Galaxy G3-520 - Alert! Enter Code - then nothing

Greetings,

Haven't been here for a while due to working abroad for a bit.
My wife has been pestering me for a while now as she had to completely disable the Galaxy while I was away. This is a DIY install (unsupported) and has been working fine for many years.

Recently we've been getting an "Alert! Enter Code message" and the keypads will long beep cyclicly, so 1st one keypad then the next and so on. They don't all beep together.
A bit of Googling only revealed one or two hits of interest suggesting to check batteries - done that, see below.

When the alert appears - entering the management code on any keypad initially does nothing (won't even display ***** on screen) and the keypads continue to beep in order.
Eventually after about 5mins or so the system will take the code.

Inspecting the logs reveals no faults and the only entry of note is +ILL-CODE KEY 51 and -ILL-CODE KEY 51 but the code has been entered correctly.

This is doing my head in as I can find no issue with the system. Battery Voltage is 13.8V in the main cabinet and 13.48V in the RIO. I replaced the on-board button cell recently as that had died. All lines are terminated with EOL resistors and these are secure.

Sometimes the system will run for days with no issues then there will be days like today when it will generate the alert every hour or two.

I have issues with the odd keypad reporting Door Force in the past and have simply replaced them when that happens.

Any suggestions or things I may have missed?

Cheers
-s

Are the keypads on different busses ? It does sound like there's one faulty keypad and it's triggering the invalid code lockout mechanism, thus disabling the other keypads in the system. Work out which keypad is wired as 51 - program the backlight to off and it will be easily visible. If you can take a close up picture of the back of the pcb and post it here for review.

Isn't keypad 51 the internal keypad of the Galaxy? 5 isn't a valid branch number, would be 1-4 on a 520.

Oh yeah, you're right scott1980, it's one of the virtualised keypads. IIRC 51 is the serial port and 50 the PSTN (need to check that). If nothing is connecting to these devices, then it may be power, noise related or a bad PCB.

Guys, Many thanks that was a great pointer.
I didn't realise there was a virtual keypad (makes sense though)

I thought the address of 51 was a bit odd. I have six keyprox's on 1-00, 1-01, 1-02, 2-00, 2-01 & 2-02 so confused the heck out of me.

I pulled the serial cable as this is linked to an automation system. Started beeping within about 15mins - so not that.
I've now unplugged the ethernet RJ45, so far so good but jury's still out yet.

Much appreciate the input as at least I can now start to narrow down the issue.

Best regards
-slip

Which version of Ethernet module and panel firmware do you have ? There were issues with the GX app on older firmware / module combinations when output control was enabled and it caused all sorts of issues. I haven't seen it cause an invalid code on kp 51 though.

Also, the older E080-2 and E080-4 can cause problems if there's any sort of flood on the network and that can cause the panel to lock up / reboot. I reported this to Honeywell a couple of years ago after a school had the panel crash when their LAN was flooded. The only fix for this is to isolate the panel network or fit the newer E080-8 or E080-10 module and the panel firmware updated to V7.03.

Hi GalaxyGuy,

Ethernet module is E080-4. FW: 6.31.
Galaxy is on an isolated Automation VLAN - not a busy VLAN.

Although I have an SPI key I have no means of getting firmware onto it (yet) but I will look at updating the Ethernet module anyway if they are flaky.
Only reason I put the Galaxy on the LAN at all was to enable the GX app (which frankly I don't use as it's not great and so slow)

Thanks for the information.
Regards
-s

So about 5mins after my last post it started again.
I've now disconnected the Ethernet module and unplugged the RS-232 so now back to basics.

When I went into engineering to remove the modules, it asked me confirm removal of the comm-04 module and keypad 15 (not 51) which I assume is part of the ethernet subsystem.

Fingers crossed my main board is not at fault.

regards
-s

Yes, on Dimension 15 is the Ethernet module virtualised keypad. Which automation software were you running on the rs232 port ?

Automation is Crestron.
The Crestron Galaxy program has been running continually since 2016 with no issues except for a break in 2018 when I updated the processor to a later model.

When all this started while I was away I initially got my wife to unplug the Crestron during fault finding.

I've had it plugged back in since I got back last October as I was pretty confident this was not the issue.

So far no lock ups or beeping. Watch this space
Cheers
-s

Sent you a pm.