Omnicron 9000

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Have one of these alarms which I self installed many years ago. Found the
original instructions - both installation and user.

Need to change a faulty sensor, but can't stop it going off when I open it
up - the 24 hour circuit.

I can get it into engineering mode, but can't for the life of me find
instructions on how to totally disarm it. I've left it in that mode with
the power turned off and will wait until the battery goes flat if no one
has a better idea.

 

[Kevin]

Have one of these alarms which I self installed many years ago. Found the
original instructions - both installation and user.

Need to change a faulty sensor, but can't stop it going off when I open it
up - the 24 hour circuit.

On my old Omnicrom the easiest way, iirc, was to wedge the compression
spring fastened to the anti-tamper switch in the panel under the corner
of the main pcb - then cancel the alarm as normal.

Has anyone ever had a burglar alarm disabled by an intruder?

 

[Toby]

Have one of these alarms which I self installed many years ago. Found the
original instructions - both installation and user.

Need to change a faulty sensor, but can't stop it going off when I open it
up - the 24 hour circuit.

I can get it into engineering mode, but can't for the life of me find
instructions on how to totally disarm it. I've left it in that mode with
the power turned off and will wait until the battery goes flat if no one
has a better idea.

If you put it into engineering mode, then open the alarm panel cover,
does this still set it off? if so, with the panel cover open, does
putting the code in shut it up?

 

[Andrew Gabriel]

Has anyone ever had a burglar alarm disabled by an intruder?

A colleague at work had a break-in, and the only thing they
stole was the burglar alarm.

Theory was they were trying to shut it up, but the end result
was rather ironic...

 

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If you put it into engineering mode, then open the alarm panel cover,
does this still set it off?
Yes.

if so, with the panel cover open, does
putting the code in shut it up?

Not tried that. But couldn't shut it up with the other 24 hour circuit
broken without making it again.

The battery was flat by this morning so it's sorted. Hope it will charge
up again ok - it must be 15 years old. ;-)

 

[Andrew Gabriel]

The battery was flat by this morning so it's sorted. Hope it will charge
up again ok - it must be 15 years old. ;-)

It likely won't, but it's well overdue for replacement anyway.
Any idea how long it took to run flat?

 

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It likely won't, but it's well overdue for replacement anyway.
Any idea how long it took to run flat?

At least 4 hours before I went to bed. It's drawing a reasonable charge
current, so may just be ok. Not that I'm worried anyway - can't remember
the last power cut.

 

[dennis@home]

Have one of these alarms which I self installed many years ago. Found the
original instructions - both installation and user.

Need to change a faulty sensor, but can't stop it going off when I open it
up - the 24 hour circuit.

I can get it into engineering mode, but can't for the life of me find
instructions on how to totally disarm it. I've left it in that mode with
the power turned off and will wait until the battery goes flat if no one
has a better idea.

I don't think you can.
It will only activate the internal sounder when you open it unless the
engineer has enabled full alarm mode for the tamper circuit.
You can cancel it once its gone off.

If you let the main panel go flat the bell box will then ring for a few
minutes/hours depending on which one you have.

Leave the power on and change the sensor, its only 12V so there isn't much
chance of you getting killed.
Try not to short stuff out, I don't believe it will do any damage if you do,
but it will probably start the damn alarm again.

 

[SteveW]

A colleague at work had a break-in, and the only thing they
stole was the burglar alarm.

Theory was they were trying to shut it up, but the end result
was rather ironic...

I had student friends living in a tower block in Salford. There were
security guards based in the bottom of the tower 24/7, who also
monitored the adjacent block via CCTV. Someone stole the cameras!

SteveW

 

[Dave Plowman (News)]

At least 4 hours before I went to bed. It's drawing a reasonable charge
current, so may just be ok. Not that I'm worried anyway - can't remember
the last power cut.

And I dropped it down the cellar stairs when replacing it - so now truly
toast. ;-) New one from TLC is rather less than I'd have guessed.

 

[ARWadsworth]

Have one of these alarms which I self installed many years ago. Found
the original instructions - both installation and user.

Need to change a faulty sensor, but can't stop it going off when I
open it up - the 24 hour circuit.

