Problem with alarm sensor

[rra640]

I had a sensor fall off a window this week. It is the magnetic type. One side is screwed on to the window frame and the other is attached to window with silicon. The Arizona heat makes the silicon fail sometimes which happended to one of mine. When I went to put it back on, I noticed that it wasn't making contact. I have the system set to chime mode and when I put them together and then pull them apart, nothing. I can hear a very slight beep coming out of the sensor.

Do I just need a new sensor? Can I test by taking the wires off and touching them together like a doorbell button? If I get contact with the wires touching... the problem must be the sensor, right??

[uwave]

You first must determine if the sensor is an RF transmitter or a wired type. RF transmitters lack any sort of wiring inside your house (hidden or otherwise) - wired types are usually identical looking boxes (one on the window, one on the fixed frame) - the one that moves on the window is a magent - the one on the frame is sensing the magnet's field.

If you have an RF sensor (no wires) - the battery may be dead. A good sign that it's an RF sensor is that the two "boxes" are different sizes - the one on the window may be smaller than the one on the fixed part.

If it's wired, there are 2 notes:

1 - Alarms normally "confirm" an alarm so be patient when putting them together and pulling them apart - normally two open circuits 0.1 seconds apart are required for it to be considered an alarm and chime

2 - if you go slow and still can't get a chime from a wired system, the wires may have pulled out - pop the cover and check them.

In either case, they are not sensitve to the polarity of the magnet - just stick it back where it was with new adhesive.

If it's wireless - pop open the larger boxes cover and replace the battery - CR123 are common batteries you can find on the internet for $1 a piece or pay as much as $10 in a photo store.

(other systems use smaller batteries)

Good luck getting it back going -

EF Basham
Uwave.com

[rra640]

I messed around with it for a bit today. The sensors are hard wired. I determined that there are 2 windows and one french door on this zone. All 3 of these have the same symptoms. I checked all the connections and all look ok. I usually have the system set to "chime" mode. When opening the circuit, the alarm starts beeping rapidly like it's in some sort of test mode. I don't get any green lights on the panel and it says those 3 sensors as the fault.

The system was originally installed by ADT about 8 years ago.

Any additional help would be appreciated.