Hello- Just installed my IQ Panel 4 today and everything went smoothly. Returned home tonight to find a warning that the battery is below 30 percent. It is connected to AC power and I tested input voltage and it says it is good at 7.03.
Any ideas? Is it possible I got a dud battery in this unit?
The panel’s battery typically needs to be charged after the panel has been first installed. Battery charging can take up to 24 hours to complete.
I’m not showing any battery trouble conditions on the system. Are you still seeing this warning?
Oddly I just went to the unit and it is completely turned off. Not sure why. Only thing I can think of was that it was running on battery power only, but I did check the Voltage input yesterday from the electric and it was showing it was receiving 7v. Not sure why it would show that if it was getting AC power.
So I just took it off the wall and plugged it in separately using the original wire and the power supply that came with it. It is blinking red and unresponsive. Is this unit faulty?
If the unit was running on battery power, then it is possible that the battery is deeply discharged. If this is the case, it may take 10-15 minutes before it is charged enough to power back on.
If it remains this way, there may be a hardware failure on the unit.
Are you using existing wiring to power the panel? Also, are you using the power supply that came in the box?
Using existing wiring is fine as long as it meets the requirements from the installation manual shown below. Regardless of whether you’re using existing wiring or the wire included in the box, you must use the transformer that was included with the panel.
I was able to get the unit back on by leaving it plugged in to the wall using the wire and transformer that came in the box.
For the wall install, I am reusing wire from the prior older alarm panel. It is 6 conductor cable 22 awg. I am combining the red/green wires and yellow/black wires at both ends and using the 7v transformer that came with the panel.
So after confirming it worked above, I then put it back on the wall and tried to clean up the contacts at the transformer and at the backplate. Oddly, it is now charging the battery (went from 29 to 31 percent so far) but the DC voltage test is showing 3.8. Before all this happened it was 7.02.
I can’t figure out what i’m doing wrong but it’s really odd that the battery is now charging.
Is it possible that the low voltage on the DC test is because the battery was so low?
Just to add to this, I removed the panel from the wall and pushed it in again. It went to 5.x. I did it again and then it went to 7.1, but back down to 5.x. Really odd. Maybe the contacts on the back plate aren’t making a good connection? I may try wiring in the plug that came with the unit to rule that out
I just tested mine by disconnecting it from power and waited for the battery to drop a bit. When charging, it ranged between 6.80 to 7.15 VDC.
It is very rare but I have seen the U connectors at the end of the wire have a faulty connection. I cut them off, stripped the wire back and connected the copper directly to the transformer terminal and that fixed the issue. I’m wondering if that is what is happening.
As far as the battery dropping when connected on the wall, do you know about how far the panel is from the transformer? If using a single pair of 22 gauge wire, you can have a max distance of 25 feet. Using 18 gauge wire, you can have a maximum distance of 98.5 feet. If you are doubling 22 gauge wire, exact distance cannot be measured but it would be probably around 50 feet. Exceeding the max distance or having a bad wire connection can cause the panel to show it has voltage but the battery percentage will still drop.
When splicing wired, make sure you either solder the wires together or use something like dolphin connectors or twist on wire nuts to secure the wires together. Just twisting the wires together and applying tape can cause it to have issues.
Thanks, so I am using any U connector at the transformer, it is direct wire.
The only place where the two wires are connected are where i’ve twisted the two 22 awg wires together and inserted them into the panel and the transformer. Are you saying I should solder those ends?
It’s greater than 25 feet but less than 50 feet. It’s a little tough to measure exactly because it runs from my living room to the basement and I can’t tell the exact route it took.
One thought I had was that there are two unused 22 gauge wires in the group of 6. Would it be a bad idea to triple them up instead of doubling them up?
I did the same with my panel. Greater than 50 feet from the transformer. I checked the voltage with a meter. I haven’t had any problems. I used two pairs.
Looking forward to the iqp5 with 12v. Stupid to have used 7v.
Double check connections. Use a meter.
One thought I had was that there are two unused 22 gauge wires in the group of 6. Would it be a bad idea to triple them up instead of doubling them up?
Doubled 22AWG is roughly equivalent to what 19AWG would be, and should be fine at 25-50 feet. Adding another pair of wires is not necessarily going to address the problem, because effective gauge should be fine already.
One possible issue could be one or more broken wires or corrosion. If you are seeing excess voltage drop, the first thing I would recommend is to unplug the panel, then remove the wiring from the terminals at both the panel and the transformer, cut the ends and expose fresh wire, and finally reconnect the fresh wire from the doubled 22AWG.
Any change?
I tried that, as well as tripling up the wires and it is still giving me low voltage warnings. What I find confusing is that voltage is low when I first power it back up, but if I give it some time and come back to it, the voltage shows 7.02 again.
Currently it is charging the battery while also telling me voltage is 5.x. Does the voltage test show lower results when it is charging a drained battery? In other words, if I get the battery to 100 percent, will the voltage test be more accurate/show better?
I’m not sure what to do from here. No idea how I could run new wire from my basement to my front door (which again is far less than 50 feet). Don’t think an electrician could do it without putting holes in the wall either.
Did the battery charge when closer to the transformer even though it was showing a lower voltage on the panel voltage test?
