Eircom phonewatch - Communications Failure

PiNgWiZaRd

My eircom phonewatch is driving me mental.I woke up one morning to it beeping every minute or so (possibly a power cut during the night) and since then the alarm Has been beeping at 11am and then again at 11pm.Now its just decided to Beep whenever it wants.When I check the GSM status it says System communications failure.Anyone got any ideas??

KoolKid

Which system is it?

Thunderbird2

Does it use a male voice with red light up buttons? Or female voice with blue light up buttons and screen

PiNgWiZaRd

It uses the female voice..Problem seems to have sorted itself out for now!!

KoolKid

Any work or any problems with your phone lines lately?

Thunderbird2

It sounds like the Simon XT

Thunderbird2

Sounds like the GSM/digi unit didn't poll in to the monitoring station properly. It does it once every 24 hours or once a week . Can't remember what way eircom Does it ! Altor or Koolkid might clear this up . I wouldn't worry about it unless it happens again .

KoolKid

Eircoms systems wouldn't be polling . They do test calls. I've seen these set to a week rather than 24 hours, which is what most of us use. Wait & see if it returns, I suppose.

altor

PiNgWiZaRd wrote: »

My eircom phonewatch is driving me mental.I woke up one morning to it beeping every minute or so (possibly a power cut during the night) and since then the alarm Has been beeping at 11am and then again at 11pm.Now its just decided to Beep whenever it wants.When I check the GSM status it says System communications failure.Anyone got any ideas??

If there is a GSM connected to the alarm and it is no longer monitored then when it dials out you will get a phone communication failure. The sim card would of being turned off if you have stopped the monitoring.
What you need to do is delete the monitoring station numbers out of the system to stop the system trying to dial out.
Can you post a picture of the system you have installed?

altor

Thunderbird2 wrote: »

Sounds like the GSM/digi unit didn't poll in to the monitoring station properly. It does it once every 24 hours or once a week . Can't remember what way eircom Does it ! Altor or Koolkid might clear this up . I wouldn't worry about it unless it happens again .

Yes for a GSM it is set up for one weekly call.

fishey babe

hi ,our eircom phonewatch 2006 simon ( ver 3 unit ) has developed a mind of its own ! the system is just stand alone and not eircom mointored , the last 2 nights it has started alarming ( very loudly ) and when we press system status we get the time , and sensor 3 alarm tampered ( on patio door ) we can clear the alarm but it keeps happening
and the system status button is staying lit , any ideas and solutions would be great , thanks

Thunderbird2

Check the tamper spring inside the back door sensor . Drop the panels lid and enter your user code then open the sensor . Stretch the spring a small bit & very carefully without pulling it off. Then replace the cover and that should clear it .

Luckycharms_74

Hi all

Sorry for the OT. There have been some burgalaries in my area. One house it seems they cut the wires going into the box, the box must have been faulty or the thieves are extremely clever. No fault was registered by Phonewatch, no alarm went off. They are going to sue Phonewatch. Can this happen ?
Some posted the following reply in another thread
"PhoneWatch generally only install a dummy box outside on the wall so there's no external siren to sound outside as an effective local deterrent. This is not common with other alarm providers, who provide "live" external siren boxes (flashing LED thingys generally indicate a live/real box, and most alarm boxes you see will have these). Why are PhoneWatch installing dummy boxes instead? Well, we can only guess, but a dummy box renders an alarm system useless as a standalone so you are more likely to keep the monitoring, and it is also cheaper to provide, I guess. Snip the phone wires in the white plastic box at the side of the house and the monitoring is useless anyway, as we have seen in this thread (and, no, PhoneWatch or Eircom will not know that this is done immediately - they only make a test call into the system every day or so iirc)."

The phonewatch system I have is run via GSM box. Will that overcome the above scenario ?

KoolKid

Luckycharms_74 wrote: »

The phonewatch system I have is run via GSM box. Will that overcome the above scenario ?

Did Eircom not tell you of the risks of jamming :rolleyes:
See the video here.
Other stations offer radio & IP solutions.

Luckycharms_74

KoolKid wrote: »

Did Eircom not tell you of the risks of jamming :rolleyes:
See the video here.
Other stations offer radio & IP solutions.

Yeah I know all about gsm jamming. .
I did bring it up with Eircom regarding that. I spoke to other alarm services and they said that it's very rare to use jammers on domestic premises. I mean if they want to get in to your house badly enough they will. I know we have to make is harder for them by having less loopholes.

KoolKid

Luckycharms_74 wrote: »

Yeah I know all about gsm jamming. .
I did bring it up with Eircom regarding that. I spoke to other alarm services and they said that it's very rare to use jammers on domestic premises.

Well I wouldn't expect someone trying to sell you a GSM to say anything else.;)
They are common enough & they are so cheap now intruders are leaving them on site to prevent the system making a call after they leave. The other side is ,if a jammer is not found on site there is no proof one was ever used.

Thunderbird2

Well eircom will tell you that if the line is cut or GSM jammed that they will know about it straight away . That's to make the sale they won't know about it until the thief is gone . But they should have protected the box .
They could have placed a false back in it and placed a sensor on the door so that when its opened the system could ring out with a tamper message

the_syco

Sorry to vamp an old thread, but "Google brought me here".

