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 I have a Security Command Executive Series control keypad that runs my security and fire alarm system. The other night we had a smoking pan in the kitchen and set it off. I entered the code and it shut off the alarm. However, the message still flashes that "sector six" had a fire alarm. I'm trying to reset it but it's been years since I've had any lessons on the thing and I can't figure out the command. I found a website with this series of keypad and I followed the instructions, but the messages I get are different. They said to look for a "reset fire alarm" message, then press a function button, then enter your code. I only get a "sensors on?" query, but when it asks yes or no, there's no "okay" or yes button. I've tried every one of the four buttons on top, but to no avail. I have two keypads and they continue to glow red because of the event, but I can't reset it for the life of me. Any ideas?
Answer Hello Clarke and thanks for writing.
I'm not conversant in that series of alarm controls. However, many systems have latching smoke detectors, meaning that once tripped, they latch in that condition. The idea behind this is to be able to tell which detector went off, even after the smoke has cleared.
To reset the detectors, it becomes necessary to momentarily remove the power for them. Often, a small push button is mounted on the side of the main control panel to do this.
If there's no button, and you can open the panel, you can still reset the smoke detectors. Just read the hookup diagram to find which terminals power the smoke detectors. Loosen the screw from one of these, remove the wire for a moment, and put everything back.
