Omni Pro II Smoke Detector Trouble

[scotthaskin]

Hello. First time user at CocoonTech so that thanks for any help.
 
A few nights ago, in the wee hours of the morning, my Omni Pro II signaled through the beeping keypads that I had Smoke Detector Trouble. I have 8 smoke detectors in the home and none of them were beeping like needing a new 9v battery or anything. I was able to stop the beeping but the trouble code still remains. I see on the controller two wires are connected to Zone 17 (Smoke Detector) and an additional wire is connected to the 12v switched supply. Can anyone help me understand what the trouble might be and where to look to resolve it?
 
Thanks!!

 

[ComponY]

Hey there! We may need to look directly at the PCAccess for specifics. However, it sounds like one tripped and maybe you're daisy chained? So if one goes off, the others do too. Is it possible that one sensor in the area went off and was a real trigger for the security?

 

[ano]

You haven't given enough info for us to help you. I assume these are wired smoke alarms. You have 8 wired together on zone 17? Were smoke alarms an afterthought? Any reason why they were wired on zones 1 - 4 as designed? 4 wire smoke alarms, I assume? (Since Zone 17 only supports 4-wire) Trouble is usually caused by a wiring problem, and it sounds like could be many options here. Hope you were joking about the smoke alarms having 9V batteries. Smoke alarms connected to a panel never have 9-V batteries. They are powered by the panel.

Log into PCAccess and read what number Zone 17 is reporting. That will tell you what the problem is.

 

[scotthaskin]

Thank you for these responses.
 
Sorry for confusion on the smoke detectors. I have 3 ESL 4-wire smoke detectors connected to the controller on Zone 17. I am not certain exactly what models they are but from the brochure they are 428, 429, 448 or 449. All three currently have a red LED flashing about every 8 seconds. The are 10 9v powered smoke detectors sprinkled throughout the home which are not connected to the controller. The low power tech did not install these so I think it was the electrical contractor ... probably did not need them.
 
PC Access Zone 17, Zone Name: Smoke Detectors, Status: TRBL NOW, Loop: 255, Current: TROUBLE.
 
Zones 1-4 are doors. There are not other smoke detector zones.
 
I would like to see the TRBL NOW status to go away by disconnecting the wires at Zone 17 terminals. I presume it's a short that activates the zone? From there I'll have to climb up to see which ESL unit is shorting the wires. I do have 13v at the 12v switched supply terminals on the OP2.
 
Does all this sound reasonable?
 
Thanks

 

[ano]

Zones 1 - 4 are made for fire zones, as they add extra circuitry, at least for 2 two smoke alarms, but not using is fine, just a bit untypical. 
 
So zone 17 is a more typical zone. Fire zones require an end-of-line resister, so a normal zone reading should be 147 but no higher than 157 or lower than a 137.  A loop of 255 means that a wire to the zone is disconnected or has an open somewhere.
 
Since you have 8 smoke alarms on one zone, this could be anywhere along the wire. Sometimes builders pull wires too tight, and when a house expands it can break a wire.
 
Disconnect the wires from the zone, and measure the resistance between the two wires with a meter. You should see about 1000 ohms. If you see infinity, that is a broken wire, somewhere.