel dipping its ac.

As breff says stop it doing that and your sounder wills top sounding.

You could put a large cap accross the holdoff connections at the bell.

But to be honest your system voltage should not be dipping so much so that the bell thinks it has had its link to the panel severed.

Understood.

Perhaps switching over to SAB mode (using the on-board battery) will have the same beneficial effect, I'll try this tomorrow also.

Thank you for this advice, much appreciated.

[Rulland]

One test you could carry out is to disconnect the s- to the sounder. If the bleeping and dimming stops you will know that it is the panel that is outputting a s- every 30 secs.

QFA

Eliminate the obvious first-systematically remove inputs/power from the panel to narrow the fault down.

[Cicero]

Did some tests this morning and I think I've isolated the problem to that Battery Test Period setting (as suggested by Breff.)

I removed the +12V supply to the Sounder (as suggested I think by Law&Order) and still observed the momentary dimming on the Keypad display every 30s.

I set the Battery Test Period from it's deafault setting of 24hrs to 0 and that made the dimming stop completely.

The weird thing is that this battery test was only supposed to be happening once every 24hrs and to last for 10 seconds. Presumably it works by the system switching across to the battery for 10 seconds and measuring that the battery voltage doesn't dip below a minimum threshold - the spec says a low battery fault occurs at 10.5v or below!

Now I'm thinking about it, I guess what I'm seeing is a very brief attempt by the system to conduct a Battery Test and if perhaps that test fails, it reverts to mains supply and attempts another test 30 seconds later. The other weird thing is that as per my own battery test last night, the battery sits quite happily at 13.1 V and the 'system' voltage at 12.55, which is well above the 10.5v 'low battery' level.

Anyway, I think in conclusion, if I leave the Battery Test Period at 0 for now it will stop the blip sound and if I get a new bigger battery it might resolve the problem completely.

Many thanks to everyone who offered suggestions - really helpful.