Got the "system communication failure". Rang phonewatch, and they told me how to turn it off, however... concerned on what caused it, due to breakins very close by recently.

altor

the_syco wrote: »

Sorry to vamp an old thread, but "Google brought me here".

Got the "system communication failure". Rang phonewatch, and they told me how to turn it off, however... concerned on what caused it, due to breakins very close by recently.

System communication failure is the system not reporting to P.W.
If the system is monitored the a test call every 24 hours would be the norm through your phone line to the monitoring station.

What did they get you to turn off?

the_syco

altor wrote: »

What did they get you to turn off?

Press "I" button, and then press the button to the left of the "I" button. Think it was more of a case of turning off the notification (as opposed to when they tried to get me to turn off the jamming detector option).

KoolKid

Do you still have monitoring with them?

the_syco

KoolKid wrote: »

Do you still have monitoring with them?

Yes. Or, well, whoever owns it now (think it changed hands a while back?).

KoolKid

Let me just make sure I'm reading this right.
You are paying for monitoring, you ring them to tell them your system is alerting you of a communication failure and they tell you to disable the alert???
There is a a very good possibility your alarm is not being monitored at the moment. This should be an automatic call out.

the_syco

KoolKid wrote: »

Let me just make sure I'm reading this right.
You are paying for monitoring, you ring them to tell them your system is alerting you of a communication failure and they tell you to disable the alert???
There is a a very good possibility your alarm is not being monitored at the moment. This should be an automatic call out.

Hrm. Thought they were getting me to turn off the notification, rather than disabling it. They blamed the communication alert on the weather.

KoolKid

The alert is there because there is a fault. Turning off the alert is not fixing the fault.
The weather for a communication failure? ?
That's a new one on me.

the_syco

KoolKid wrote: »

The alert is there because there is a fault. Turning off the alert is not fixing the fault.
The weather for a communication failure? ?
That's a new one on me.

Was thinking that. Shall keep an eye on it, and if it pops up again, shall not take the "bad weather" thing. Shall also check the logs to see what time it happened at.

KoolKid

The thing is it may not pop up again if they got you to disable the alert.
Do a test call at the very least.

altor

the_syco wrote: »

Hrm. Thought they were getting me to turn off the notification, rather than disabling it. They blamed the communication alert on the weather.

Sounds like you are using a GSM if they blame the weather.
The beauty of a polling device is this would be flagged, the GSM they use will only show this fault when the test call fails.

I would not recommend using GSM monitoring this way for the same reason.

beeping

Moved into a house with a phone watch alarm. The alarm has started beeping every tuesday night, it starts around 2.30 and will go off again shortly after this and again a 3rd time at like 6am in the morning, it is driving me mad. It is a system communion failure, is there anyway I can stop this without disconnecting the alarm system? I would like to keep the alarm but cant afford the monitoring of it.

altor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119452742#Comment_119452742

What system have you in place?

Some of the older systems can be used as a stand a lone alarm system.

beeping

It's the Simon XT, it looks like a very old system

altor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119456349#Comment_119456349

That can be used as a standalone system.

You would need the system defaulted and set back up to delete the monitoring station numbers to stop the communication beeps.

beeping

Sounds promising, any idea how I would be able to do this?

altor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119461947#Comment_119461947

Google the manual, default and set up system yourself.

Ring a few installers and get one of them to do same for you.

Abhainn

Hi

Ive a Simon 3 system. Recently cancelled monitoring with PW after 17 yrs.

Each Thurs at approx 11:20pm the system beeps 'System phone communication failure' . I enter code but 5 mins later its beeps again with the same fault. The code is entered again, no more beeys untill following Thurs.

I've checked the manual but just points me to contacting the security dealer. I assume I need a code to disable the this weekly communciations check?

Thanks in advance

altor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120502493#Comment_120502493

The system is set up to ring the monitoring station.

You would need these number deleted to stop this happening.

bobailín

I have the same issue: cancelled monitoring, now getting beeps for Communications Failure, GSM status.

I read a few old threads on here, got the engineering code from phonewatch, and deleted the 2 or 3 numbers that were programmed in. Also changed the setting 'Manual Comm Test' from On to Off.

But the shagging thing is still beeping. Seems random but usually starts close to the hour, like 01:59, or 08:59, or 13:59. 5 short beeps, repeated every minute until you press the 'i' button and/or disarm.

Simon XT wirefree system.

Hoping somebody here knows which is the specific setting that can stop those comms tests? I've seen lots of helpful replies but which mention option numbers; there's no numbers on the display for this unit and the menu goes round in circles so the title of the setting would be very helpful!

altor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122451663#Comment_122451663

It sounds like the sim card has been turned off.

You can remove this by powering the alarm system down and pulling the module out of the alarm.

Another option would be to turn off the failed to communicate option.

bobailín

Thanks for the suggestion, but I couldn't find any option that looked like failed to communicate. And I couldn't figure out how to power it down short of taking it apart to find the battery.

So I just went through all the menu options again, turned everything under reports to Off and a bunch of other things that were probably nothing to do with the beeps.

Didn't hear any for 24 hours now to fingers crossed.

altor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122456970#Comment_122456970

Yes, it would be in the reports menu so you must have turned it off