Tommygunn

Just got some Fenix 3.6V(and also tried some old Trustfire 3.7V's) instead of the installed, disposable Li-ion cells, thinking that they would work just as well in my parent's Crocodile garage door sensor. Both brands of rechargeable cells will only allow the door to partially open, about 10-20cm, when the remote is activated and then it comes to a halt. This results in the door being unresponsive to the remote with warning beeps and light being emitted from the main wall mounted panel. Anyone know why re-chargeable Li-ions, on the face of it, don't seem to want to work in the door sensor? Cheers, Tom.

Al-yeti, Going back to your questions. Yes, it dials the tel number and thinking about it now there is no dial tone for the dialler. The phone works fine. Tom.

Just looked at the photo and saw that the Line 1 & 2 connections of the modem only have two contacts per socket, the centre contacts, so not to worry about that as I can easily use my multimeter to figure out which wire, in the photo above, goes to which contact. Tom.

I think I know what the problem is. Prior to the change over the old modem and the phone connected to the main phone line via a filter, and the phone would work when the modem was switched off. Now, however, the setup is different and the phone is plugged into the modem Therefore, I'm thinking that I also need to have the dialler plugged into the secondary telephone socket on the new modem. Does that seem correct? Old setup with filter behind sockets: New setup with telephone connected to 'Line 1': So to test this I want to use a bunch of phone extensions to make an adhoc connection between the dialler and the modem to test for function before I go trying to feed wires though the walls/floor. The question is, out of a four wire telephone cable, which two are carrying the signal or which contacts of the RJ plug are being used; centre contacts, outers etc? Cheers, Tom.

So. this old chestnut has reared its head again. Due to an accidental activation, it revealed that the dialler is again not working properly. The device itself seems to be perfectly fine; it dials, plays the message etc etc but a call is not received. The only thing that has changed in the past two or three weeks is that we have changed our internet provider and in so doing also upgraded to a fibre connection. Any ideas what could be the problem now? Tom.

PeterJames, I presume you were joking? I will be replacing it but I just wanted something as a stand-in for the time being on the end of some bodged in fly leads. It won't charge, ok, I'll leave it in that case. Anyway, I've just got back and pulled out the battery and it is reading less than 5V, so it be dead. I've also disconnected the piezo on the bell box just in case there are some more power outages, silent alarm for the time being. Cheers, Tom.

It looks like I´ve got an alarm panel battery problem because there have been a couple of power outages in the past few days resulting in alarm activation. Therefore, I was thinking, can I simply wire up a car battery instead of the low capacity battery that´s installed in the panel? Will there be any problems with the panel charging circuitry or is it essentially a straight swap, so to speak. I have a Honeywell Accenta Mini G4 panel. Cheers, Tom.

I've just done some jiggery pockery with the wiring of the water damaged unit and now I've got a good, working bell box with a working strobe! Time for a cup of tea, especially since the missus got me to clean all the Velux windows while I was up top. Tom.

What I'll do for now is disconnect the damaged bell box and rewire it for a single bell use, easy enough. Does anyone have any recommendations for an compatible, alternative model that is comparable, in terms of price and features, to the AG6? Cheers, Tom.

Ok, I've taken some photos and done some tests and below is what I've observed. First, I conducted a manual test of the bell boxes, via the LCD keypad option, and both piezos sounded at the same time with the correct high/low siren. I then did a full alarm activation and everything worked as it should except that the 'rear' bell box just gave out regular high pitched beeps while the 'front' bell box gave out the correct high/low siren signature. Also, of course, no strobes for either bell box. I also replicated AC power loss but to no avail, none of the bell boxes sounded. Front bell box: Fully functioning piezo, non functioning strobe and no water damage. Rear bell box: Partially functioning piezo, not during full alarm, non functioning strobe and water damage. Tom.

Gents, Thanks for the input so far. I'll have to back to this at the weekend as things are a little busy at the mo to go scrambling around on the roof and what not. Cheers, Tom.

