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Author Topic: Alarm problems - post mortem  (Read 1795 times)

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Kevin Wood

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Alarm problems - post mortem
« on: 02 August 2007, 11:28:37 »

Rewind a couple of months and I had problems with my alarm going off. Normally about 15 minutes after parking and the trouble code pointed to the power sounder.

Anyway, it has been behaving itself of late but I had the scuttle cover off yesterday, saw the power sounder sitting there and wondered if it would be a good idea to investigate.  :-/

Decided to bite the bullet. Removed it and cut it open. Glad I did because both of the little rechargeable batteries in there had oozed acid all over the circuit board and it was a bit of a mess. Batteries were still working OK but it's clearly not well, and would have played up again, no doubt.

Not sure whether it can be salvaged. May just buy a new one as the chances of sealing it up properly are slim.

I may take some pics tonight if anyone's interested.

Kevin
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Craig_R

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Re: Alarm problems - post mortem
« Reply #1 on: 02 August 2007, 11:52:03 »

i would be intrested Kevin sound like you had exaclty the same problem as me.

I dont think you can get the batterys for the powersounders any more.

I know when i unpluged mine there was water in the contract plug.

I have heard that if you cut a coke bottle in half and stick it under the scuttle it stops rain water from getting to the power sounder
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Kevin Wood

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Re: Alarm problems - post mortem
« Reply #2 on: 02 August 2007, 13:33:35 »

Quote
I dont think you can get the batterys for the powersounders any more.

Mine just had pretty standard PCB mount 3.6v NiMh batteries. I'm confident I could get some of those. It's just sealing it up I wonder about :-/ Had to take Harry Hacksaw to it to open it up. If the PCB is badly mullered when I've cleaned it up it won't be worth bothering anyway.

Quote
I know when i unpluged mine there was water in the contract plug.

Yes, and the pins on the pcb just stick through holes in the case into the connector so the only seal the device has is the body of the connector against the case. There was evidence of water sitting there on mine but I think the main damage was done by the batteries in my case.
 
Quote
I have heard that if you cut a coke bottle in half and stick it under the scuttle it stops rain water from getting to the power sounder

I did think about doing something to shield it from the worst of the water. The way mine was oriented the connector was directly under the scuttle drain >:(

Kevin
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TheBoy

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Re: Alarm problems - post mortem
« Reply #3 on: 03 August 2007, 09:17:17 »

Bit of self amalgy tape seal it?
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Kevin Wood

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Re: Alarm problems - post mortem
« Reply #4 on: 03 August 2007, 10:50:03 »

Quote
Bit of self amalgy tape seal it?

I was thinking about aralditing it followed by some tape as you suggest. However, removed the duff batteries, cleaned up the PCB and fired it up on the bench last night. Very feint sound of a car alarm. Sounded like it was about 1/2 a mile away. Prodded around with a 'scope probe and it got a little louder. The acid from the batteries had got under some surface mount components on the board and, in this case, made a conductive path which was loading the alarm output on the CPU thus reducing the volume. I had scratched some of this away with the probe, hence it got louder!

Given that a car alarm needs to be reliable, and i doubt this one ever will again, I think I'll probably just get a new one - or not bother.

It did make me wonder what would have happened if it had failed the other way. A short between the supply rail and this signal would have turned on the transistor driving the sounder and probably burnt out the driver transformer or drained the car battery. Thinking about it, we have seen a few electrical fires originating from the power sounder area, and there's no evidence of any fuses or other protection circuitry in there.   :o

Not sure what the supply to the sounder is fused at but it did make me think...

So, if your alarm starts to pack up unplug the power sounder sooner rather than later!

I have some photos which I'll post later if anyone's interested.

Kevin
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