Texecom Dual Tech puzzles

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A couple of interesting issues which I hope might get some advice from you experts please.

I posted here recently about false alarms from a Ricochet Dual Tech DT-W detector. It was giving a false alarm at night. After advice here I replaced the batteries in all the devices although they were still showing OK on the monitor. A couple of days later the same detector alarmed again, so I cut my losses and replaced the detector with a new one. It promptly decided to alarm as well.

I could see no reason why it should be triggered - the room is closed up at night, no pets around, nothing to trigger either PIR or microwave, let alone both together. Then I realised that both the old and new detectors had triggered at the same times. I had recently installed an LED security light in the adjacent room, on a time switch that turned it off at exactly the time the alarms had been triggered. The mains wiring for the lighting runs directly behind the detector, on the other side of the wall. It does look as if the detector is picking up transients from the light's wiring. This is rather surprising though as the partition wall is solid brick plastered both sides, and the lighting is very low power so not much current being switched. However the timing is too much of a coincidence.

To test this I'm going to leave the new detector where it is, and mount the old one in the opposite corner of the room. Then I'll set the time switch to turn and and off several times during the night. To avoid any more false alarms I want to turn off the Guard settings for these two zones and only record any alarms on the log. What is the best way to do this?

The other issue is that when the alarms have gone off the GSM has not sent an SMS to my phone as it should. Each time the bell sounded I have cancelled it within a few seconds, but I would have expected the SMS to be sent immediately. What is happening here? As a test I set the reporting options to report Open and Close and these reported properly every time, so why not on alarms?

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Where did you get this led light from ? Make model ? It may use a switch mode power supply which can give out high frequency noise ( this is why they don't recommend the use with access control equipment )
 
Make is Knightsbridge (ML Accessories) and yes it's a separate switched mode PSU. Only 20 watts of LED lighting load though.

I'm still having problems with the logging. I've set the guard zone attribute to 'On Test' and updated 'Restart zone test timer' using Wintex. According to the installation guide this should log an activation but not sound the bell. But it doesn't, it sounds the bell every time. What am I doing wrong?
 
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Just to report back in case anyone is interested in the answers to my original post.

1. I have re-run the LED switch wiring well away from the detector, and after repeated testing there has been no further false alarm. This is not conclusive proof that switching transients were getting into the detector, but it does seem likely as the problem has not repeated.

2. The absence of an SMS report for alarm conditions. In the installation manual I came across the Area option "Full Arm Comms". It wasn't checked in the settings, but it is now and the SMS is sent as it should.
 
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Hi Sally, well done finding the problems and solving them. not sure why your full armed coms was turned off, thought they were on at default and part arm and unarmed coms were off.

If something is working one minute and not the next, you have to ask what's changed?

Make sure the soak test time is set in global timers, default is 14 days.
Double check that the attribute is on test.

Not had to use the feature for a long time so a little cloudy.
 
To be honest, I'm not sure that the SMS on alarm ever did work. It's mainly been used to text in and check the status when I've been away.

The system was installed by a 'professional' company and I wasn't entirely happy with what they did, so I took over the maintenance and have gradually sorted out the issues as well as adding new facilities.

Having sorted the main problem I've given up on the soak testing as the system now seems to be working 100% again.
 
lol 'professional' company, the install should meet the brief, if it doesn't its not much good to anyone.

However come across many systems where the user has though they have had a particular service and it turns out they have not even got the module required to do it.
 
I wasn't happy with the installation, although the equipment being Texecom was all fine.
After a long dispute I said I would only pay the balance if they gave me the engineer code and never came back. Having a degree in electrical engineering I have no problems in maintaining it - with some excellent and much appreciated detailed advice here!
 

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