Battery Warning Keeps Flashing

Hi all,

I'm having a couple of odd problems with my newly installed Homesafe 5400/16CB that the manual doesn't really explain. They are :

1. The battery icon on the keypad is constantly flashing.

2. Every 2-3 minutes the keypad goes into Not Ready state and all the zone numbers briefly cycle on in sequence. It appears to be some sort of diagnostic test or operation.

My focus is on #1 at the moment, and I've set up the simplest possible complete system to work this out. Connected to the base are : 1 PIR, 1 keypad, 1 strobe, no sirens, a tamper switch (permanently depressed), the A/C adaptor and the battery.

For #1, How can I confirm the system is correctly receiving A/C power, thus charging up both the battery in the base and the battery in the keypad? I left it going overnight for about 7 hours but the battery icon was still flashing. Would the recharge of the keypad's battery take longer than this?

anything you may think of would be appreciated!

thanks
hobson

 

photos

I attached some photos of the alarm, keypad and PIR wiring.

In the alarm photo the wires are from left : 3 for A/C power, 2 for a strobe, 4 for the keypad and 4 for the PIR. All unused zones and the tamper have resistors in place (despite the photo angle, none of them are touching that shouldn't be).

The last photo of the keypad face shows #1 above (the battery icon which is constantly flashing) and was also taken while #2 was occurring (the sequence of zone numbers appearing and disappearing in a kind of Mexican wave).

Please help! What have I missed?

thanks
hobson

 

This is only a random guess, and dont take this to mean that I know specifically what I'm talking about...

But are you sure that you have the Clock and Data (blue and white wires) to and from your keypad wired correctly?

I know some alarm keypads would exhibit similar behavior to what you are describing if these are the wrong way around.

Just a thought...

Darpa

 

sorted

Thanks for the suggestion Darpa, I actually checked the data/clock cables about seventeen times

I just found out what the problem was. The manual describes the 17V plugpack thus:

Red & Black (AC)
White (neutral)

The plugpack provided has yellow, black and white wires, so I wired it as:

Yellow & Black (AC) - WRONG
White (neutral) - WRONG

The correct wiring is :

Black & White : AC
Yellow : Earth

Apparently there's meant to be an addendum included with the manual for this - I didn't get one!

Now I've got working A/C and battery power and the "Mexican Wave" problem on the keypad seems to have disappeared too. There's now two orange glowing filaments in the upper left of the alarm's main board, near the red heartbeat LED. I'm assuming they light up while charging the battery. Or maybe they provide illumination for all the little alarm gremlins to do their work!

thanks
hobson