House alarm woes - Control box tamper problem

waveydave79 · 16 Sep 2009 at 11:03

I wonder if anyone on here could help me out.

When I moved into our house 6 years ago, we had a Gaurdtec alarm fitted, up until now it has been fine, However recently the alarm keeps going off at random times saying 'Control Box tamp' on the remote keypad.

Sometimes it can be a day, sometimes it can be 24 hours between it going off. The alarm is a maintained alarm, yesterday the enginner came out and reseated the springs on the box however 4am this morning the same thing happened.

I phoned them this morning, they said they had never had an alarm system go faulty like this, they said they will need to look into it and get back to me. Its really bugging me as money is short and I have a feeling its going to be a new control box / system board.

Any help is appreciated.

SfnX · 16 Sep 2009 at 11:14

i had that problem as well. had a rly old TNT security system, after a few years it started going off etc for no reason for an hour, happened often.it was faulty and didnt work so we uninstalled the fuse but it still went off. so we had to completely dismantel the box and geta new security system.

DJMK4 · 16 Sep 2009 at 11:20

Might just be a dodgy sensor or something inside the panel itself. Its just a sensor which trips the alarm if you havnt entered a code and then into config mode to take the front off of the box.

Unless you know much about the system itself then it might be best to get an engineer to look at it, or do some reading up on the web if you can find all the details for that particular system.

AS_Platinum · 16 Sep 2009 at 13:03

If its really irritating you, put the panel into the log ie: enter your code, then press "no" untill the display says "Do you want to: View the log" press yes and just leave it there, that usually stops Gardtec panels from finding any further faults on the system, and thus no more early morning wake up calls.

Might just be a dodgy sensor or something inside the panel itself

It won't be a dodgy sensor causing this, Gardtec panels have a dedicated global tamper zone for sensors (thats if they are using 4wire and not EOL)
it will most likely be a dodgy spring pinging off, get the engineer to put a bit of sticky tape on the reverse side of the lid where the tamper spring sits just to stop it moving away (thats if he hasn't allready done so?)

Its just a sensor which trips the alarm if you havnt entered a code and then into config mode to take the front off of the box.

But please remember there is mains voltage inside, and you may cause other problems by doing this.

waveydave79 · 16 Sep 2009 at 17:18

AS_Platinum said:
If its really irritating you, put the panel into the log ie: enter your code, then press "no" untill the display says "Do you want to: View the log" press yes and just leave it there, that usually stops Gardtec panels from finding any further faults on the system, and thus no more early morning wake up calls.
.

Thanks for this info. Very usefull if the problem persists.

Very helpful enginner came out this afternoon and changed the springs on the panel. There seems to be 2 springs in the system board (Towards the bottom of PCB) one of which is smaller, the old spring had actually bent so it probably wasnt making proper contact with the PCB switch.

He told me the next course of action will be to solder the tamper circuit so its closed, if this does not resolve the problem then its probably the board. I`ll have to leave it a few weeks now to see if the problem does go away.

*Moangroan* · 16 Sep 2009 at 18:26

Why would an engineer solder the tamper circuit closed.

I realise this will stop it triggering but then the box has no tamper security. May as well solder all your door and window magnets closed so you dont have to bother using the alarm....lol

DJMK4 · 16 Sep 2009 at 18:31

lol, may aswell not have an alarm system at all. was he riding a horse?

Lumeycom · 16 Sep 2009 at 18:54

Indeed - soldering off the tamper loop is NOT a fix!

Are the guys you are dealing with attached to any body? Like the NSI/SIA for accreditation? If so you could give them a bell if your not happy with the service you are getting

waveydave79 · 16 Sep 2009 at 19:51

The firm who put the alarm is NACOS approved, and the statement about closing the tamper circuit was just suggested as an idea - Would have to cleared by the enginneer above him to check it meets requirements.

Lumeycom · 16 Sep 2009 at 21:50

it doesn't