Optima XM intruder alarm power supply.

[alanvickers]

Hi - This is my first posting and I wonder if anyone can advise me please.

I have an Optima XM6 intruder alarm panel which had its annual service last week. The engineer's report states that the battery voltage was 13.03 volts and the charging voltage was 10.53 volts. These readings compare with 12.96 and 13.14 volts when the service ws carried out a year ago.

The low figurre for the charging voltage does not seem to be correct and I am wondering if this is indicating a problem with the power supply inside the XM6 panel. I must add that everything is working OK.

Alan.

 

[sparkymarka]

contact your alarm company, it may have been a mistake, but optimas do go off pre set voltage a bit after a few years normally up say 14.00 volts.

 

[alanvickers]

Thanks for that. I queried this with the engineer before he lecft and he insisted that it was OK . I wondered if this was a forewarning that the panel may need replacing in the not too distant future. It is almost 19 years old, however everything is working OK. Is it possible to refurbish the power supply unit with new components or is this not advisable?

Alan.

 

[sparkymarka]

no not really as its a ac transformer , it will be the components on the pcb which will have a wider tolerance as they age

 

[joe-90]

If your charging voltage was 10.03 then your battery would be flat in no time and the alarm would be dropping out. Ask your alarm company how the battery can have a higher voltage than the charging voltage.

You can't get the staff.

 

[Europlex]

If your charging voltage was 10.03 then your battery would be flat in no time and the alarm would be dropping out. Ask your alarm company how the battery can have a higher voltage than the charging voltage.

You can't get the staff.

Could not agree more

 

[alanvickers]

Many thanks for the replies.

I asked the engineer how the charger could be charing the battery and he tried to explain to me tht the 10.3 volts was sufficient to provide some charge. I said that I would be surprised if this was the case but he insisted that this was the case.

I do wonder if he mis-read the voltage. At the present time the lights on the panel are OK and everything is working so I cannot see how the battery is not charging as it would be flat well before now and that has not happened.

If, as has been said, this is a quite common problem with Optimas then I would have expected that the engineer would be aware of this and would have drawn my attention to the low reading instead of me having to query him about it.

Hopefully the unit continues to work correctly, however if it does not - is it possible for the components associated with the transformer to be replaced, I am assuming that they will be a bridge rectifier or diodes, voltage regulator and perhaps capacitor(s). Alternatively is my best option to try and source a power suppply from a redundant panel and failing this to consider an upgrade to a new alarm panel?

Alan.

 

[sparkymarka]

new panel as replacing items on a panel is not cost effective and who going to give any warranty on this type of repair. if this was a tv most people would just replace it after 17 years of use ( think about it, this panel is working 24 hrs a day not just a few hours a day) so its not done bad.

 

[alanvickers]

Thanks for that information, I thought that the power supply may be on a separate board to the main panel and could then be checked out easily but clearly I was wrong. If I do have problems with the intruder alarm then I intend to have a replacement panel installed, ether Optima or Texaom, as this alarm panel has served us very well. The power supply has lasted much longer that power supplies in some entertainment products which seem to develop problems very quickly.

All is working well at the moment and maybe the panel will last a while longer.

Alan.

 

[bernardgreen]

Some battery charging circuits control the charging rate by switching the charging voltage on and off rapidly. The voltage may be 14 volts or more when ON but when measured with a ordinary meter the meter displays the average which will less than the effective voltage.

 

[alanvickers]

Is the power supply in the Optima XM of the 'switching type'? My concern is that there has been a drop of sabout 2.6 volts in 12 months.

Alan.

 

[joe-90]

No alarms have any sort of 'switching type', he's talking cobblers. The cheap and nasty XM certainly didn't. The guy that measured the voltage is incompetent and should change the batteries in his meter.

 

[alanvickers]

I thought that the XM would have a coventional type of power supply rather than a switched one, however as it was mentioned I had to ask anyway.

As regards the engineer and his meter I was happy with his work but afterwards I did wonder about his meter, however he measured the battery voltage and the charging voltage more or less one after the other and the reading for battery voltage was very close to last year's figure, when the battery was new. I have no reason to doubt his competency, however as I said in an earlier posting, I would have expected him to alert me to a low reading for the charging voltage and not for me to have to question him about itt.

Maybe, for my peace of mind, I should have another test done of the respective voltages.

Alan.

 

[Dibbler]

Sorry for jumping in here but our Optima XM6 is of venerable age now, albeit it seems to be working fine (apart from some of the numbers fading on the keypad).

What would be considered a suitable replacement panel for it with what is available...? I would only be interested with a panel which has six zones (or more) and for an on board keypad.

Whilst ours does seem ok I'm more curious as to what is available these days and whether they can offer features over and above that of the Optima which has served us well.

 

[sparkymarka]

direct replacment is an optima g4 panel ( but seems there has been more issues since they started making them in china ) or a texecom veritas.