Aritech cs350 - window sensors trigger alarm

Jimbob1977

Hi all,

I have an Aritech cs350 alarm at home. It's been giving a lot of trouble over the past fortnight.

Across two visits, the engineer has replaced the old Aritech window shock sensors with brand new HTC sensors. At this stage, they have all been replaced.

However, every few days, the alarm will be triggered. The culprit reason is the window shock sensors in Zone 1 (our kitchen and sitting room).

The normal message is Gross of 2. I believe that is quite a substantial impact.

We don't have any pets, the weather hasn't been breezy and our neighbours couldn't hit our windows with footballs,etc.

With all the sensors replaced, can anyone suggest what might be wrong? We face our fourth visit from an engineer next week. It is puzzling.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I'd expect the engineer is withered from having to return again and again.

fred funk }{

If its activating showing "Gross 2" then your sensors are set very sensitive. 4 would be the norm. The lower it is the more sensitive it is.

Jimbob1977

fred funk }{ wrote: »

If its activating showing "Gross 2" then your sensors are set very sensitive. 4 would be the norm. The lower it is the more sensitive it is.

Thanks Fred Funk

I set the alarm and gave the window a moderate tap from the outside...... It wasn't too hard. That triggered a Gross of 3!

If I've seen a Gross of 1 or a Gross of 2...... That means that an even lighter touch (bird strike or big gust of wind) is sparking it.

I'd expect the engineer has set the value at a very low rate (possibly zero) by accident.

Thanks.... I will suggest it to him

fred funk }{

Was this a professional installer? I ask because that's basic stuff to be getting wrong.

KoolKid

Just to note. Zero is off.

Jimbob1977

fred funk }{ wrote: »

Was this a professional installer? I ask because that's basic stuff to be getting wrong.

The engineer came back and performed a walkthrough test. The existing setting was Gross 2 on the panel.

By tapping all the windows and frames in the affected zone, he established that the bay window frames were extremely sensitive. As a result, we were destined to get many false alarms.

It didn't require much force to generate a Gross 2 or a Gross 3.


The end result is that the Gross Setting has been raised to 6 for that zone.

Many thanks for your help in Alarms 101

KoolKid

Just jumped from 2 to 6 without any good reason?
2 is too low. Any normal window would be too sensitive.
Did he correctly check the resistance on that zone. Some installers don't understand resistance or how it should be checked. Blindly adjusting gross and pulse settings and hoping for the best can be dodgy.
I'd be asking the same questions as Fred also.

Jimbob1977

KoolKid wrote: »

Just jumped from 2 to 6 without any good reason?
2 is too low. Any normal window would be too sensitive.
Did he correctly check the resistance on that zone. Some installers don't understand resistance or how it should be checked. Blindly adjusting gross and pulse settings and hoping for the best can be dodgy.
I'd be asking the same questions as Fred also.

I'm not very technically minded, but he had a device (I think it's the machine that checks ohms) with two metal prongs and a needle gauge.

He was taking out the sensors and applying the two prongs to the sides. Then he was tapping the sensor and checking to see if it returned to a level of 0.1 after striking the sides. Not sure if that is a resistance test, but the sensors were spiking and we're replaced.

What would a resistance test look like on a practical level?

KoolKid

He should have been testing the entire zone from the cables at the panel.
That along with the previous settings shows a lack of experience IMO.

altor

Jimbob1977 wrote: »

The engineer came back and performed a walkthrough test. The existing setting was Gross 2 on the panel.

By tapping all the windows and frames in the affected zone, he established that the bay window frames were extremely sensitive. As a result, we were destined to get many false alarms.

It didn't require much force to generate a Gross 2 or a Gross 3.


The end result is that the Gross Setting has been raised to 6 for that zone.

Many thanks for your help in Alarms 101

2 would be a very low setting.
If he installed the system or defaulted most would default back to 4 or 5 for gross and pulse. Either way its a simple mistake which should of been looked at.

Jimbob1977

altor wrote: »

2 would be a very low setting.
If he installed the system or defaulted most would default back to 4 or 5 for gross and pulse. Either way its a simple mistake which should of been looked at.

Just to clarify.... The alarm was installed fifteen years ago.

The recent visits were by a completely new guy. He was just fixing it. He didn't install it

My fingers are crossed as I'm withered from my neighbours' text messages..... 'Your alarm is ringing again'

kub

Jimbob1977 wrote: »

Just to clarify.... The alarm was installed fifteen years ago.

The recent visits were by a completely new guy. He was just fixing it. He didn't install it

My fingers are crossed as I'm withered from my neighbours' text messages..... 'Your alarm is ringing again'

Sorry but the guy does not know how to fault find, irrespective of how old a system is, any competent techy can perform a thorough fault test on any zone.
Don't be surprised to find it activating again, sorry to say that by the way.

KoolKid

I agree.
Unfortunately there are many like him out there that do not even know the basics.They give the rest of us a bad name.
Checking and understanding resistance is alarms 101.
I don't buy the default bit either. The zone was set at 2 for gross. No panel defaults to that. Pulse was probably set that low also.

altor

Jimbob1977 wrote: »

Just to clarify.... The alarm was installed fifteen years ago.

The recent visits were by a completely new guy. He was just fixing it. He didn't install it

My fingers are crossed as I'm withered from my neighbours' text messages..... 'Your alarm is ringing again'

Hopefully it will be fine now as he has changed the gross and pulse which was the issue.