Advice on Gardtec 816

[FFCForever]

Hi All,
I have a Gardtec 816 home alarm, which sits in my shoe cupboard.

I had an issue with it some time back where, because it was in the shoe cupboard, it had the front panel knocked off it (the alarm motherboard where the battery is not the keypad) by a large pair of boots being flung in and the the keypad started beeping constantly.

Due to Covid we are always in and didn't use it anyway.

Naturally i have my user codes but not the engineer codes for it.

Its not under contract but the company who used to look after it from a previous home owner wanted stupid money just to come and look at it, IIRC it was in the region of £175 plus £50 for every extra 15 mins he was there after 45 mins or something. So possibly cheaper to get a new one at that point.

So i opened the keypad and disconnected the wire to the beeper so the keypad shows a tamper alarm for that but it stopped the buzzer going off in the keypad - silence!

A few months later however, i read, somewhere, that if there is a power cut that it may trigger the bell to go off as the motherboard still has power and the battery connected. Is that correct?

At this stage i just want to turn it off, i have found a place on ebay which apparently will reflash the motherboard bios to remove /reset any codes for about £25 and i may do that and try to set it all up again - a small project for me .

So firstly, if there is a power cut would this cause issues as i may just forget about it if not?

If it could and i wanted to disable it completely, would it be best to remove the connections to the bell then the battery then the power or is there a better method to avoid annoying the neighbours?

 

[secureiam]

Might be cheaper to get a functioning used panel, as you will have to post it out and given it could be damaged anyway.

 

[FFCForever]

Might be cheaper to get a functioning used panel, as you will have to post it out and given it could be damaged anyway.

Thanks, good point actually, I didn't consider that.

It was only £25 though for the reflash so I felt it was maybe worth any risk in that respect.

Any ideas on what the safest way to turn off this one is though?

 

[secureiam]

Don’t know what the state of the damage is and this means a full replacement case and pcb required.

as for switching it off remove all power, how the external bell behaves depends on the bell attached to it.

 

[FFCForever]

Don’t know what the state of the damage is and this means a full replacement case and pcb required.

as for switching it off remove all power, how the external bell behaves depends on the bell attached to it.

Hmm. That's what I'm worried about. If I disconnected the power and it did go off, is it likely to turn itself off after 15 mins or so?

I can handle that, but what I don't want is it going off all day and not having any idea how to stop it.

How does that work then, do some bells have batteries in then or something?

 

[secureiam]

Ladders and disconnect bellbox battery to be certain.

It's rare they go on beyond 20 minutes with no power going to the panel.

It's possible that a bellbox with its own power can still sound, if tamper activated or shortest but it's rare and would stop after power gone.

Often when that happens it's more of a whimper rather than a full on bell

 

[FFCForever]

Thanks for the advice.

I'm sort of in two minds, it's been like this for a few months so do I just leave it etc.

But then I'm just worried if the power cuts in the middle of the night and the bell goes off that I won't be able to stop it.

I think I'm just going to have to grow a pair and pull it.

 

[secureiam]

Power cut and external bell ringing means back up battery isn't taking over but a new battery could go flat quick if board is damaged.....

 

[sparkymarka]

Pm me if your struggling for a pcb sure we have a fair few kicking around ....

 

[secureiam]

emptying your store room a lot recently......

 

[sparkymarka]

Cant keep it forever lol