My battery went out about 2 months ago and I bought a new one. It never notified me, I discovereed it by unplugging the panel to re add a z-wave device and it would shut down immediately even though the panel would never give me a low battery indication.
Everrthing was working fine, but last Thursday or so I get a low battery alert for the “console”. I find this strange as it is plugged in all the time. How would it know the battery is running low if the console is always plugged in?
I unplug the console and it runs for hours without being plugged in. This seems like the battery is OK?
I reset the panel by going into tollbox and advacned setting and hitting “save changes”. The alert clears.
2 days later I get the same alert. It is showing the icon of a low battery.
the expiration date of the battery is way into the future. I think 2020 or something like that.
If you have a brand new battery that is reporting low battery during normal operation while the panel is powered, and a similar issue happened with a prior battery, there are two likely possibilities that I can think of:
Panel malfunction, or loose battery connection. If the prior battery simply failed completely though, this is less likely.
The panel is being under-powered. This can be the result of cable length, transformer failing, cable gauge, corrosion, etc.
Are you using the 14VDC power supply included with that specific alarm panel?
How long is the cable between the power supply and panel?
What gauge is the cable?
the prior battery was old and needed to be replaced. It was expected. The point I was making was that even though the old batter was clearly run down, it never gave me an error. Thisnew battery gives me errors. That was the point of bringing that up.
The new battery is not failing as it worked on battery power for over an hour (even though its giving me alerts)
I can test the voltage with a multimneter of the cable. I will get back to you. Its the same cable that has been working for 5 years or so.
Just to clarify, I am concerned some details may be missing:
It looks like according to account history that a panel swap occurred on 10/31/2016 for this account. Did you not use the new battery which came with the new panel at that time?
A battery failing within 1 year is not typical and it makes me question strange reporting on a second battery.
Also, I show in account history that a replacement battery was requested, however the order was cancelled and it was indicated that this was a physical issue of the battery being loose, which had been resolved at the time.
Did you purchase a battery from another source after that?
Just want to make sure we get the timeline correct so that we may best assist!
The battery that came with the new panel was the panel that had the battery that would not hold a charge yet never notified me.
I requested a replacement battery from you but was able to get one locally a lot quicker so I just did that. The expiration date was valid.
We are only talking about these two batteries.
The first battery is not really in question as I expected it to fail (old battery with old panel as I bought it used). This new battery is the issue I have in questions (good date code, but throwing a low battery alert even though it is plugged in)
The battery that came with the new panel was the panel that had the battery that would not hold a charge yet never notified me.
Difficult to say what caused the panel not to report a low battery, but if the battery completely and somewhat abruptly died, the rest of the description would of course be expected. I do see some low battery reports from around that time, though they may be after the battery was pulled.
old battery with old panel as I bought it used
Aha, the replacement panel was a used panel, alright that makes more sense here.
good date code, but throwing a low battery alert even though it is plugged in
Whether or not the panel is plugged in does not impact whether low battery alerts can occur. Low battery is generated solely off the battery voltage levels and can occur with AC connected or not.
I do show that you had indicated a loose connection previously. Any relevance here? Have you checked to make sure the battery cable is firmly snapped into place and does not wobble at all? Intermittent loss of a physical connection to the panel battery connector would create what you are seeing.
Interesting. What is the model of battery you purchased?
Could you post a photo of the battery? As far as I know, I believe all are Golden Power. There may have been a recent change but I’d like to make sure.
Those are the right specs for the basic 2GIG Battery, so there shouldn’t be any issue. To ensure proper reporting, any time you unplug the battery be sure to unplug AC transformer as well, and plug in battery first when powering it up.
Let us know if you see this again. You may indeed have a loose battery terminal on the panel if it continues. Unlike the GC3, the GC2 will simply report “low battery” if it does not detect a battery connected. There is no separate alert.
