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Had a weird one with a Honeywell panel in a 1970s house last week
The keypad kept showing a 'system low battery' fault even after I put in a brand new 12 volt 7 amp hour battery. I checked the charging circuit on the board with my meter and it was only putting out 11.2 volts. Turns out the old transformer behind the panel was cooked and wasn't giving the board enough juice to charge the new battery. I swapped the transformer and the fault cleared right up. Has anyone else run into a bad transformer causing a false battery fault like that?
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leo_harris24d ago
Oh man, that's a classic. I swear half the "bad battery" calls I get on those old systems end up being the transformer. Had the exact same thing on an Ademco last month, voltage at the board was way low. The transformer was so old it was just humming warm and not doing its job. Swapped it out and the panel started charging like it should. Those old power supplies really do just give up the ghost after forty years.
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kai56424d ago
Yeah, ran into that same thing with an old Vista panel. Totally agree with @leo_harris, it's always the transformer on these old systems. Just swapped the transformer and the battery fault went away for good.
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