On Saturday, November 23, 2013 11:44:47 AM UTC-5, Danny D'Amico wrote:
On Fri, 22 Nov 2013 21:19:06 -0600, The Daring Dufas wrote:



The link is to the newer transformers which have PTC "Positive

Temperature Coefficient" fuses.



Ah. I see. Mine is at least ten (maybe twenty?) years older.



The old transformer you have has a short piece of tiny wire attached

in series to the secondary winding of the transformer



That would explain why it blew once, and then died.

I did smell burnt plastic; but the garage doors were open so it

dissipated too quickly for me to identify from where. It was only

a while later, after testing it, that I realized the power

transformer had blown.



I believe the blue electrolytic capacitor is defective and the module

may not work. It could have presented a short circuit to the power

transformer which popped the fusible link.



I guess the good news is that the newer transformer will survive that,

if when I put it in, that's the case of the shorted power circuit.


Don't screw around with testing it with a new transformer, buying
a transformer, battery, etc. You have a battery that reads 13.5
volts without a load. Put it in the alarm. If the alarm doesn't power
up and the battery still reads around 12V, you know there is more
wrong than the transformer. Then you have two choices. Either find
out what's wrong with the alarm and fix it, or buy a new panel.
And if you wind up having to buy a new panel, they typically come
with a battery and charger.