Honeywell Galaxy 2-12 Alarm - deteriorating ..?

[greyhound1234]

Have an (ex-ADT) Honeywell Galaxy 2-12 with CO12 'box'. It has been giving me "bat mis +0001" messages once every few days.
I have read this means the internal 12V battery is on it's last legs.

Went in engineer mode, I opened the box. Carefully avoiding pulling on other wires too much I rotated the battery to read what it was rated at. The action of moving it immediately caused the all the power the my house to turn off, and the outside alarm to sound (rather weakly). 5 seconds later it went back to normal.

Very odd. Anyway I bought a new battery and installed it in place of the old one. Closed up, exited engineer mode. All happy so far.

Few hours later, power to whole house flicks off and immediately on again a second later. Suspecting something may be loose in there, I take a (non conducting) pen and poke all the cables and connections to see if I can make it repeat the behaviour. Nothing happens.

So this is making me wonder if there is, in fact, a problem with a component that is gradually deteriorating and developing a tiny earth fault. Maybe the transformer? Any suspect parts in there that are known to cause this? Could the deterioration of any part also make the battery not change up correctly or otherwise produce the 'bat mis' warning at random intervals?

I'd like to get a handle on what it might be. If not too expensive I'd probably going to get someone out to repair it, but I am also considering just having a new alarm fitted. Probably will power it all off for the time being while I think about it.

Incidentally, does anyone know how to isolate this thing? I only have a direct cable from the consumer unit (no switch) to an unswitched fused spur, and then to the main alarm box.

Cheers

 

[sparkymarka]

Remove fuse from the unswitched fuse spur, that's what it is there for !

 

[socdesign]

Only really the transformer in the G2 unit would give earth leakage. I wouldn't suspect that to cause the whole house to switch off. The battery was probably at the end of its life, so changing was the best thing to do.

Normally any electrical fault condition results in a throw of the breaker. This would not result in the breaker switching back on as that wouldn't be safe. It sounds more likely as you suggest that there is poor connection somewhere in the consumer unit.

Are you sure the whole house is switching off and not just the lighting ring ?

 

[greyhound1234]

Thanks both for the replies.

socdesign - indeed it didn't trip any RCD or fuse, but power to many things definitely turned off and on again. Power was restored like 1/10 of a second later, difficult to notice except the lights flickered and the boiler power-cycled, as did my mains powered radio. This occurred just as I moved the battery. It also occurred a while after I put in the new battery and the box was all closed up, and I never touched anything then which was worrying.

I assume the consumer unit is okay, since all this seems to be related to my activities in the G2's box. I guess the house-wide cut-out behaviour is related to the fact that the alarm is 'hard-wired' into the consumer unit, rather than via an RCD or switched fuse, but I'm not an expert in this.

As for why it is occurring at all, yes I thought it could only be the transformer, or maybe a low voltage connection touching the metal box. I was curious if transformer was a known long term fault, or not, or if there are other well known long term faults that might give this effect. The unit is 7 years old.

Well it hasn't given any problems overnight (touch wood), hopefully it has settled down but still very strange and concerning.

sparky - thanks if it gives me further cause for concern I will get out the plastic pliers and pull the fuse. Just wondered if I might find a hidden switch somewhere for it, but I guess that would not be very burglar proof.

 

[socdesign]

No issues seen on the very simple transformer in the Galaxy series. I would put my money on a loose connection in your mains setup and vibration while working in the area is causing problems.

I would consider getting an electrician in to give it a check over.

 

[greyhound1234]

Recalling that my neighbour, in the 'other half' of the semi-detached, recently changed their alarm control box, I had chat with him. (same alarm was installed when house was built).

Turns out they had to change it because the transformer was buzzing and they had batteries not charging. An inspection revealed the transformer was hot and even had left some burn marks in the vicinity.

They didn't have any symptoms electrically like I had, but maybe mine is going the same way. Seems fine now I've stopped fiddling in the box.

I also read this:
//www.diynot.com/forums/alarms-cctv-telephones/galaxy-g2-12-power-supply.330076/
Which someone else had transformer failure and gives details on what transformer is rated at.

If I can't find one I think I will look for someone selling the C012 control box and take the transformer from it...

 

[socdesign]

Different failure modes. One had gone open circuit which would be a typical failure mode of any transformer. The other was probably being overloaded with an old battery or faulty circuit.

You're suggesting that yours has some sort of fault that's switching the whole house power off and on. For that to happen, the house would need to be switched by the consumer unit based on the faulty alarm circuit. I haven't seen a consumer unit that would switch things back on itself. Normally if any fault is detected, the power is switched off by either blowing a fuse or throwing a circuit breaker. Both of these conditions require manual intervention to restore power.

Any further suggestions sparkymark ? Any consumer units that auto restore power - would think that would be pretty dangerous?

 

[sparkymarka]

Loose wire somewhere get someone in to check ! or just a power out in the area agree with next doors transformer issue probably never replaced battery and overheated transformer !

 

[greyhound1234]

Interesting, so possibility that constant charge load from old battery causing transformer burn-out, provides a plausible explanation for the neighbours problem. Glad I changed my battery...

Anyway I will definitely get the consumer unit checked over then.