Tech Tip of the Week
Don't Forget Your Activation Form!
It's all to common...
Every week we get brand new units being returned as faulty.
"The online light did not even come up!"
More often than not, this happens because the SIM cards were not activated. When the SIM card is not activated the Permaconn cant get a wireless back to base connection.
Eliminating nuisance ‘phone line’ fails
Too often we hear:
"I am getting phone line fails from my panel, but it doesn’t have a phone line connected."The Permaconn PM2020/PM1025 + DI-200 telephone interface supply voltage and dial tone to the alarm panel enabling the panel to dial contact ID events. To the alarm panel there is no difference between a Permaconn and a phone line.
The Permaconn unit changes networks by switching Sims if there is no GPRS available. During this time normally a few seconds there is no voltage generated on the telephone interface. When this happens the alarm panel sees the drop in voltage and thinks the telephone line has failed. The panel will obviously send a phone line fail event to the Central station. These messages should not be sent by the alarm panel as the phone line is actually monitored by the Permaconn unit.
Solution:
Always remove the feature "Phone line monitor" or "Phone line detect" from your alarm panels programming. This will stop the alarm panel from actively searching for voltage. Phone line fail is reported as an E356 00 C970 from the Permaconn. If the Phone line fail event is below zone C970 it has been sent by the alarm panel.