No Communication since the battery died

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1

We had a major storm that left us without power for about a week. The panel communicated up until the battery died. Once power was restored, I received an email stating that power had been restored to the panel. Then I received another email stating that the panel hasn’t communicated since the date the battery died.

Power was restored after 5 days. I received low battery alerts for a few days, and then those stopped, but the communication emails continued. No remote commands are working.

Signal Strength: 20/31
Registration Status: changed between Registered and Unknown
Connection Status: idle (OTASP OK)
Power Status: On
Sim Status: not locked
Radio Frequency: auto

The cell phone test fails stating:
Waiting for CS response. Please wait…
Waiting for CS response. Please wait…
Acquiring network registration. Please wait…
Waiting for CS response. Please wait…
Waiting for CS response. Please wait…
Phone test over radio modem timed out. Please try again later…
Result: The cell phone test failed.

I unplugged the power supply and battery, checked the antenna and card seating, powered everything back up with the same result.

2

Hmm. Someone else reported this exact same issue, and they replaced the entire panel under warranty for hardware failure. They also had the Verizon module.

Strange that a panel with a VZN module that experienced AC power loss, then DC power loss, suffers a hardware failure. Might want to have Surety further investigate. Hopefully you are still under warranty.

3

That does sound awfully familiar. Any change in response since posting?

4

Unfortunately, this system is at our cabin which is a couple hours away. I’m not on-site anymore. Alarm.com doesn’t look like it has any tools for diagnosing or testing this sort of issue.

5

Extra tools for diagnostics are available on our end, but with communication down, there is little that can be diagnosed. A similar recent issue indeed turned out to be a panel related problem.

I would personally come to the conclusion that storm activity and power surge (possibly lightning) being the culprit, but the symptoms are definitely odd, considering the communication looks to have worked on battery for a time, but I do see communication loss, then return for a short while and get lost again after the initial outage.

Without being able to test at the panel it is speculation, but I would imagine if you open it up you may be able to notice physical scarring somewhere on the board (maybe module). A possibility is a connection on the board melting/scorching from excessive power, giving intermittent communication until it completely fails.

When would you be able to take a look at the panel and test?

6

Is that what happened to the other panel in the thread linked above? When you received it, was their damage?

7

Have not received it yet.

8

A power surge or lighting is seems unlikely as the panel continued to work just fine on battery power for multiple days. The power outage was caused by a wind storm knocking over thousands of trees in the area; there wasn’t much lightning in this storm. I carefully inspected the inside of the panel and found no physical scarring or other defects. Once the power came back, the panel powered up. No other electronics in the house were effected.

What are our options for moving forward? Can I send the cell module in for testing?

9

If this is a panel you do not access often and you want to test the module alone, it would likely make the most sense to order a replacement module, then return it if a new module has no effect.

There is no guarantee this issue is the same as the other, but the similarities are striking. Based on that case, simply changing a programming parameter (Q91, specifically) broke the behavior of the panel during the boot process (which it absolutely should not do) and indicated the panel itself was causing the issue.

I can tell you more once that one shows up and I can test. I’ve notified 2GIG and they are unaware of this issue.

10

I think the panels are taking a small surge, and it is damaging the MB. You would think they would be able to handle small fluctuations, but maybe not. Might want to start putting them on surge protectors.

A lightening strike is not a requirement for a power surge, it could be caused when the power itself comes back on.

Power surges occur when the flow of electricity is interrupted, then started again, or when something sends electricity flowing back into the system
11

When I replace the cell module, do I need to register it with anyone to activate it?

12

Yes, you will want to send an email to customerservice@suretyDIY.com or with the new module serial number.