Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - new door sensor problem

hi,

i have the dsc 832 and non-LCD keypad. The front entry door sensor is wired directly to the keypad. I recently put in a new entry door from the garage to the house.

I added a sensor to this new door and wired it in series with the front entry door sensor. Here is the problem:

All remaining contacts/sensors in the house cause alarm to go off after 1 minute when in stay mode(before it would be instant) but front door/garage door sensors does not cause the alarm to go off at all.

Everything on the keypad looks normal and detects when the front/garage doors are open (beeps). I am able to put the alarm on stay/away and i do not see any bypass.

any help would be appreciated.

thanks.

Ok, remember, even in stay mode, you still have the exit delay time active before the perimeter is actually armed, there's just no indication of a countdown.

If you haven't changed anything, program wise, I'm inclined to look at how you wired the new contact in with the existing one.

If you have the door chime on, and both doors closed, do you get a chime with each individual door opening and closing, or only if _both_ doors are open at the same time?

i do get a chime when each individual door is opened and closed. The company that installed the system had the wire from the front door contact going directly to the keypad (red & black wire).

I connected the new sensor in series with the front door contact. Basically keypad red wire goes to front door sensor. Front door sensor connected to Garage door sensor. Other end of garage door sensor connected to black wire going back to the keypad.

thanks.

What is your exit delay time? If you haven't changed anything except adding a set of contacts to an existing loop, you shouldn't have any issues.

The default delay time for a DSC system is 120 seconds (2 minutes). The fact that you are getting door chime function, is a basic test of the integrity of the loop. Anything beyond that is software.

thanks....i did add the contact without powering down the system. Would that effect it in anyway? Would powering down the system and repowrering it help. I did not power it down in the first place as i was not sure if i would have to reprogram all the zones again.

Not powering down shouldn't have had any real effect. I work with contacts all the time without powering down the panels. I simply cannot visualize how adding a contact to a loop could have caused you to change the behavior of the zone.

Powering down doesn't erase anything except the internal clock settings, it's all in an EEPROM.

ok...so i tested the whole system. It works fine when on 'away'. It looks like it has to be reprogrammed when in 'stay' mode for the entry doors. The company that installed the system will not give the installer code and wants $130+tax. Is there any other way to get past the installer code to do the programming?

Short of doing a hardware default of the system, and reprogramming everything from scratch, there's no "back door" with a DSC panel. The factory default is 5010, and you could try simple things like the last 4 digits of the installer's phone number, their street address #, the license number, your own house number, or your own phone number. These are the most common ones. If none of them work, then you are stuck, and these sound like the sort of folks that might have activated the installer lockout feature.

I'm still a little perplexed. If this zone is an entry/exit delay zone in away arming, it should also be so in stay arming. There's simply not a zone type available in this system that can do the behavior you are describing. If you want this zone to be instant when armed in Stay mode, you have to use the *9 function to turn of the entry delay.

I guess it could be possible that it is programmed as a delay home/away zone and had the chime attribute turned on. I can not see an advantage that anyone would have seen to programming it that way. Unless your garage overhead has a contact. Question, you replaced this door did it originally have a contact? Or were they using the overhead as the delay door. I'm with Ron though if it worked as a normal delay before you added the contact I do not see how anything you have done as you've described changing the operation of the zone. Is it possible it has always been that way and you just noticed it while testing.

If the overhead has a contact arm it in stay and open and close overhead during exit delay then after time expires open the front or garage door see if it starts the delay