Astec House Alarm

lolo97 · 07-01-2015 6:01pm #1

Hi all,

I've been having a problem with my Astec A 63 ( I am not sure but I saw a picture of similar house alarm). The alarm goes off when its not even turned on and it tells me Zone 2 (the hall). I checked all the sensors and the connections are fine. I am not sure if its the PCB or the sensor, how do I which one it is?
How can it go off when its not even turned on?
Also I would like to know if anyone has the manual so I can do a factory restore?

Thanks

KoolKid · 07-01-2015 9:09pm

I will send you the manual , but a factory restore would be very unlikely to solve this problem.
It is more than likely a faulty sensor on that zone or faulty or damaged wiring.
Do you have a multi meter to check the resistance on that zone?
Any alarm will activate if it sees a fault or a tamper on a zone regardless of whether it is set or not.

lolo97 · 07-01-2015 10:54pm

Thanks for your reply and for sending me the manual.
I have a multi meter and I know how to work it but I don't know how many Ohms should be there.
The wiring is perfect, I checked that.
I'm guessing its the sensor or PCB. I was thinking to swap the sensor with another one, but I'm scared to not make it worse and annoy my neighbors in the morning when it goes off.
What is your opinion on this?

Thanks

KoolKid · 08-01-2015 12:01am

Check the zone as follows.
Disconnect the zone from the panel & remove any end of line resistors,
Set you meter to continuity and connect the pair to the 2 meter leads.
on a length of cable long enough to reach all your windows on zone 3.
Make a note of the reading in ohms. One by one tap every sensor & open and close every contact. After a tap or an open close the resistance should return to the around the same value. If it does not disconnect that device , close of the pair wired into it & move on. Replace any that you had to close off.

The resistance depends on the length of the run & how many devices are on it.
Even on a larger run it should be under 20 ohms.
If its only a couple of devices then only a few ohms.

lolo97 · 23-01-2015 6:07pm

Hi.

Sorry for not not getting back to you sooner.
I have a different problem now. On the keypad panel there is a slow flash now and it says 'Hi' and shows 'set'. And when I try to set the alarm, I don't have time to even put in the code because it turns off. I tried to factory reset it but it doesn't help. I took out the battery out of the mains but it also doesn't help. The engineer code doesn't work and I did all this based on the instruction manual.
How can I set the clock to 00:00?
There is no cable problem as I checked the PCB.

Do you have any advice?

Thanks

KoolKid · 23-01-2015 10:39pm

If the keypad is constantly going back to Hi
There is a problem with the power or the connect to the keypad.
The first thing I would try is to take the keypad to the panel and wire it in directly to the panel.

lolo97 · 24-01-2015 2:59pm

I followed page 5 of the manual and I tried the engineer and operator code and it still doesn't respond and doesn't show anything. Following these 3 steps:
" Check that the keypad is displaying time as in display on right
Step 3 Enter c4711 (factory set operator code) to disarm the panel. Panel will display operator memory as in display on right.
Enter c1174 (factory-set engineer code) to enter engineer mode. The display on right shows engineer mode."

The problem is not the keypad as I tried my friend's one which is exactly the same. I think its the PCB.

I have a video but I cannot post it because I'm a new user

Thanks

KoolKid · 24-01-2015 10:32pm

Can you post a link to the video or upload it to Google drive & link to there?

dimsumss · 24-01-2015 10:47pm

check your sensors are screwed in to doors and windows,and doors and windows are shut correctly

lolo97 · 25-01-2015 5:31pm

Hi.
Here is my video on youtube

youtube.com/watch?v=5rHthyFXMVo

KoolKid · 25-01-2015 9:10pm

Looks like like a problem with the board.
Can you check the battery leads are not squashed between the back of the PCB and the battery.?
Also have you tried powering up on battery only & on mains only?
Do you have a multi meter to check the voltage on the PCB?
You should get around 13 volts DC across the right hand side of the bell terminals & the right had side of any zone input.

lolo97 · 26-01-2015 8:55pm

Hi

I checked today the battery and everything is perfect; the cable and battery. I checked them with a multimeter and it has 12.25v and from main input it has 13.69v. Then I connected from battery only and the keypad was not flashing with set icon and 12:55 time. I tried to input the engineer code after when I input clear 1174 it started fashing again. I switched off the battery and I connected to the main supply and it flashed just like before. While checking the power with the multimeter connection for PKP it jumped to 19.05v and then it slowly got down till 3.0v and up again and again as the keyboard was flashing, the voltage increased and decreased.

Sounder is ok 13.05v. I thought to myself after the factory reset that there might be another code or maybe whoever installed the alarm put a master password which only he can reset. I tried on a different alarm at a friend's house in the same estate, the same astec alarm and tried to enter the engineer mode. Nothing happened, no clear 1174, and no clear 4711. It even wont allow me to change the time. If someone can confirm about the master password or I should I start looking for another PCB or even new alarm completely?

But I still want to know why it won't allow me to enter the engineer mode?

Thanks

KoolKid · 27-01-2015 12:32am

Its not that its not letting you enter engineer. Its not going to let you do anything. Don't mind the readings across the bell terminals or the RKP terminals. They are not going to be constant.
To me its definitely the main panel PCB that is gone. I bet if you put your keypad on your neighbors alarm it will work fine.

altor · 27-01-2015 10:45pm

lolo97 wrote: »

Hi

I checked today the battery and everything is perfect; the cable and battery. I checked them with a multimeter and it has 12.25v and from main input it has 13.69v. Then I connected from battery only and the keypad was not flashing with set icon and 12:55 time. I tried to input the engineer code after when I input clear 1174 it started fashing again. I switched off the battery and I connected to the main supply and it flashed just like before. While checking the power with the multimeter connection for PKP it jumped to 19.05v and then it slowly got down till 3.0v and up again and again as the keyboard was flashing, the voltage increased and decreased.

Sounder is ok 13.05v. I thought to myself after the factory reset that there might be another code or maybe whoever installed the alarm put a master password which only he can reset. I tried on a different alarm at a friend's house in the same estate, the same astec alarm and tried to enter the engineer mode. Nothing happened, no clear 1174, and no clear 4711. It even wont allow me to change the time. If someone can confirm about the master password or I should I start looking for another PCB or even new alarm completely?

But I still want to know why it won't allow me to enter the engineer mode?

Thanks

I would say its the PCB also. The GSD control panel is compatible with window, door and PA sensors off the Astec system if you need to upgrade the system.

KoolKid · 28-01-2015 1:11am

altor wrote: »

I would say its the PCB also. The GSD control panel is compatible with window, door and PA sensors off the Astec system if you need to upgrade the system.

+1 A good choice.

altor · 28-01-2015 1:13am

Its the only choice other than replacing every component.

Astec House Alarm

Comments