DSC Alarm weird load-shedding behavior

[Mobus]

The voltage of the batteries are dropping too low and opening the MOSFETs on the radio / zone input from one of the sensors.

You dont cut corners when it comes to security of your family. Replace your two lead batteries with one of these and thank me later: https://leroymerlin.co.za/lithium-iron-phosphate-13v-22ah-280wh-battery

If you are uncomfortable cutting wires and crimping the necessary lugs, you'll need to ask a friend. Make sure it is done properly

What the life expectancy with these LiPo batteries?

I buy a standard sealed lead acid battery for my alarm system, maybe every 2 to 3 years @ ~R250. Thats about 7 batteries for at least 14 years before the LiPo recovers its cost.

 

[agentrfr]

What the life expectancy with these LiPo batteries?

I buy a standard sealed lead acid battery for my alarm system, maybe every 2 to 3 years @ ~R250. Thats about 7 batteries for at least 14 years before the LiPo recovers its cost.

20+ years and 10s of thousands of cycles.

The primary advantage of lithium iron is that it can be cycled from 100% to 0% literally two thousand times and only lose 20% of its oriniginal capacity.

A lead acid left to drop to 0% twice is basically unusable

Hence for batteries backing up eskom, the smart move is lithium iron

 

[agentrfr]

What the life expectancy with these LiPo batteries?

I buy a standard sealed lead acid battery for my alarm system, maybe every 2 to 3 years @ ~R250. Thats about 7 batteries for at least 14 years before the LiPo recovers its cost.

To be clear the type I am recommending is Lithium Iron (LiFe) and not Lithium Polymer (LiPo based on LiMnCo etc.)

 

[rrh]

To be clear the type I am recommending is Lithium Iron (LiFe) and not Lithium Polymer (LiPo based on LiMnCo etc.)

Please recommend a brand/model for a LiFe battery - Google doesn't appear to find any

 

[Mobus]

Please recommend a brand/model for a LiFe battery - Google doesn't appear to find any

Uhm... the takealot link is literally in this thread

 

[rrh]

Uhm... the takealot link is literally in this thread

Thanks- just me being my normal idiot self and misreading a posting !!

 

[Dan C]

What the life expectancy with these LiPo batteries?

I buy a standard sealed lead acid battery for my alarm system, maybe every 2 to 3 years @ ~R250. Thats about 7 batteries for at least 14 years before the LiPo recovers its cost.

Damn you are lucky to get 2 to 3 years. With the frequent loadshedding the normal LA don't last long.

 

[rrh]

What model is it?

If one single battery is installed they advised 400mA and if 2 where installed 700mA. But the default is 400mA.

Remember these systems where made in Canada they dont have loadshedding all day like us

The charger setting was in “701 First International Option codes” in the programming menu.

To quote myself

The charge rate can be set using the First International Option Code #7: setting this to 'ON' will select the high current battery charge rate of 700mA, which is recommended for 7 and 14 Ahr batteries. The default is 'OFF' (400mA), and which is only recommended for 4 Ahr batteries.

Given that I have never seen a technician check/change the charge rate since the day I switched to higher capacity batteries, my guess is that there are a lot of woefully under-charged batteries out there, mine amongst them.

 

[neoprema]

Digging this out from the grave..

Does anyone know what causes a DSC alarm to go off, saying its in Alarm. The event buffer says the triggered zone was 000-System Area ?

 

[Fre3kill]

My DSC alarm is doing strange things.

It's a DSC 1864 with a DSC Wireless Expander + OLARM, ADT Radio and 2 Panels. There are 28 zones of which 20 are wireless.

Its connected to 2 x 7.2ah 12V batteries in parallel.

For the last 2 nights, everytime we have load-shedding the system is fine until about 1.5h in and then suddenly the alarm siren goes off for 30 seconds and it sends a tamper alarm to ADT. I go to the panels and they're frozen - they won't accept any keypad input and the remote FOB's can't arm or disarm. The OLARM also can't do control the panel.

It stays in this state until AC power is restored and then it logs a "Battery Low" condition and works perfectly after that.

But I've tested both batteries right after it happened - and one had 13.1V and one 12.5V - both seem fine?

