Yale HSA6400 Siren LED won't light up

[johnywalker]

Hi,

I just installed a Yale HSA6400 kit and everything works fine. The one thing I have notified is that when I arm the siren, the led on the siren never comes on.

I can see my neighbor's alarms with led flashing all night. Having the led flashing will be a deterrent to thieves. Mine doesn't light up and looks like a dummy box.

Am I missing some setting?

BTW, when I was learning the siren, the led and the beep did come up!

 

[JohnD]

the LED is not supposed to light up, except when setting, unsetting, or alarming.

I expect your neighbour has bought a £1 LED off ebay and poked the wires into the battery holder. I did that once, the current draw is so tiny that there was no detectable difference in battery life.

In your dummy box, you can do the same thing, but put the wires on a Lantern Battery which is cheap and will last a couple of years.

You can also buy a cheap battery-operated Christmas Tree light and cut off all but one LED, but they usually have very small battery boxes. In that case, Lithium batteries will last much longer than alkaline.

The dummy LED trick is so well known that it might not fool anyone but the 12-year old crack head who is your most likely burglar.

It is preferable not to let your siren tell people if it is switched on or off.

 

[bernardgreen]

If the LED was flashing continuously the battery in the bell box would not last as long and ladder work to replace it would be more frequent if the alarm was to be kept in working order..

 

[johnywalker]

Thanks for the clarification guys!

 

[JohnD]

Another useful tip is to see if you can put the siren box in a place where you can reach it from an upstairs window, and it can be seen, but it cannot be reached from the ground or e.g. a porch roof. It will then be easier and quicker to change the batteries.

With a single flashing LED I added myself, the batteries were still good when I changed them at 2 years.

 

[johnywalker]

Yes, I have done that. Thanks.