I bought my house about 5 years ago, and it already had an alarm
installed (wireless sensors, motion detectors, and a very annoying
voice that screams "SYSTEM IS ON" and "SYSTEM IS OFF," etc). I'm
guessing that the alarm is about 10 years old, but it could be
slightly more or less.

Recently, the keypad decided to go screwy. If you hit a key (any key),
it just beeps incessantly. Not beep, beep, beep, but
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. At first, you could press a bunch of random buttons
and it would eventually stop, but the last time it went off I couldn't
get it to stop so I totally unplugged the keypad.

Which, incidentally, doesn't make me feel all that safe.

Assuming that the problem here is just the keypad, can I just buy a
new one and plug it in, or do I have to replace the whole kaboodle? If
so, are the plugs pretty much universal, or will I have to rewire the
whole thing?

TIA,

Jason

Jason wrote:
I bought my house about 5 years ago, and it already had an alarm
installed (wireless sensors, motion detectors, and a very annoying
voice that screams "SYSTEM IS ON" and "SYSTEM IS OFF," etc). I'm
guessing that the alarm is about 10 years old, but it could be
slightly more or less.

Recently, the keypad decided to go screwy. If you hit a key (any key),
it just beeps incessantly. Not beep, beep, beep, but
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. At first, you could press a bunch of random buttons
and it would eventually stop, but the last time it went off I couldn't
get it to stop so I totally unplugged the keypad.

Which, incidentally, doesn't make me feel all that safe.

Assuming that the problem here is just the keypad, can I just buy a
new one and plug it in, or do I have to replace the whole kaboodle? If
so, are the plugs pretty much universal, or will I have to rewire the
whole thing?

TIA,

Jason

Hi,
In one instance,
they go crazy when the back up rechargeable battery goes.
Time to check it. Probably it is gone bad. Replace it and let
it charge up again.

On Aug 22, 1:19 am, Tony Hwang wrote:
Jason wrote:
I bought my house about 5 years ago, and it already had an alarm
installed (wireless sensors, motion detectors, and a very annoying
voice that screams "SYSTEM IS ON" and "SYSTEM IS OFF," etc). I'm
guessing that the alarm is about 10 years old, but it could be
slightly more or less.

Recently, the keypad decided to go screwy. If you hit a key (any key),
it just beeps incessantly. Not beep, beep, beep, but
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. At first, you could press a bunch of random buttons
and it would eventually stop, but the last time it went off I couldn't
get it to stop so I totally unplugged the keypad.

Which, incidentally, doesn't make me feel all that safe.

Assuming that the problem here is just the keypad, can I just buy a
new one and plug it in, or do I have to replace the whole kaboodle? If
so, are the plugs pretty much universal, or will I have to rewire the
whole thing?

TIA,

Jason

Hi,
In one instance,
they go crazy when the back up rechargeable battery goes.
Time to check it. Probably it is gone bad. Replace it and let
it charge up again.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Is this battery in the keypad itself, or the brain? There's a big
battery in the brain, but it's odd shaped and I would probably have to
find it online. I didn't see one in the keypad at first glance (at
4:30am).

Thanks for the help,

Jason

On Aug 22, 3:53 am, Jason wrote:
On Aug 22, 1:19 am, Tony Hwang wrote:





Jason wrote:
I bought my house about 5 years ago, and it already had an alarm
installed (wireless sensors, motion detectors, and a very annoying
voice that screams "SYSTEM IS ON" and "SYSTEM IS OFF," etc). I'm
guessing that the alarm is about 10 years old, but it could be
slightly more or less.

Recently, the keypad decided to go screwy. If you hit a key (any key),
it just beeps incessantly. Not beep, beep, beep, but
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. At first, you could press a bunch of random buttons
and it would eventually stop, but the last time it went off I couldn't
get it to stop so I totally unplugged the keypad.

Which, incidentally, doesn't make me feel all that safe.

Assuming that the problem here is just the keypad, can I just buy a
new one and plug it in, or do I have to replace the whole kaboodle? If
so, are the plugs pretty much universal, or will I have to rewire the
whole thing?

TIA,

Jason

Hi,
In one instance,
they go crazy when the back up rechargeable battery goes.
Time to check it. Probably it is gone bad. Replace it and let
it charge up again.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Is this battery in the keypad itself, or the brain? There's a big
battery in the brain, but it's odd shaped and I would probably have to
find it online. I didn't see one in the keypad at first glance (at
4:30am).

Thanks for the help,

Jason- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

The battery is in the control panel. Typically it's quite large as it
has to power the whole alarm system for hours. What makes you think
it's the keypad? If one key is intermittent, or similar, thenI'd say
its' the pad. If it's acting screwey, could be the controller, loose
connection, pad, etc.

