OK thanks dave, being someone who must deal with them a lot what do you think my chances of blagging a new unit from them seeing as though this sort of thing shouldnt happen to these panels for no reason at all I live in manchester so the actual place where they are made in Rochdale is about 2 junctions up the M62 from me

Also what do you think the chances of me finding out the problem on the PCB and fixing it ? I do a lot of soldering work very minute stuff in my spare time

The white casing just clips off so you clould have a quick look around for any burnt out tracks, or dry solder joints around the terminals.

Theres also a voltage regulator attatched to the aluminium heatsink accross the back which may have blown, although i doubt it if your getting 13.6+ volts at the battery leads. Theres also a quite large resistor which sometimes burns out (it usually gets that hot it discolours itself and the PCB around it).

But before you start messing, exactly how long ago was it purchased..? If its less than 2 years ago just take it back and theyll change it.

I dont think I still have all the reciepts for it and I think it may have been just over 2 years :(

There sould be a dated sticker on the panels main board, whats the date on it..?

Well it says 97 but I didnt even buy this house until 98 and I didnt have an alarm untill we got burgled about a year or two later!! so maybe 99 i guess its out of warranty

Oh you little beauty guess what I just found I decided to have a look at the PCB itself a little closer and go over it like I do when Im doing my playstations (*cough cough nudge nudge wink wink*) and i was looking throught the magnifying glass at all the components and I found one burnt out well it looks charred around it and its on the path of the mains and the fuse holder so I took some pics for ya to have a look at I guess I just get the new component and desolder the old one and put in new one now that I an do no probs just need you to confirm for me and possibly tell me what it is Looks like a capacitor to me I think???

Yeah its possibly that capacitor thats gone, hope whatever caused that didnt also knock out IC6.

hello again dave been busy with work not been able to get on I still seem to be struggling to get one of these capacitors I can confirm the value for sefinate I put it under UV Light the other day and you can clearly see it

Value is: 22

16s

any ideas?

Unfortunatly I cant help you out much with that capacitor, those numbers dont mean anything to me, its not standard coding so i cant determine the value. Im inclined to think that your only option now will be to seek out another scrap 580 panel or buy another one and keep that blown one for parts.