AboutDave Neuweiler Expertise The design and application of burglary and fire systems for homes and businesses. Helping alarm owners understand how their system works. Helping to troubleshoot false alarm problems. Questions about monitoring issues.
Experience Over a quarter century in the industry. Experience in installation, service, and monitoring centers. Training manager for a national protective services company; director of education and training for a national trade organization for for alarm dealers.
Question Hello i just recently moved in to this home and its had this alarm system for about 5 years by the previous owner and i downloaded the control panel diagram and everything seems correct when when i plug it into the wall the alarm goes off and i cant stop it unless i unplug it could you please help me with this problem i only want to use it for my personal security i dont want to go thru a company.
Thanks
Michael
Answer Hello Michael, and thanks for writing.
Sounds like you bought the house with the alarm system powered down. It was likely powered down for a reason, which is not good news.
It's normal for the siren to sound for several seconds when the system is initially powered. Anything more than that indicates a problem with the motherboard.
In addition, the backup battery is probably in deep discharge (since the transformer was unplugged for an extended period of time.
Finally, if you did not the the user codes (especially the master code) from the previous owners, there's not much you'll be able to do on your own. You won't be able to turn the system on or off, or assign new passwords.
What you can do is to open the panel, disconnect the siren from the terminal strip at the bottom of the motherboard, then plug in the transformer for a day or so to try to charge the battery. Maybe you'll get lucky.
Then call a technician to inspect the system. This will also let you know if all of the protective devices are in working order.
If need be, the tech can default the system to regain the master codes, then reprogram the system so that you can use it as a local system. If there's a fatal problem with the motherboard, you can get options for replacing it.
