Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - BAT indicator won't go away

I have a Vista 15 with 6128 keypads. I assume the system is approximately 5 years old, as it was already installed in the house (which is 5 years old) when bought it in 2003. Over the weekend, the keypads started beeping rapidly and indicating "BAT" on the display. There was no zone number indicated so I assumed it was the system back-up battery.

I have replaced that battery, but the BAT indicator still displays. In addition now, about every 4 hours or so, the keypads chirp 4 times. This isn't all that annoying during the day, but it is rather loud at night.

Any ideas?

I'm sure you checked but I will ask anyways....

Is the transformer plugged in?

The BAT on a Alpha Keypad with no zone number indicates that the system's standby battery is weak.

I'm assuming it is the adapter in the outlet right above the control panel box, so if this is the case, yes.

Does this help at all?

Is the transformer slightly warm to the touch? If it's warm that's a good sign..if it's COLD that may be a bad sign...

If it's cold you may have a bad transformer or the power to that outlet may be off.

You would have "NO AC" displayed on your keypad if that were the issue.

Check your fuse inside your panel. Right above the leads that run to your battery. Very possible that fuse could have blown. Check continuity of the fuse.

If the fuse is good, I would recommend a visual inspection of the board. The other problem I've run into before in the field is that the printed circuit board itself fries the wiring path from the battery charge connections to wherever it meets up after that. As a last ditch effort a removal of the board and an inspection of the back of the board to find such a problem would probably be your next step.

When mine went bad, it was small enough that a half-inch of 22 gague wire was able to be soldered between the 2 points and essentially jury-rigged it.

Lastly, you may want to try throwing the system into programming or reset it just for kicks, just to see if the problem dissapears longer than 4 hours.

-Jesse

Thanks for the ideas. The adapter that is plugged in is definitely warm. I couldn't tell whether the fuse was bad or not, so I am going to replace it today. I'll let ya know what happens.

Thanks again!

If you have access to a multimeter, unplug the transformer or pull one of the wires off of the ac input and check the battery voltage (you have to test it under load to get a meaningful answer) If it stays above 12.5 volts then the battery is good. If it drops like a stone, or the system immediately crashes, then either your new battery is bad, or the charging system in the panel (or a fuse) has failed.

Thanks again for everyone's help and suggestions. The fuse was the problem. Looking at the new fuse and the old fuse together, I could definitely tell that the problem was with the fuse. I replaced the fuse and everything is working again.

Thanks again!