blacksmith Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Hi. Hoping for a bit of advice on a very oddly behaving alarm system. Castel Care Tech 1700 panel with two keypads and a Texecom Oydessy 1E sounder. All was working well, no faults, battery replaced a couple of years ago and has good life. Recently, we had a roughly 36-hour long power cut, during which the power blinked off and on briefly a few times. At the end of day 1, came home to the sounder running on it's own internal battery, with the panel itself dead and still no mains power. As a stopgap to allow everyone to get some sleep, the panel was opened, a different (car) battery hooked onto the panel, and the alarm silenced once the panel came on. Once the mains power was restored, the spare battery was disconnected, the panel reconnected to the mains, and the battery reconnected and left to charge for 24 hours. Now the fun starts. - Attempting to set the panel gives an F1 tamper fault. The panel's tamper switch has been tested with a meter and is OK, the switch can be heard clicking as the panel's cover is put into place. The sounder's switches have been checked, and the sounder appears happy that the tamper circuit is OK (leds flash alternately, 1s each). There was no tamper before the power cut. The panel fuses are all OK. - The alarm seems to arm itself on clearing the triggered zone code. If the alarm triggers, it shows the triggered zone on the LED. If you press d to clear that display, the alarm seems to reset silently, but not correctly. Walking through the house, some zones will show the PIR triggering with no activity from the panel, then into another zone triggers the alarm instantly. (Silent arm delay period, maybe?) - The engineer and manager codes don't appear to work. Previously, the codes I had would put the panel into manager or engineeer mode. Now they don't. My idea is that the panel's setup has been corrupted somehow during the powercut, and that the best approach is to default the panel as in the engineer's manual section 6.4, and reprogram from scratch. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthew.brough Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 We have had tons of issue with old castles following power downs. End result, they are now G2's. www.securitywarehouse.co.uk/catalog/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blacksmith Posted January 23, 2014 Author Share Posted January 23, 2014 Yeah, did suspect someone would say that. I reckon I've nothing to lose by trying a default (unless anyone has any bright ideas ), but supplementary question... What could I replace it with that's ID compatible, or has an optional ID interface? I really CBA replacing the system wiring, as that's perfectly OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthew.brough Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 ID wise if we have been backed into a hole and can't change to EOL used a Premier with an ID module and seems to work well. You've nothing to loose with the crashing of the Castle but we haven't sucesfully brought one back. Problem is we need to downpower them (we bought a company that had a lot of them) to fit the plug on relay card to make it work with webway. Can't do it live but 1/2 the time when you power backup the problems begin. Lucily although on ID, the majority the cables have run back to the panel so a G2 has been a welcome get out of jail card. www.securitywarehouse.co.uk/catalog/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterJames Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Texe and Gardtec have ID modules that work the 1700 was never that good in comparison to the 2500, it was Castles cheaper panel and it was cheaper made Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blacksmith Posted January 23, 2014 Author Share Posted January 23, 2014 I'm pretty sure that on this one the cables run to a junction box in the roof space, and a single back to the panel. So, Plan A - default the thing. Nowt to lose. Plan B - This - http://www.securitywarehouse.co.uk/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=375 And This - http://www.securitywarehouse.co.uk/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=388 or alternatively, something from the existing Castle range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthew.brough Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 You'll need a keypad don't forget . . . www.securitywarehouse.co.uk/catalog/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blacksmith Posted January 23, 2014 Author Share Posted January 23, 2014 Oh yeah, two of them. Odds are I've have to choose the panel based on which new keypads will cover the holes left by the old ones - some fool has wallpapered and painted around one instead of lifting it. I'll default the thing in a few days time and report back. Thanks for the help so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james.wilson Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 i doubt its dead. F1 could also be keypad tampers or sab. securitywarehouse Security Supplies from Security Warehouse Trade Members please contact us for your TSI vetted trade discount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blacksmith Posted February 2, 2014 Author Share Posted February 2, 2014 OK, After some playing about this afternoon, the following. Attempting to default the panel by pulling the NVM chip results in the panel restarting, and refusing to accept the default code. Power off, reinsert NVM, restart, the user code silences it. It still appears to set itself at point where the panel is displaying day mode. So, unless anyone can think of anything else, I say the main ROM's FUBAR. Thoughts? Next question, There's an ebay seller listing a couple of castle euro series panels (a 28 and a 44) for not-much money, claims they are working. Worth a punt? They appear to have a lot of security stuff, so I'm assuming these are old panels from taken over or upgrading customers. Edit - also, the NVM chips are supposedly obsolete and unobtainable? Not so, it's a bog-standard 16Kb EEPROM available from Farnell. 24LC16B/P, 37pence each. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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