Old wickes burglar alarm

[PeterJames]

3 hours ago, Tel3 said:

Thanks Peter,,yes the panel still sounds..and have tried the factory reset codes and engineer code…but no joy,,like I have said there is a way of going back to factory setting by placing a link in,,but unfortunately on my rascal the link connections are not there.

When you press the buttons can you hear them beeping ? If the usual code is not working and the factory code is not working then its probably died.

 

The link is the the left of the LEDs the other side of the NVM chip

 

 

[PeterJames]

 it looks like this

[allaaannnn]

hi. I  also have one of these old wickes branded rascal super hard wired alarms that has completely died after a power cut ( mains power to unit still 240v and batter not dead , and neither is on pcb fuse not blown but all lights off and keypad inoperable. Its had a very good innings and wanting advice on whats best to replace it with , are there any hard wired alarms that can also be accessed via the net ?

[PeterJames]

1 hour ago, allaaannnn said:

hi. I  also have one of these old wickes branded rascal super hard wired alarms that has completely died after a power cut ( mains power to unit still 240v and batter not dead , and neither is on pcb fuse not blown but all lights off and keypad inoperable. Its had a very good innings and wanting advice on whats best to replace it with , are there any hard wired alarms that can also be accessed via the net ?

Try recycling the power without connecting the battery

[james.wilson]

4 hours ago, allaaannnn said:

are there any hard wired alarms that can also be accessed via the net ?

Yes all the good ones.

But very little with onbaord keypads most people have remotes now

[allaaannnn]

Hi Peter , many thanks for the tip regards my old wickes branded rascal super hard wired alarm. It has brought it back to life. 

 

Hi James,  "But very little with on board keypads most people have remotes now" If you mean having separate hard wired remote keypad. I'm happy to have one of these. Any particular brands/ models you can suggest . 

 

Even though control panel is working again, it has caused occasional false alarms always on hot days over the last year or two and I really think its time to retire it. When visually inspecting the pcb yesterday there was signs of overheating on far right side of the  board by an onboard small battery and metal heatsink that comes out the back of the pcb . Whether this was part cause of the historical false alarms on hot days, or the unit acting dead after the power cut,  I am unable to say 

[sixwheeledbeast]

A Texecom Live panel would likely replace it like for like but most professional kit with remote access is subscription via a registered installer.

Someone has to pay for the servers and secure network to route all this remote access traffic.

Burn marks on the PCB are likely due to age and not having it serviced regularly.

[al-yeti]

6 hours ago, allaaannnn said:

Hi Peter , many thanks for the tip regards my old wickes branded rascal super hard wired alarm. It has brought it back to life. 

 

Hi James,  "But very little with on board keypads most people have remotes now" If you mean having separate hard wired remote keypad. I'm happy to have one of these. Any particular brands/ models you can suggest . 

 

Even though control panel is working again, it has caused occasional false alarms always on hot days over the last year or two and I really think its time to retire it. When visually inspecting the pcb yesterday there was signs of overheating on far right side of the  board by an onboard small battery and metal heatsink that comes out the back of the pcb . Whether this was part cause of the historical false alarms on hot days, or the unit acting dead after the power cut,  I am unable to say 

Hot days false alarms , might be also detector issue...

[PeterJames]

17 minutes ago, al-yeti said:

Hot days false alarms , might be also detector issue...

Agreed, the type of detectors that were around when the Rascal was produced would be prone to sunspots with no white light filter. The Bellbox may also be a problem on hot days polycarb was much thinner and expands when it gets hot causing tampers faults.

 

If the panel powered up okay on mains first I would say the battery although it may be showing the correct voltage is probably fecked (Technical term for no good)as its drawing more current than the PSU can supply.  Assuming that the wiring was installed well, that would be the only thing I would look to be saving from your system. If not, well.... wireless systems are pretty good nowadays.

[james.wilson]

13 hours ago, allaaannnn said:

Any particular brands/ models you can suggest . 

depends. Its like a prefered car brand do you want peugeot, ford, bmw or bentley?

 

6 hours ago, PeterJames said:

wireless systems are pretty good nowadays.

All or some?