Another strange one

**watchdog** · 09-01-10, 10:54 AM

Ultima 862 with no w/less devices (all hardwired). Customer wanted remotes , no problem there but when testing/demonstrating the sirens would only chirp when panic was triggered & then a battery fail would appear.Same with codepad panic. Individual tests of internal & external sirens was OK but not both together. Obviously a bad battery & owner said it was about 6 yrs old. Battery was replaced & all was good. The odd thing was that the battery was passing the dynamic battery test.
Maybe the test threshold on the PCB had drifted. Has anyone experienced this before ?

**Tastech** · 09-01-10, 11:14 AM

had one sorted of the reverse watchdog a ness D8 sending low battery signal attended and replaced battery , while owner was at work , he rang to say he had only replaced battery 6 months ago as panel had sent low battery , Went back to residence we tested old battery as he is an auto electrician tested fine , the battery he had taken out 6 months ago he charged up tested fine .The panel continued to now and then send low battery signals , terminals in good condition and tight in the end the owner got us to diable low battery reports i think , as it appears the panels was deciding battery that were still good were faulty

**WIDEMR** · 09-01-10, 03:23 PM

Bosch can be set to not to set or sirens on low batt, while there is a low batt you can hold down a number on the kp to set of the int and ext and they work, but arm and set it off or panic and they wont go off.

I always assumed this when the fault triangle is up sayign low batt, now if that wasnt up, im wounderign if when it goes to set of the sirens it tests the voltage or somthing, and the kp beelping, dialer maybe, stobe all drawign a little bit of juice is nough to drop it down to below a limit, but unusual not to bring the fault light on.

So with new batt its all sweet?

I dont trust batt tests anyway, always change if over 2 years old and im on site and know they prob wont get somone in for while

**WIDEMR** · 09-01-10, 03:24 PM

Originally Posted by Tastech

had one sorted of the reverse watchdog a ness D8 sending low battery signal attended and replaced battery , while owner was at work , he rang to say he had only replaced battery 6 months ago as panel had sent low battery , Went back to residence we tested old battery as he is an auto electrician tested fine , the battery he had taken out 6 months ago he charged up tested fine .The panel continued to now and then send low battery signals , terminals in good condition and tight in the end the owner got us to diable low battery reports i think , as it appears the panels was deciding battery that were still good were faulty

wasnt sending low batts from an RF sensor or remote?

**Tastech** · 09-01-10, 05:32 PM

No the unit only had hardwire sensors and no remotes , thinking now we had a DL100 or Esprit 738 used to do the same thing panel was replaced migt have been spiked at some stage

**Privatteer** · 09-01-10, 06:44 PM

I've run into that battery scenario a couple times.
1st, separate charger circuit not charging. Tac-tech power supplies for example.

2nd, Too much load on the panel, and the battery is in parallel to the DC supply. Either does not charge the battery or slowly draws current from it.

**watchdog** · 09-01-10, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by WIDEMR

Bosch can be set to not to set or sirens on low batt, while there is a low batt you can hold down a number on the kp to set of the int and ext and they work, but arm and set it off or panic and they wont go off.

I always assumed this when the fault triangle is up sayign low batt, now if that wasnt up, im wounderign if when it goes to set of the sirens it tests the voltage or somthing, and the kp beelping, dialer maybe, stobe all drawign a little bit of juice is nough to drop it down to below a limit, but unusual not to bring the fault light on.

So with new batt its all sweet?

I dont trust batt tests anyway, always change if over 2 years old and im on site and know they prob wont get somone in for while

With a new battery everthing was fine.
As far as I know it only tests the battery on arming. I would assume the battery fail threshold would be set at a value below what would be required to operate the sirens. I've never had a problem with the bosch battery test before , it's usually pretty spot on.

**keef82** · 10-01-10, 06:40 PM

Do you guys actually have battery testers ?? the Dynamnic Tests on panels isn't that great.
We have battery testers, you'd be surprised how many fail, also, how many installers overload the recommended aux current on a panel

**downunderdan** · 10-01-10, 11:43 PM

Define "battery tester", Keef. What gear are you using?
Various methods also include a multimeter, or licking both the terminals to see if you light up...

I advocate putting a meter across the battery, and then again when it is under load with sirens, strobe, outputs etc. running. One can then see how quickly the battery charges compared to its expected performance. I'm simplifying the process, but over a 1 hour service call, one can achieve a very thorough diagnostic.

Then again, these days it's more cost effective to simply replace the battery so the main thing to verify is that the charging circuitry is up to scratch.