Optima XL4 Problems - help please!

[Guest pete_davies74]

Never posted here before. Found you thro' Google. Looks like a really helpful forum so thought I'd post my problem. ANy help very much appreciated.

I've got the above alarm with 2 PIR sensors and a magnetic sensor on the front door. I've been getting false alarms recently. No sign of any intruder causing this. All doors downstairs shut at night.

Seems to happen on hot nights.

Any ideas?!

Thanks

Pete

[Service Engineer]

You havn`t really given us much information to go on, but from what you say, I `d guess at a Tamper fault, of course this may not be the case. What indiations are shown on the control panel after you enter your code and before you press the reset button..?

[CompostCORNER]

Dave's right. More info is needed but if Dave's gonna have a guess. So will I .

May have a faulty panel battery that is drawing a high current from the panel PCB. If bad enough, voltage drop at the PIR's could be causing activations.

Thing is Pete, theres dozens of reasons why an alarm falses. Although people on this site bend over backwards to assist, without looking at your alarm equipment and doing a few tests, plus having very little information to work from, we are all just clutching at straws.

Tony

[Guest RICHL]

The fact that it only happens at night might be significant, equally it might not

My own particular stab in the dark - given that it is an Optima panel - would be induced AC.

[j.paul]

Ok here's my 10 bob's worth

If it only happens at night then I would check for spiders first

A can of fly killer, sprayed around the room normally dose the trick

Another thought Because of the hot nights are there any fans runing or windows open?

[Guest pete_davies74]

Thanks for the responses everyone.

After an alarm, it says it's been activated in the lounge. No fans or open windows. Curtains shut. Not sure about the spiders! Will check if it happens again.

I will replace the battery (7 yrs old so maybe a good idea anyway?)

Thanks again.

Pete

[Guest RICHL]

7 yrs old so maybe a good idea anyway?)

Yep!

[Guest Adrian]

B) Befor you change the battery (a very good idea if its 7 years old) Have a look behind the keypad area, You will see a resistor that is about 1cm long and 3-5mm wide.

It should be a shiney sand colour with some little coloured lines going around it. (Its the only one on the PCB of this size) If it looks like its burnt or crumbing in any way then forget getting the battery as you will need a new panel.

The charging circuit on the early ADE panels are prone to burning out if a battery goes faulty and its not removed sooner rather than later.

(Warning there are live mains inside the control panel)

Adrian B)

[Brian c]

It sounds like you probably just have a faulty sensor, if not a spider mentioned before. Swapping the zones of the two sensors in the control panel can help. If the alarms continue on the same zone, it is likely to be the panel at fault. If they occur on the zone you moved the alarming sensor to, then the sensor and/or cable are at fault.

The first thing I would do is replace the sensor.

Hope this helps

[jennypatel]

This seems to be the problem in the sensor of your alarming system. Try to install the latest dual sensor in your alarming system, this helps you in preventing you from the false alarming.