pyronix 46 comms 485 fault

[peterainbow]

so the key pad on our pyronix 46 no longer seems to work properly

if i try and enter the code when i get to the fourth digit an error 485 comes up, after a bit it goes away
weirdly the fob still seems to arm the alarm

but i cannot get into the engineer menu either as same problem

i have done the long press on D and checked that the address is 00

bit worried if i take the case off to check the wiring and the tamper alarm goes off i won't be able to reset it if the keypad is not talking properly

any thoughts on what we can do?

 

[sparkymarka]

Only one keypad ? Did it just come up
With the error on its own ? No other work …programming done on the system ?

 

[Bigsosij]

Tricky one as could be anything on the data line. Are there any other keypads, tag readers, zems ? If just the one keypad you want to be checking for 1/4v between 0v and d3/d4. Check cable resistance. If all ok all you can really do is try a new keypad. If other devices on data line then disconnect one by one to see if fault clears

 

[peterainbow]

can i open the keypad box without triggering a tamper alarm or the like, can battery failure cause these symptoms?
don;t think there is anything else on the line, very simple home setup, just one keypad with integral tag reader and 3 pirs and the bell is all we have
odd how the tag seems to work but as soon as a fourth digit is typed in that goes to the main box it errors ( doesn not do this on the keypad config though so not an issue with the keys )
bit worried about setting off the alarm and not being able to shut it down, we got a lot of grief when our old one broke and got stuck on
going to be annoyed if the keypad or even worse the main box has failed after only 3 years

 

[sparkymarka]

Worst case you disconnect the internal speaker ( if fitted ) and the keypad + wire then there would be no internal noise

 

[Bigsosij]

Could just be a loose wire lol u wont know til u open it. U can silence the tamper alarm with fob once activated....... hopefully not been left on engineer restore.......

 

[peterainbow]

....... hopefully not been left on engineer restore.......

yeah i'd seen about that , i guess fair enough for a commercial install but not for homes and no way to find out apart from the hard way
out of interest what does engineer restore mean in practice, will this mean going through the full setup or is it just a case of entering the correct pin
( which i probably won;t be able to do ... arrrgh... )
guy across the road works nights so is going to be very annoyed again

 

[peterainbow]

Could just be a loose wire lol u wont know til u open it. U can silence the tamper alarm with fob once activated....... hopefully not been left on engineer restore.......

any idea why the fob seems to work but not keys, is this just because less data is being sent so as you say a loose wire that is corrupting the data lines

 

[Bigsosij]

It means u will need the engineer code to reset the system after a tamper alarm of its on. I was thinking more along the lines of a loose wire being disturbed as u oress the keypad..... have u opened it yet ?

 

[peterainbow]

have u opened it yet ?

no not yet, as in the keypad or the main box, if i open the keypad does that have a tamper thing on it?

 

[Bigsosij]

Yes

 

[peterainbow]

Yes

so had the engineer round today who was equally as confused, but we did the IT Crowd technique and it's cleared the problem, he noticed that the time and logs were reset when it was doing it's comms 485 which he nd i now think means that the main board was actually crashing
i'd realised that at no time had i successfully entered the disarm code and yet the alarm was disabled which kind of implies that when in this state the alarm was useless as in entering any four digits would disable it and crash it and remove any logs etc.
if this is a fault with the keypad it would imply that there is the possibility of creating a remote threat vector to take these alarm systems out via the wiring, if not the key pad it means i now have an unreliable alarm system that could at any time become useless, not sure which is worse
if i was pyronix i would want to know what is actually going on with it and if i was a burglar bad actor i'd be pulling the system apart for investigation
sadly i am neither just a consumer who's spent a lot of money for peace of mind which i no longer have lol
starting to consider building my own system from scratch

 

[sparkymarka]

They are not that expensive….or unreliable as panels go , I’ve never had a faulty one …

 

[peterainbow]

They are not that expensive….or unreliable as panels go , I’ve never had a faulty one …

i guess it could have been a mains supply brown out or spike that caused it to get into this odd state, although the battery should handle that?
i guess i'll just have to hope it doesn't happen again
such an odd state to have got into where the tag works as expected ( i generally don't use ) but when typing in any 4 digits it causes the main panel to crash and restart in setup mode