Accenta 8 Mini Intruder Alarm Problem

[mshcah]

The external bell on our Accenta 8 Mini alarm went off during the night. The alarm had not been set. The internal sounder did not ring.
Entering the usual code in the keypad had no effect. So I disconnected the power supply, opened the alarm unit and removed the backup battery.
Even without a power supply, the bell continued ringing for a few minutes and thankfully then stopped.
Now I have a few questions which I would be really grateful if someone could help with ...

1. Is this likely to have been caused by a dead backup battery? It is about 5 years old, so presumably due for replacement.
2. How do I replace the battery? Just insert, connect, close unit and switch on power? Or will that result in the alarm going off again!
3. I think I will need to set a new keypad code. Is that straightforward? How do I do it?
4. What else will need to be reset or reconfigured? Presumably the 'zones' will be retained?
5. Out of interest, how did the bell continue ringing without mains or battery connected? Would there be further battery or energy storage in the external bell?

Thanks in advance for answers/advice.

 

[funnysambam]

1. yes, i would replace the panel's backup battery. 5 years is a good time to replace it.

2. i assume you mean the main panel backup battery.

if the panel is already turned off, just take out the new battery and replace with new, but don't fit both the battery leads until you are ready, because that will power the alarm off the battery.

3. it depends which code you want to change, user or engineer.

4. as long as you don't reset the panel to factory defaults, you should retain all your programming.

5. yes, most modern alarm external bells have a backup battery inside, so if an intruder gets in and disables the main panel, the external bell can still sound.

interestingly, about 6 months ago, I had a similar problem with my Accenta G3 Mini that was installed in my house, where late at night, the external bell sounded and sent a tamper signal to the main panel. i powered down the whole system and left the bell's battery to run itself flat.

I got the bell down from my house as soon as possible, and it turned out the bell battery had actually exploded, creating a tamper signal.

maybe this is a similar situation to mine?