If the alarm has issues that annoy u and can't be changed, then maybe
it's time to change the panel and the keypad.

On Aug 22, 4:10 am, wrote:
On Aug 22, 3:53 am, Jason wrote:





On Aug 22, 1:19 am, Tony Hwang wrote:

Jason wrote:
I bought my house about 5 years ago, and it already had an alarm
installed (wireless sensors, motion detectors, and a very annoying
voice that screams "SYSTEM IS ON" and "SYSTEM IS OFF," etc). I'm
guessing that the alarm is about 10 years old, but it could be
slightly more or less.

Recently, the keypad decided to go screwy. If you hit a key (any key),
it just beeps incessantly. Not beep, beep, beep, but
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. At first, you could press a bunch of random buttons
and it would eventually stop, but the last time it went off I couldn't
get it to stop so I totally unplugged the keypad.

Which, incidentally, doesn't make me feel all that safe.

Assuming that the problem here is just the keypad, can I just buy a
new one and plug it in, or do I have to replace the whole kaboodle? If
so, are the plugs pretty much universal, or will I have to rewire the
whole thing?

TIA,

Jason

Hi,
In one instance,
they go crazy when the back up rechargeable battery goes.
Time to check it. Probably it is gone bad. Replace it and let
it charge up again.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Is this battery in the keypad itself, or the brain? There's a big
battery in the brain, but it's odd shaped and I would probably have to
find it online. I didn't see one in the keypad at first glance (at
4:30am).

Thanks for the help,

Jason- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

The battery is in the control panel. Typically it's quite large as it
has to power the whole alarm system for hours. What makes you think
it's the keypad? If one key is intermittent, or similar, thenI'd say
its' the pad. If it's acting screwey, could be the controller, loose
connection, pad, etc.

If the alarm has issues that annoy u and can't be changed, then maybe
it's time to change the panel and the keypad.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Oh, and if u want an easy test of the battery, just unplug it from the
AC and see how long the alarms still works. If it goes at least
several hours, the battery isn't the problem.

Jason wrote:

Is this battery in the keypad itself, or the brain? There's a big
battery in the brain, but it's odd shaped and I would probably have to
find it online. I didn't see one in the keypad at first glance (at
4:30am).

The battery is probably standard and available at Home Depot or computer
stores.

I'll wager it's 12V, something like 7AH.

Take the old one with you when you buy another - they do vary on connectors.

And they last 3-6 years.

Ask on alt.security.alarms

Helps if you say what brand and model number. Also say if it is monitored by
an alarm company or not.


"Jason" wrote in message
I bought my house about 5 years ago, and it already had an alarm
installed (wireless sensors, motion detectors, and a very annoying
voice that screams "SYSTEM IS ON" and "SYSTEM IS OFF," etc). I'm
guessing that the alarm is about 10 years old, but it could be
slightly more or less.

Recently, the keypad decided to go screwy. If you hit a key (any key),
it just beeps incessantly. Not beep, beep, beep, but
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. At first, you could press a bunch of random buttons
and it would eventually stop, but the last time it went off I couldn't
get it to stop so I totally unplugged the keypad.

Which, incidentally, doesn't make me feel all that safe.

Assuming that the problem here is just the keypad, can I just buy a
new one and plug it in, or do I have to replace the whole kaboodle? If
so, are the plugs pretty much universal, or will I have to rewire the
whole thing?

TIA,

Jason

On Aug 22, 1:53 am, Jason wrote:

Is this battery in the keypad itself, or the brain? There's a big
battery in the brain, but it's odd shaped and I would probably have to
find it online. I didn't see one in the keypad at first glance (at
4:30am).


Replaced mine about 3 years ago - the original lasted about 5 or 6
years. Similar symptoms to yours. Battery lives in the controller box.
Big thing about the size of one of those individual serving cereal
packages. SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) battery, 12 volts, think it was
something like 6.5 A-H (ampere-hours).

If you have a battery store near you, just unplug the battery, take it
in, and they'll figure out what you need. If you need to buy it
online, look on the side of the battery - there should be printed a
voltage and ampere-hour rating. You need to buy the same voltage and
at LEAST the stated ampere-hour rating (higher is OK), check the
battery dimensions to make sure it will fit in your controller box,
and make sure the battery terminals are the same.

Those batteries are intended to be used as BACKUP batteries, to run
the alarm if somebody trying to break in turns off your electricity.
But, the way my alarm controller (and probably yours) is designed, if
the battery fails and it's output voltage drops, it loads down the
controller's power supply too, which is what causes your keypad (and
maybe the rest of the alarm too) to misbehave.