I can get it into engineering mode, but can't for the life of me find
instructions on how to totally disarm it. I've left it in that mode
with the power turned off and will wait until the battery goes flat
if no one has a better idea.

Omnicron 9000 Did it ever have a proper engineering mode?

My parents had one (in fact they still do have one, but it now only protects
their garage). ISTR just connecting the battery directly to the bell box
when I worked on it.

But that is some years ago......

 

[ARWadsworth]

I don't think you can.
It will only activate the internal sounder when you open it unless the
engineer has enabled full alarm mode for the tamper circuit.
You can cancel it once its gone off.

If you let the main panel go flat the bell box will then ring for a
few minutes/hours depending on which one you have.

Leave the power on and change the sensor, its only 12V so there isn't
much chance of you getting killed.

Define "isn't much chance"

 

[ARWadsworth]

On my old Omnicrom the easiest way, iirc, was to wedge the compression
spring fastened to the anti-tamper switch in the panel under the
corner of the main pcb - then cancel the alarm as normal.

Has anyone ever had a burglar alarm disabled by an intruder?

I can disable most systems. However I need to put a ladder up to the bellbox
to do it (silent activation) or activate the alarm before disabling it (if
you know where the control panel is that does not take long).

 

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Omnicron 9000 Did it ever have a proper engineering mode?

Seems to have.

My parents had one (in fact they still do have one, but it now only
protects their garage). ISTR just connecting the battery directly to
the bell box when I worked on it.

It was quite sophisticated in its day. Has all the facilities I need. And
had far less false alarms than all the pro installed units around me. ;-)

 

[Mike Tomlinson]

I can disable most systems. However I need to put a ladder up to the bellbox
to do it (silent activation)

what about self-contained bells?

 

[ARWadsworth]

what about self-contained bells?

If you know the layout of the innards of a bellbox then you know where to
cut a hole in the cover to expose the electrics without activating the
tamper. You can do whatever you want when you have access to the terminals
and the alarm is not sounding.

 

[dennis@home]

what about self-contained bells?

That depends on how cheap they are.
If you can get to the wiring (e.g. by prising it off the wall or cutting
holes in it) you can connect a battery to it and stop it ringing or just
remove the internal battery from the PCB.
Better ones have double skins (the big chubb triangular ones for instance)
and multiple attachment places for the anti tamper circuit.

I have glued a thin wire "grid" to the inside of my cheap bell box so if the
cover is forced and/or cut the wire breaks, the anti-tamper being feed
through it.
Its a trick I learnt in my first full time job at Chubb alarms in Brum.
They do the same thing when they board windows up, etc.

 

[alan]

It likely won't, but it's well overdue for replacement anyway.
Any idea how long it took to run flat?

Charging back up is not the problem. After a few years the battery still
has the correct terminal voltage but seem to be unable to supply enough
(instantaneous) power to stop the alarms tripping when you get a power
cut/glitch for a few seconds, or less.

 

[alan]

It was quite sophisticated in its day. Has all the facilities I need. And
had far less false alarms than all the pro installed units around me. ;-)

I had an omnicron purchased from Maplin Electronics (probably 15/20
years ago). The instructions were *#@! and the additional notes
supplied by Maplin were, at best, rather amateurish. In the end I wrote
my own two page operational notes and set-up procedure. It served me
well until about 2 months ago when it failed with a PSU fault. I was
going to repair it but decided that life was too short to bother when I
found that I could get a control box at a reasonable price from TLC.
<http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/TSOPTCG4.html>

 

[ARWadsworth]

That depends on how cheap they are.
If you can get to the wiring (e.g. by prising it off the wall or
cutting holes in it) you can connect a battery to it and stop it
ringing or just remove the internal battery from the PCB.
Better ones have double skins (the big chubb triangular ones for
instance) and multiple attachment places for the anti tamper circuit.

I have glued a thin wire "grid" to the inside of my cheap bell box so
if the cover is forced and/or cut the wire breaks, the anti-tamper
being feed through it.
Its a trick I learnt in my first full time job at Chubb alarms in
Brum. They do the same thing when they board windows up, etc.

I know a way around that