Opening front door is triggering my house alarm

[Zack660]

Hi Folks, I really need your help. Over a number of weeks upon returning to the house and opening front door the external alarm has sounded. Originally this was an intermittent issue, but has now become almost all the time.
The keypad is showing that the hallway pir is triggered causing the alarm to go off.
The alarm system doesn't seem to be registering the door contact to give me xx number of seconds to enter and turn the alarm off.
Have tried putting alarm in test mode and triggering each zone in turn, they all seem to working apart from the front door. I have tried replacing the wired contact, but doesn't seem to have made a difference.

Can anyone please advise what the issue is or any ideas.
Thanks
Carl

 

[bernardgreen]

The PIR detecting the door opening will immediately trigger the alarm.

The door contact does NOT dis-arm the alarm immediately but allows time for you to dis-arm the alarm.

Hence the alarm is still armed after the front door has opened, so the PIR can trigger the alarm.

Move the PIR ( or mask it ) so that it cannot see the front door.

 

[Zack660]

Thanks Bernard, This seems like a temp fix, but doesn't really solve the problem of why the door contact isn't triggering the entry procedure to let me disarm the alarm.

Would really like to work out what is going on.
Thanks Zack

 

[bernardgreen]

the problem of why the door contact isn't triggering the entry procedure

Once the PIR has triggered the alarm the entry procedure will be cancelled (*).

The times when it has been possible to dis-arm the alarm during the entry procedure were times when the PIR had not detected the door opening / person coming through door before you had dis-armed the system.

DISCLAIMER (*) that is how an alarm system should work

 

[omega015]

What alarm system do you have? Have you traced the wiring for the door contact back to the panel to ensure the cable is good/not damaged/shorted (use a multimeter to help you determine this)? Does the door contact have its own tamper circuit or looped into a global tamper? Does the contact have any resistors?

 

[Zack660]

Hi Omega, I have an Accord 8 Alarm.
The door contact just has 2 wires, red and yellow, but within the main control box there are 3 cables with an active red and yellow and and 2 cables where the yellows are cut and not terminated anywhere. The yellows go to Zone 2, Zone 5 and Tamp -R. Have you any idea which of the 3 it might be, so I know which I need to check the resistance of?

 

[Europlex]

er, the problem is that the contact on the front door HAS STUCK.

You don't need to get a meter. A simple problem to diagnose with the information given.

A sharp tap will free it for now.

It NEEDS TO BE REPLACED.

The alarm at the moment is acting exactly as it should allowing for the faulty door contact.

Don't worry what wires are connected, or not, at the control panel, just get a replacement contact and swap them over, like for like connections. Simple.

Bernard and others, read my post, there is the problem.

I thought one of you was an alarm engineer, obviously not.

 

[omega015]

It NEEDS TO BE REPLACED

The op said they replaced the door contact already hence why taking this to the next level to try identify if the cable is damaged somewhere.

 

[Zack660]

Yes, that's correct I have replaced the contact with a brand new one.

 

[bernardgreen]

I

er, the problem is that the contact on the front door HAS STUCK

isn't it the case that if the door is the final exit route sensor and it is stuck then the alarm would not set when leaving the house.

Maybe program the unit to chime on the front door being opened, that would prove the sensor was operating.

 

[Zack660]

Tried getting it to chime, but won't. As I say when in test mode and I open and close the front door, the zone light on the keypad doesn't light up. I need to check the resistance on the wires, but as mentioned earlier in the thread, not sure which wires at the control box have come from the door sensor.

 

[omega015]

So with the alarm in test mode can you unscrew the door contact and unscrew the two wires to the contact, then put them together and again apart. Does it then give zone indication? That will then prove one way or another about the door contact and we can move onto the next part.

 

[Mottie]

Mask the pir off, connect the two door contact wires together, set the alarm, pull the two wires apart and if the alarm starts beeping as it should on entry, you know the wiring/panel etc are okay so try another door contact.

You haven't put a nail or staple through the cable causing a short circuit have you?

 

[Doggit]

If you know how to do a walk test, that suggests you have the manual, so have you gone through the programming, and checked that the entry exit time is set correctly.

Do a walk test to determine which zone was triggered each time, and you'll then know which zone to check in the panel, but zone 1 normally gets assigned for entry/exit of the front door. The odd thing, is that it's an intermitant fault, so I'd go with Europlex in suspecting the door contacts, and although you've changed it, have you got the same type, and wired it up correctly.

It sounds like a diy install, as there is no consitancy to the colours used, and you've only got 2 wires on the door contact, but you should have a third one for the tamper circuit; and there should also be a 3amp connector block in the panel to link all the tamper wires together in to one complete circuit.

Do you feel competant to go through the system and do an assement and then rebuild if necessary.

 

[Mottie]

Surely there should be another two for the tamper circuit, not just one?