Al-yeti, I'll get some photos of the circuit boards and terminals as soon as. I know there has been water ingress on the bell box that I don't think activated as I've drilled some drain holes in the outer casing. However, it never reached the pcb only the status LED and corroded the legs, but it still functions. James, Yes, I want to do a full replication/full test as soon as, only one problem - the piezos. Is there a way to muffle them? I've tried stuffing cotton wool into the cones and taping over holes but it has little effect on the sound level. Is it feasible to attach LEDs in their place to act as activation indicators? Tom.

I have the two boxes wired up as per the instructions, see below. For ages they were working just fine, then in the past six months, or so, the momentary beep noise started on setting the alarm and then the other day the second problem occurred on the loss of mains power. Prior to this we've had plenty of power cuts and nothing happened. Tom.

I think what I'll do is desolder the 6V button packs from the bell boxes and solder in some 5 cell AA packs of much higher capacity. Concerning the Lead Acid, I'm currently doing a discharge/charge test to try and ascertain its health. Tom.

The panel is a Honeywell Accenta G4 with both mains and a lead acid as backup. Tom.

I've just scrolled through the event log on the keypad and it says that it recorded 'Mains failure' at the corresponding times. Tom.

Things came to a head this morning when we lost power three or four times and each time one of my two bell boxes, at least I think it was just one, was activated. However, several problems, historical and new, are occurring with the boxes. 1) For a while now when I set the alarm one of the bell boxes makes a random alarm type tweet(or not) once it sets. Sometimes it might not make a sound, sometimes a full blip and other times a blip of random, truncated length, as if when you set the alarm your catching the circuitry doing some sort of count. 2) So, this morning, for every time that we had a power cut one of the bell boxes would activate but the LCD keypad showed no alarm condition. I could not deactivate the bell box from the LCD keypad during the outage even though everything was powered up by the main panel battery. When mains power was restored the piezo/bell box would stop, by itself. I've have done several things so far: a) LED's on main panel, LCD keypad and both bell boxes are all functioning. b) Battery for main panel at 13.30V, bell box that activated 6.93V and other bell box at 7.23V. c) I've done a complete test (with piezo buzzers disconnected, I fitted each piezo with a jumper connector for maintenance/testing/neighbours reasons) and the main panel worked perfectly, activated the telephone dialler and my phone rang - so no problem there. 3) The strobes on each bell box are not working. I observed each strobe during the full test and during a manual, strobe only test and they weren't functioning. What I did notice was that when I did a manual, strobe only test the LCD keypad lighting actually dimmed. This does not happen during any other function of the LCD keypad. I fitted the system back in September 2012 and the batteries are unchanged. Even though they are holding a Voltage could it be that the capacity is knackered? Anyone have a clearer idea on what is causing these problems? Cheers, Tom.

I think there is. I'd have to check because I would have stripped it of its casing and placed it inside the socket because I can't stand the things hanging out the wall like a 1970's prosthetic. Would this be the cause? Tom.

...and of course thanks to everyone else who suggested the delay, Tom.

Norman, You are the man! I had not seen that part buried in the booklet and indeed even if I had I don't think it would have occurred to me to utilise the facility. I would say that I think the diagram is a bit misleading and the text is not perfect but I found through a bit of trial and error that if I hit 'REC' once after entering the number, instead of before, multiple times or inbetween as the diagram appears to show, it worked flawlessly. Again, Norman, many thanks. However, there is one small, minor issue that doesn't really affect me but my BinL. That is the Informer Dialler will only work correctly if the modem is switched off or has the tel. line unplugged from it. Is there any way to counter this as I know he would still like to use the internet even if we are out the house? Thanks, Tom.

There are neither of those keys on the Informa. Here's a link to the product: http://www.security.honeywell.com/uk/products/intruder/control-panels/gen4/462380.html I'm going to drop Honeywell an email later and see if they can shed any light on the matter. Tom.

I don't understand how that relates to the Informa. Tom.

Is there a way to introduce a delay as I can't find any way to do that in the instructions? Tom.

kwc, How would I switch between tone and pulse? Tom.

The first part of the message says where the alarm is taking place i.e. the house of Dani and Tom. The second part indicates the type of alarm, in this case a burglary. Tom.