I installed the Hardwire PowerG yesterday to take over hardwired sensors in my house (3 door, 3 glass break, 1 motion detector). I also have an external speaker/siren that I wired into the module. I successfully enrolled the PG9WLSHW8 with my IQ Panel 4 and was able to test/trigger all of the hardwired sensors. However, the panel is displaying a Trouble status for the Hardwire Translator:
In addition, the status LED on the Hardwire PowerG flashes orange twice every 10 seconds. What can I do to figure out what is causing this trouble status?
Also, as mentioned previously, I wired in an external siren into the PG9WLSHW8 but it is not going off when I set off the alarm–only the panel siren is going off. Is it possible that this is related to the trouble status or are these two separate issues? See below for pics of the PG9WLSHW8 wiring and of the external siren:
Does the trouble clear when you put the cover on the PG9WLSHW8? There is a tamper switch on the translator that requires the cover to be on to close the tamper and the IQ4 is aware of this. I don’t believe it shows it as a tamper though, just generic trouble so may be what you are seeing.
Did you try swapping your +/- wires into the PG9WLSHW8 for the siren?
The trouble does not clear when I put the cover back on the PG9WLSHW8. FWIW, the panel shows a separate tamper alert on the panel when I take the cover off.
When I installed my unit I forgot the resistor on the siren and that certainly caused a trouble on the panel but it cleared when resistor was installed. I never tried to trip the siren without the resistor installed so not sure if both your issues are potentially related to siren. I see you have a resistor in there but maybe it’s not getting proper contact on one of the terminal? If you have a voltmeter where you could check the resistance on the resistor?
I gave each end of the resistor a pull and they are both firmly seated in the terminals. I’ve also checked and redone the wiring on the BELL terminals multiple times to make sure they were getting good contact.
I checked the resistance with a multimeter and confirmed that I am using the 1k resistor.
I measured the resistor itself (not connected to the circuit). I got a measurement of 981 ohms.
When I removed the bell wires and reconnected the power, the LED flashed green once, orange twice, and then resumed flashing orange twice every 10 seconds.
Ahhhh, no I did not. I had removed both the bell wires and the resistor. After adding only the resistor back to the bell terminals, the Hardwire Translator status changed to Active on the panel and the LED on the PG9WLSHW8 is now flashing green!
Any idea why the siren would be causing this? Is it still possible to wire my siren to the PG9WLSHW8 or am I SOL?
Damage to the siren wires or extra resistance on the circuit maybe, I don’t think there is anything specific about that model that would cause a problem. Looks like power draw is within specs.
Is there more than one siren? Two of those would draw too much power.
It looks like that should be a normal piezo siren, but you mentioned speaker above, so just in case I am missing something, the hardwire translator does not have a speaker driver, it just works with piezo sirens.
The installation manual for the old panel that I had (BHS-4000B) refers to the device as a speaker. It was wired to the Siren terminals in the wiring diagram below. So perhaps what I have is actually a speaker and not a siren?
If you’re looking for a siren that I know works, the Honeywell WAVE2 is loud (MUCH louder than the siren you have as I also had one of those on my old system), and it’s cheap. I have one hooked up to my PG9WLSHW8.
There is also the WAVE2PD which is lower power output (in the event you want to hook up multiple sirens). I actually just had one delivered today as I was curious how it will sound compared to the WAVE2 since it’s a different siren driver. I’ll be testing that out tomorrow to see if I like the noises it makes more than the regular WAVE2.
Here are a couple audio recordings of the WAVE2PD.
It’s louder than the base level in the recording due to the iPhone normalizing the volume.
It doesn’t seem nearly as loud as the WAVE2 even though they are rated within 1dB of each other at 1m distance.
The WAVE2 is certainly more annoying to listen to.
