I\'ve had these a few times now - had this warning at 3am the other day , and also 1 minute after Nigel H. arrived this morning.
We\'ve tested the amp load by disconnecting the mains power, and putting a meter between the battery and the load - Comfort is consuming 0.51amps
Putting the volt meter across the battery shows it is putting out 12.71 volts
What can I do to work out whats happening ? There have been no chances previously to the hardware - I did the firmware update a few weeks ago.
Thanks
Note - this is my 4th battery in 5 years. This one was installed Feb 07.
http://cpc.farnell.com/BT00578/batteries...i712-n7-12
There is normally a battery test every 24 hours as determined by Modules and Settings > Misc settings > Battery Test Interval (default 24 hours) and Battery test duration (default 2 minutes)
At the time for battery test the mains is disconnected internally for the batteru test duration (2 minutes) so that the battery supplies the load of Comfort and other devices connected to it
If the battery voltage goes below around 11.5 volts a battery warning is produced and immediately a Battery Warning Restore as the mains gets switched on again
In order that the battery test does not happen at 3 AM do a Battery test F3,1 at a suitable time as the next battery test takes place 24 hours after that
Do the battery test and measure the voltage across the battery during the two minutes to see how the voltage drops. A battery which cannot maintain its charge would drop its voltage quickly when loaded. You should not measure the battery voltage when mains is on and without a battery test as the mains would be charging the battery.
Batteries normally last about 3 years before they fail to hold their charge
You say that Comfort is taking 0.5 amps. Does that correspond with the devices powered by Comfort, ie keypads, UCMs, PIRs etc? Comfort itself (main board takes only 100 ma) If you have Slaves these should have their own batteries to supply their own current. The installation manual has a section detailing the current drawn y various devices
If there has been a prolonged mains failure, the battery may be drained and even when mains is restored it may take a few days for the battery to be fully charged as the current to charge the battery is deliberately limited. The capacity of the battery is also reduced by a deep discharge and it may nto recover its previous capacity
Comfort has a flat battery cut off to prevent over-discharge of the battery
1 keypad, 6UCM\'s, and around 20 PIR\'s and magnets - the load is 0.5amps - I have no slaves except for a LEM03.
Doing the battery test the battery dropped to 9.5v.
This year, there has only been less than an hour of battery use only.
Largely, theres not been a massive change to my type of config in several years, and im now averaging a new battery every 15 months.
Somehow my crystal ball tells me it has something to do with door strikes being powered from the battery
hock:
Was thinking that.
Will look at moving this to an external psu