Hope this helps,
Jerry

"HeyBub" wrote in message
...
Jason wrote:

Is this battery in the keypad itself, or the brain? There's a big
battery in the brain, but it's odd shaped and I would probably have to
find it online. I didn't see one in the keypad at first glance (at
4:30am).

The battery is probably standard and available at Home Depot or computer
stores.

Or Radio Shack.

Bob

"Jason" wrote in message
oups.com...


Which, incidentally, doesn't make me feel all that safe.

Assuming that the problem here is just the keypad, can I just buy a
new one and plug it in, or do I have to replace the whole kaboodle? If
so, are the plugs pretty much universal, or will I have to rewire the
whole thing?


No, the keypads and plugs are not universal. Each company uses whatever it
wants to use. Yes, you probably can replace just the keypad, if that's the
problem.

On Wed, 22 Aug 2007 09:45:36 -0700, Jerry
wrote:



Those batteries are intended to be used as BACKUP batteries, to run
the alarm if somebody trying to break in turns off your electricity.

Or during power failures, which were a popular time for burglaries.


Hope this helps,
Jerry

The battery is in the control panel. Typically it's quite large as it
has to power the whole alarm system for hours. What makes you think
it's the keypad? If one key is intermittent, or similar, thenI'd say
its' the pad. If it's acting screwey, could be the controller, loose
connection, pad, etc.

My only reason for thinking that it's just the keypad is that the
incessant beep is coming from the keypad itself, not the siren. I
checked the connection and it seemed OK, so the only other things I
could come up with is (a) something on the circuit board, like a loose
wire, crossing paths, or (b) possibly a key is stuck and gives this
alarm when you press 2 keys at once.

Just wild guesses, really. That's why I turned to you guys, that I
figured would be more logical than me :-)

The battery is a definite possibility. The alarm is definitely more
than 5 years old, and although we haven't had a problem recently, the
power has flickered a lot this year.

Thanks, all,

Jason

Jason,

As others have said, the battery is a definite possibility.

But a stuck key is also a possibility and easy to diagnose. If one button is stuck, pressing that button won't cause the
problem. So try each button and if one *doesn't* make it beep, you've probably found your culprit.

Eric Law

"Jason" wrote in message oups.com...
The battery is in the control panel. Typically it's quite large as it
has to power the whole alarm system for hours. What makes you think
it's the keypad? If one key is intermittent, or similar, thenI'd say
its' the pad. If it's acting screwey, could be the controller, loose
connection, pad, etc.

My only reason for thinking that it's just the keypad is that the
incessant beep is coming from the keypad itself, not the siren. I
checked the connection and it seemed OK, so the only other things I
could come up with is (a) something on the circuit board, like a loose
wire, crossing paths, or (b) possibly a key is stuck and gives this
alarm when you press 2 keys at once.

Just wild guesses, really. That's why I turned to you guys, that I
figured would be more logical than me :-)

The battery is a definite possibility. The alarm is definitely more
than 5 years old, and although we haven't had a problem recently, the
power has flickered a lot this year.

Thanks, all,

Jason

On Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:13:44 -0700, Jason wrote:

The battery is in the control panel. Typically it's quite large as it
has to power the whole alarm system for hours. What makes you think
it's the keypad? If one key is intermittent, or similar, thenI'd say
its' the pad. If it's acting screwey, could be the controller, loose
connection, pad, etc.

My only reason for thinking that it's just the keypad is that the
incessant beep is coming from the keypad itself, not the siren. I

We know it's not the siren.

Do you have a manual? Have you read it? Reed it again. If you
haven't got one, find one, even from a different model if necessary
will likely have most of the same features.

What does it say about incessant beeping?


checked the connection and it seemed OK, so the only other things I
could come up with is (a) something on the circuit board, like a loose
wire, crossing paths, or (b) possibly a key is stuck and gives this
alarm when you press 2 keys at once.

Just wild guesses, really. That's why I turned to you guys, that I
figured would be more logical than me :-)

The battery is a definite possibility. The alarm is definitely more
than 5 years old, and although we haven't had a problem recently, the
power has flickered a lot this year.

Thanks, all,

Jason

Do you have a manual? Have you read it? Reed it again. If you
haven't got one, find one, even from a different model if necessary
will likely have most of the same features.

What does it say about incessant beeping?

Nope, I don't have a manual. I've been loosely looking for one online
for years, but haven't seen a model # on the unit to have anything to
go by. All it says is "ITI," on both the control panel and the keypad.

I'm sure that once I open the control panel to get the battery, I'll
find a model #, but I've just never had a reason to do so until now.

- Jason