Any idea what could cause it? Once AC is restored it works perfectly again.

the alarm panel is only able to charge at max 700/900 milliamps' (1x 7/8 amp battery) at any given time and connecting 2 batteries will not charge them, it will only damage the system charger as time goes, ask your security company to add a seperate power supply (5 amp charger) with an 18 amp battery and wire it through a relay to operate independently while the power is on and when load shedding starts, then the 2 batteries ( 8 amp & 18 amp) become 1 which will solve the pwoblem.

5 amp power supply and 18 amp battery.

Battery Back up Power: Sherlo 6.4 Amp Power Supply with 18 Amp Gel Battery – Alarm in a Box

alarminabox.co.za

 

[Sinbad]

Digging this out from the grave..

Does anyone know what causes a DSC alarm to go off, saying its in Alarm. The event buffer says the triggered zone was 000-System Area ?

Probably a flat battery

 

[neoprema]

the alarm panel is only able to charge at max 700/900 milliamps' (1x 7/8 amp battery) at any given time and connecting 2 batteries will not charge them, it will only damage the system charger as time goes, ask your security company to add a seperate power supply (5 amp charger) with an 18 amp battery and wire it through a relay to operate independently while the power is on and when load shedding starts, then the 2 batteries ( 8 amp & 18 amp) become 1 which will solve the pwoblem.

5 amp power supply and 18 amp battery.

Battery Back up Power: Sherlo 6.4 Amp Power Supply with 18 Amp Gel Battery – Alarm in a Box

alarminabox.co.za

My house in on solar+inverter now so I don't need the battery backup as we never go "down" - i've unplugged the battery from the alarm completely (cc @Sinbad )

 

[Fre3kill]

Digging this out from the grave..

Does anyone know what causes a DSC alarm to go off, saying its in Alarm. The event buffer says the triggered zone was 000-System Area ?

when the alarm battery is flat the system will die and when the power comes back on the alarm system will come back on in the armed state

My house in on solar+inverter now so I don't need the battery backup as we never go "down" - i've unplugged the battery from the alarm completely (cc @Sinbad )

ok, but the alarm still needs the battery connected or it will continually keep giving a trouble condition indicating that there is no battery connected, but is the transformer of the alarm plug part of the solar/inverter, if not then that could be the problem.

 

[Sinbad]

My house in on solar+inverter now so I don't need the battery backup as we never go "down" - i've unplugged the battery from the alarm completely (cc @Sinbad )

Which is probably the reason then

 

[neoprema]

Just to update this old thread.

Reconnecting the battery did stop the strange issues.

The only one left now is a “Communication” fault the panel logs at random times. Simply viewing the trouble log stops the panel beeping and it works fine until then next random time it re-alerts to the issue.

I’ve tested it all and it’s working 100% and notifying ADT of alarms etc. so what is causing the trouble state of “Communication” is a mystery.. but it’s working.

 

[soulie]

Just to update this old thread.

Reconnecting the battery did stop the strange issues.

The only one left now is a “Communication” fault the panel logs at random times. Simply viewing the trouble log stops the panel beeping and it works fine until then next random time it re-alerts to the issue.

I’ve tested it all and it’s working 100% and notifying ADT of alarms etc. so what is causing the trouble state of “Communication” is a mystery.. but it’s working.

does it maybe want to phone home ? some with built in diallers do that if it cant clear its log .if you dont use the dialler if it has one disable it .

 

[neoprema]

does it maybe want to phone home ? some with built in diallers do that if it cant clear its log .if you dont use the dialler if it has one disable it .

I was thinking this - somewhere in my trying to clear zone errors i think i defaulted some settings.

But is not using the dialer to trigger the ADT radio? I thought the armed response radio is pretending to be a modem or am I not understanding it correctly.

 

[soulie]

I was thinking this - somewhere in my trying to clear zone errors i think i defaulted some settings.

But is not using the dialer to trigger the ADT radio? I thought the armed response radio is pretending to be a modem or am I not understanding it correctly.

on some the radio and dialler are needed .have a look on the board on some the dialler can be unplugged .if you can get an installers book change the value to 0 or to like a gazillion minutes for report back .