Veritas 8 unset light flashing

[Limeyard]

A bit of a story, but trying to provide full background info.
My Veritas 8 system has performed well since it was installed new about 5 years ago. It was then 'upset' by a power cut a few months ago. I replaced the main battery, and all seemed fine for a while until it was 'upset' again by another power cut. My attempts to reset it again left me with a flashing 'set' light but it functioned well in all other respects for a while until it started to chime every minute. This served to nag me into fitting a new sounder battery. However, the flashing/chiming symptoms remained. I discovered that although no zones were set to chime I could silence the chiming issue by one simple press of the chime button on the remote keypad - but it would revert to chiming again each time the system was 'unset'.

 

Yesterday I removed power, disconnected the system battery, returned power, reconnected the battery (in that order, because I had read that on a forum). The periodic chiming (at one minute intervals) had ceased but I was left with the flashing set light which I believe indicates a battery/charging issue.

 

THEN, reading through the manual again I saw that it said at 3.7:

Power should always be connected in the following order:

• Connect the red battery lead to the positive terminal of the battery and then connect the black battery lead to the negative terminal.
• Connect the AC mains.

So I did exactly that. And I am back to flashing and chiming. I notice too that the power LED on the main panel is flashing, (the panel is above door height in a cupboard, so hard to see) but there has to be power or the battery would have gone flat ages ago - and anyway, nothing would work, would it? If fuse F5 has gone, (I haven't checked it) could the panel still function and maintain charge?

 

There has to be a simple solution to this. Do I need to try reverting to factory default settings? I think the default engineer and boss codes are unchanged, but is there a simple way to check that without changing anything?

Edited November 14, 2017 by Limeyard

[PeterJames]

Sounds like the service timer is on

[sixwheeledbeast]

With you saying boss codes, this sounds like an 8 Plus or Excel and not just an Veritas 8?

If you want to check the codes you can enter them and see if they work, you are likely to only have 4 attempts before a local tamper alarm will occur.

Bear in mind if you are poking about in engineers menu and not sure what you're doing you may change the system programming causing more issues.

I also believe it's most likely to be the service timer and as the system has been powered down the time and date is likely to be wrong. I would default and reprogram from scratch myself.

 

 

[aissecur]

I seem to recall the vertias has a three tier service timer one is chime every time when unset, I think the second is one triggered zones when unset & third lockout...

 

There may be a possibility that the NVM (System memory) has become corrupt, a suggestion would be to have the system defaulted and reprogrammed

[Limeyard]

Gentlemen, thank you all for your opinions on this, especially helpful as you all have basically the same view. Sorry about my delayed response - I'm a bit snowed under atm.

I was wrong about the engineer code not having been changed so, as I vaguely remembered changing it myself I guessed what I might have changed it to and fortunately it worked first time!  

 

The manual says that just putting in the engineers code removes any expired service timer settings but that didn't happen. I have re-done the date and time settings and I have also set historic (expired) dates for service timers one and two. Sadly, nothing has changed; on unset the unset light starts to flash and the chime chimes at one minute intervals. I can inhibit the chiming behaviour (until the next unset) with usercode>>prog>>chime. However, the flashing unset light persists.

 

So, not too much pressure now, although I do need to decide how to proceed. I expect it will be a factory default, but I will sleep on it - or maybe you guys have some other thoughts.

 

I shall be in hospital next Monday to have a little job done on 'the old ticker'. It would be nice if - after nearly 80 years - they could do a default on that. 

[sjsturner]

You definately want to default the whole thing and start again, any local firm should be able to help and shouldn’t cost too much either.

 

On the latter issue, best wishes for Monday.

 

Edited November 16, 2017 by sjsturner

[james.wilson]

its not got a service timer on it?

[Limeyard]

16 hours ago, james.wilson said:

its not got a service timer on it?

Yes, it has. It's called angina.      I have survived three 'strobe events' so far - this service is intended to prevent (or at least delay) the fourth.

[sjsturner]

Lol top man

[Limeyard]

The stent has now been inserted and I have survived doing nothing for a week by way of recuperation, so it's time for an update.

I hope you are all sitting up to attention because this is very strange!

Last night - well, this morning really - at 00:20 hrs we were woken by the alarm. We noticed that the radio alarm clock in the bedroom was flashing, suggesting that there had been a power cut. The radio alarm always does this, even if the 'power cut' is just a transient one. I cancelled the alarm and reset it. I also reset the radio alarm clock, and climbed back into bed.

At 00:50hrs the alarm went off again. Observations:-

• The alarm clock was again flashing 12:00 . .
• The computers and ip surveillance cameras were unaffected, as were the LAN and the NAS box.
• The oven clocks in the kitchen were unaffected.

This 'power cut' had been very brief - perhaps just a 'spike'. I hope you at the back are still paying attention because this is where it gets really interesting: The alarm reset perfectly -  without the problem of the unset light flashing or the chime chiming. The whole reason for this thread had evaporated in a moment!