Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - DSC PC1555 trouble light

Need halp!!! All of a sudden I've got the trouble light on my keypad. I did the *2 and zone light 4 comes on. I looked in the manual and it says, "The panel has failed to communicate with the central station."

What does this mean? Is it talking about the control box? Or is it talking about the monitoring company?

All sensors seems to working as they should and the system tests fine. I can arm it, but it will not activate when a door is opened.:confused:

Has there been any recent changes in your telephone service (I'm assuming that you have a normal dial up monitoring account with whomever) or wiring. Adding something like DSL can often create a communications error. Oddly, the more primative panels tolerate DSL noise better than the newer, more advanced systems.

No recent changes. Went out of town for a few days. The day after getting back I noticed the trouble light.

Call your monitoring company and put the system on test - then send them signals (IOW, just arm the system and set off the alarm.) Make sure it goes off for at least 30 secs. or more.

If the signal goes through, then the trouble should clear.

If not, have them send someone out ASAP - your phones have been disconnected from your system or the system dialer is not working (sometimes power surges or lightning strikes will kill the dialer in a system.)

Good luck!

I did the test last night and the trouble light went away. Thanks for the help. But what I want to know is why did the light come on at all? do you think there was some kind of fault at the control center? My system seems to be working great now.

It could have been one of those rare instances where too many systems tried to call in a short length of time (sometimes happens during power failures), or a temporary outage of the phone system. Statistically, there will be a few instances when the timer test simply doesn't connect.

As long as it doesn't become a habit, chalk it up to dumb luck.