Gardtec alarm appears dead

[mat8iou]

My house has a Gardtec alarm system - installed about 10 years ago now.

Over Christmas (I was away), neighbours told me that the external sounder went off on two occasions.

On returning, the LCD on the keypad appeared to be completely dead. I assumed some sort of power failure at this stage.

I've since opened the cover of the control unit with a multi-tester and there is power getting through to the unit - the backup batter still has power in it and the circuit boards feel warmish to touch.

Has anyone had similar experience? With a unit of this age is repair likely to be an option, or is replacement going to be the only possibility? If I am replacing, can I still retain the cabling / PIR sensors, as I'd like to avoid having to open up floors / drill holes etc if at all possible.

Any thoughts would be welcomed.

 

[sparkymarka]

What gardtec panel is it ? Post picture of pcb and keypad
Is battery hot ?
Possibly a fuse blown on pcb

 

[mat8iou]

Thanks for the reply.

I've attached a few images below.

On removing the cover this time, I realised that the PCB had a plastic cover over the front face of it. Removing this revealed a fuse that I hadn't seen before (bottom left of one of the pics). It appears to have blown. The writing on it seems to say 1AL250V. Its hard to read though.

One the cover was removed, this also revealed a green LED that was lit (top right of the same pic). So power is definitely getting through somewhere. Is it normal that power is still going through to parts of the system when the fuse is blown? Or does the fuse regulate something else in the system and not the general workings on that PCB?

Is it normal for these fuses to just blow occasionally? Or is it likely that this indicates some other problem?

On the inside of the plastic cover of the PCB was a piece of black duct tape covering the holes where the two LEDs would be visible. Is this normal - is there a reason why the installer would have done this?

 

[sparkymarka]

Ok you have a gardtec 595 panel only problem with these panels is the single fuse , it could be battery , bell or aux that's blown the fuse which is 1amp fastblow
Go to mapins and get a pack of 5/10
Disconnect the battery and the positive aux wires
Replace fuse if ok now put the aux back in if ok reconnect the battery

 

[mat8iou]

Great. Thanks for the suggestions. Will try this and see what happens.

Which wires do you mean by the positive AUX wires? Is this the incoming ones from the mains? At present when I open the case I isolate the whole unit by popping out the fuse holder from the spur that the control box is connected to.

 

[sparkymarka]

No on the pcb the power for the detectors ( probably red and black ) look at the blue and yellow wires there will be some other wires that go to the aux power to suppy the detectors with 12v

 

[Europlex]

.....................................................
On the inside of the plastic cover of the PCB was a piece of black duct tape covering the holes where the two LEDs would be visible. Is this normal - is there a reason why the installer would have done this?

I would expect that someone asked the installer to do this so that the lights would not normally be seen.

In one way or another over the years I've covered up LEDs all over alarm systems at the request of the customer.

Whoops, sorry, his wife.

 

[sparkymarka]

The tape was done by risco as the cp8l and cpx panels had a piece of black tape on the inside of the lid

 

[mat8iou]

I got some new fuses and swapped the blown one out. Unfortunately everything else remains the same - I reconnected the power and the LED comes on as before, but nothing else happens - the keypad is still completely dead.

I tried another fuse just in case the replacement was faulty, but no luck.

I'm at a bit of a loss now as what to do - is the unit a write off, or is there a chance that there may be some other issue in the system that is relatively easily fixed?

I'm assuming that if it was a fault in the keypad and everything else was working that then the alarm would be sounding as a tamper fault?

 

[sparkymarka]

You will need a multimeter to do any further tests

 

[mat8iou]

I've used one to check power to the fuse connection and power coming from the backup battery that are both fine. Where else should I be testing? Across the terminals where the wires connect leading out to sensors and the keypad from the control unit?

 

[sparkymarka]

Set on dc test following
Battery leads ( battery disconnected)
Aux power
Keypad power
Bell power
They all should be about the same around 13.80
The keypad may share the 12v + with the aux but have its own 0v

 

[Europlex]

The tape was done by risco as the cp8l and cpx panels had a piece of black tape on the inside of the lid

But why would they cover up the LEDs? - Doesn't make sense

 

[sparkymarka]

Because for the stupid rules of showing power on/ off on the panel !

 

[scott1980]

It’s to comply with EN. Most other manufacturers redisgned their kit to comply, Risco went the quick and dirty method with gaffa tape...