Veritas 8 Tamper Problems.

[jamesjay]

Hi All, Firstly sorry about the long post but I wanted to give as much detail as possible because it is an intermittent tamper fault with no fault zones indicated on the panel or fitted RKB’s, the panel and RKB’s were fitted before I bought the house. I have regularly changed the backup battery the last time just over 2 years ago, and if I disconnect the panel from the mains the battery kicks in without the alarm going off, and if I then disconnect the battery the full alarm sounds for a few seconds while the panel discharges, so I think the battery is OK.

The tamper faults started about 3 weeks ago at about 3 am and went off twice within about 30 minutes, but luckily the unit was in part set mode (just 3 magnetic contacts) in use on the front, back, and shed doors, and were only on the internal sounders at low level which is how it is programmed. In fact there have been no alarms of any kind so far on full mode or unset mode, and I have been out of the house for over 5 hours at times, so plenty of time for it to go off and annoy my neighbours.

All was OK until Sunday when it went off again twice within 30 minutes in late afternoon, so I decided to isolate the panel from the RKB’s in case it was a RKB fault, and all was fine until yesterday when it went off again and it is now in unset mode with mains and battery power and so far no tamper faults. I have checked all the wiring on the PCB for loose wires, checked all the fuses are OK, slightly adjusted the tamper spring on the panel casing, and used some Servisol on the micro tamper switch and even re-soldered the 4 contacts on the back of the PCB, but the fact I am not getting any indication of zone faults and if I use my code and I press reset I get the unset light makes me feel it is the bell box weather damaged or the PCB passed its sell by date and about to fail.

I would like to reconnect the RKB’s and isolate the bell box from the panel given what I have read on here, but it could be still be one of the 3 magnetic door contacts or the 2 PIR that are at least 20 years old that are faulty. The problem is I don’t have the installation manual just the user’s guide and I could do with some idiot proof instructions on how to isolate the bell box or tamper circuit of the bell box before I start buying stuff I don’t need!

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

James.

 

[sparkymarka]

Do you have a multimeter ?

 

[jamesjay]

Yes l do, and l was using it to test the magnetic door contacts when you replied, and l got a bit of a surprise.

Although l had fully powered down the panel both mains and battery l am still getting a small amount of current from the door contact wiring, but it is less than 1 millvolt, l presume this is earth leakage from my Sky box or Freeview box, l have also recently installed a new PC monitor to view a CCTV camera aimed at my shed in the back garden, could this be causing my false alarms?

Thanks for your reply.
James.

 

[secureiam]

so if your getting a tamper fault what did it say in the event logs?

You can press omit when tamper shows in the event log and then a number is displayed.

This will give you some idea of which circuits to look at based on the number reported.

This is in engineers manual readily available online, you can on some veritas do it from a user code in the same way.

 

[sparkymarka]

Do all the device tampers come back individually to the panel ? Set meter to ohms and check each tamper pair ..What are you getting ?

 

[jamesjay]

Hi secureiam and sparkmarka,

Thank you for the information and advice, I am attaching some pictures that I hope will help, as you can see I have now reconnected RKB, and can check the last 7 alarm events.

It is easier to take pictures of the RKB than the panel because it is in a cupboard, but in all events the lights are the same as in the attached pictures in the case of P2 the main panel shows a flashing tamper, unset, and power, but no zone! I had another false alarm last night while in part mode so P2 is the resulting event and the tamper light was flashing when P2 was taken.

P3 is a much earlier event from last week when I deliberately triggered the alarm in part mode after fully powering the panel down, this had a flashing zone 4 which is the front door on magnetic door contacts, with a steady tamper and unset light.

I also found what appears to be the details of the Bell box with strobe P1, this leaflet dates back to 1998 and could be helpful if the bell box needs changing.

Sorry if this more information is not what you needed.

Kind regards
James

 

[secureiam]

Sorry I am lost.

when you go into the event log and Tamper is illuminated, press Omit and then zone 4 is illuminated ?

If Zone 4 illuminated when you go into the event log then that relates to the device.


The tamper table is in the engineers manual.

 

[sparkymarka]

My money is on the bellbox …. If it’s a Tate/ ventcroft bellbox with the strobe at the bottom ( looks like Texecom 1 bellbox ) the tamper switch is on the right hand side behind the screw , they are known for issues

 

[jamesjay]

My money is on the bellbox …. If it’s a Tate/ ventcroft bellbox with the strobe at the bottom ( looks like Texecom 1 bellbox ) the tamper switch is on the right hand side behind the screw , they are known for issues

Hi Sparkymarka, If it is the bell box it hasn't done to badly because it must have been in use for over 20 years possibly 25, I went out for a few hours today and decided to check the full alarm on return, I triggered Zone 1 which is the shed door no timed delay full alarm from opening and used the kitchen door Zone 2 to turn it off, in the picture both are on but the triggered Zone 1 was flashing. I heard the full alarm go off and checked before doing a reset and the bell box was flashing, and stopped after I pressed reset, and you are correct the blue strobe is at the bottom, it looks like a Texecom FCA-0001 .

I was thinking of replacing the magnetic door contacts and the 2 PIR's because they have been in use for 20 odd years and I don't need to get the ladders out to change them, and it would be slightly cheaper than the new bell box, I am just hoping the wiring hasn't deteriorated in the many years the system as been going!

Thanks again for your help lads any further advice would be welcomed.

James.

 

[sparkymarka]

Post pictures of bellbox and pirs

 

[sparkymarka]

And picture of pcb of the main box ….

 

[jamesjay]

Post pictures of bellbox and pirs

And picture of pcb of the main box ….

Will do but l am just waiting for the part alarm to trigger tamper to see how long it lasts this time!

 

[Bigsosij]

A tamper fault will occurr regardless of wether or not the system is armed

 

[sparkymarka]

I need heip
You need to do this ..
Ok I will do this
No you need to do this
Jesus

 

[Bigsosij]

It seems clear to me that james needs to use his multimeter to check the voltage of the bell tamper return feed, and check the resistance of the global tamper circuit, and share the results. My guess is he's still sat on the landing with the system part armed waiting for it to tamper again