Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - My Concord Express is DOA

My Concord Express, which has been good for nearly eight years, now appears to be dead. I've got nothing on the key pad that would suggest life. I opened up the control panel and checked both the incoming voltage and the standby battery voltage. Both of these voltages seem to be ok (running slightly higher than the schematic shows).

Is there anything else easy I should look at before I call in a pro? The system was running fine until Hurricane Ike hit. Then we lost power for 60 hours and the system was running on standby. To be honest, I don't know if it failed while on standby, or when the power kicked back in (I'm sure a voltage spike is quite possible, although nothing looks "toasted" inside the control panel).

Thanks,
dogfood

The way modern systems are assembled, it is rare that you will see an obvious damaged component on the motherboard.

Check the voltage at terminals 3 & 4 (keypad power). If you have any powered devices like 4-wire smokes or motions, disconnect them from aux power. Sometimes a single bad component will keep the system from powering up.

MrRonFL:

Thanks for the reply. I don't have any powered devices - this is just a basic window and door sensor installation. I'm sure the cats would eventually trip a motion sensor if I had one.

I checked terminals 3 & 4. According to the schematic, I should have 12 volts (DC, I'm assuming). I'm reading 0.03 volts. Yes, almost zero ... but there definitely is some voltage there. This seems odd (at least to a mechanical engineer).

dogfood

Hmmm, last thing to try: Remove the keypad from it's current location and wire it to the panel using a temporary new cable (disconnect the current field wiring).

If the cable has been damaged, somehow (water infiltration, for example), it's possible that there is a short in the 4 conductor cable for the keypad. If that doesn't bring the keypad back up, then you may have a bad keypad, or the keypad bus may be damaged.

Ok ... at the risk of appearing to be getting dumber about this whole thing, how do I remove the keypad cover? There doesn't seem to be anything (screw, clip, latch, etc.) to "un-do". I cruised through the installation and operation instructions, and there isn't anything about this ... so I'm guessing I'm missing the really obvious.

(not sure which keypad/touchpad I have, but it's alphanumeric - A through D, 0 through 9, *, # - and it has a swinging door)

Thanks,
dogfood

Does the door swing sideways or up and down??

If it's sideways, it's the Fixed English version. There's a notch underneath it to slide a screwdriver in there and pop it off.

If it's up and down, you have an alphanumeric version. There''s a screw underneath it that you can get at. My guess is you have the Fixed English version...

See? I was right. I was missing something obvious. Yes, I have the Fixed English version. I had found the notch previously, but for some reason I was expecting a type of clam shell cover. Since I didn't see a split line at the notch, I figured that notch couldn't be the way in. I figured wrong.

The circuit board for the keypad has soldered leads coming out of it - and they attach to longer wires within the wall - so disconnecting it is not a preferred option. I did check the voltage at this board. I get 0.03 volts again.

If I disconnect all wires at terminals 3 & 4 in the control panel and then check these terminals, I also still get 0.03 volts. So I'm guessing that it's not the keypad ... rather something on the main control panel board?

Thanks,
dogfood (another GE guy)

Yup, sounds like a damaged motherboard. RIP Concord Express.