We’ve had this system for almost 30 years, and it’s always been a bit of a mess wiring-wise. Recently, we lost a zone and had to bypass it to arm the alarm. Then another zone stopped working, so we permanently bypassed it with a resistor.
Now, for some reason, when I arm the system and open a door or window in a zone that should be working fine, the alarm doesn’t go off. The system used to work with an auto-dialer to notify us via call/text, but that also stopped functioning.
I suspect a broken wire somewhere and plan to try fixing the faulty zone, but I’m stumped as to why opening a door/window in a supposedly unaffected zone no longer triggers the alarm. Any low-voltage electricians or alarm techs who can help? Any troubleshooting steps I should take? Would appreciate any advice!
Tony said:
Are you sure the doors and windows you’re testing are in an unaffected zone? You mentioned the wiring is a bit of a mess…
Yeah, I double-checked.
Zone 1 – Works fine. If I open a door in Zone 1 when disarmed, the system chimes and registers when the door is closed. But if I set the alarm in Instant mode and open the door, the alarm doesn’t go off.
Zone 3 – Completely broken. It always shows as open, so I have to bypass it before arming the system. No chime when opening/closing, and it doesn’t trigger the alarm when armed.
So it’s weird that Zone 1 chimes normally but won’t actually trigger the alarm when it’s armed.
@Jameson
If Zone 3 is bypassed, it won’t trigger the alarm—that part makes sense. But for Zone 1, it sounds like it’s detecting open/close normally but not triggering the alarm. Have you checked if the zone type is set correctly? If it’s programmed as a non-alarm zone, it won’t trip even if armed.
@Dillon
Yeah, I might need to go into the programming settings to check. I don’t think I changed anything, but maybe something got reset or misconfigured. Any idea what I should be looking for in the zone programming?