The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[Ashaman42]

Blech! Washing hands after tea and I notice a bit of food stuck in my teeth. Reach in to get it forgetting I've still got soapy hands. Nitwit.

[Littlesox]

I really ought to be surprised that I got sent a scan of a print of an email I sent last year as an attachment to an email today.

Flashback to circa 1976 - an edition of the BBC's Tomorrow's World - Raymond Baxter beside a machine the size of a house, explaining that it was a computer and one day it will be responsible for the "Paperless office". I sit and listen with awe and wonder. My Dad scoffs at the telly, and says it will never happen.

I'll leave it with you......

[Oaky]

Wildlife experts who keep harking on about the extraordinary collision-avoidance-sonar abilities of bats: please come to Witham and explain that to the one I got a faceful of during my ride last night!

[Guy]

Wildlife experts who keep harking on about the extraordinary collision-avoidance-sonar abilities of bats: please come to Witham and explain that to the one I got a faceful of during my ride last night!

You are Ozzy Osbourne and ICMFP

[Bledlow]

I really ought to be surprised that I got sent a scan of a print of an email I sent last year as an attachment to an email today.

Flashback to circa 1976 - an edition of the BBC's Tomorrow's World - Raymond Baxter beside a machine the size of a house, explaining that it was a computer and one day it will be responsible for the "Paperless office". I sit and listen with awe and wonder. My Dad scoffs at the telly, and says it will never happen.

I'll leave it with you......

1976? That was the year the Apple 1 came out. Commercial computers that could fit into a  room with all their peripherals (e.g. washing-machine sized disc drives) had been around for a while, & were shrinking fast. The first VAX was sold in 1977, & commercial computers you could put your coffee mug on were hitting the market. I worked with some in the early 1980s.

Are you sure you've got the right decade? Or maybe how you remember it has grown over the years.
1970 -

1976 -

[mrcharly-YHT]

I really ought to be surprised that I got sent a scan of a print of an email I sent last year as an attachment to an email today.

Flashback to circa 1976 - an edition of the BBC's Tomorrow's World - Raymond Baxter beside a machine the size of a house, explaining that it was a computer and one day it will be responsible for the "Paperless office". I sit and listen with awe and wonder. My Dad scoffs at the telly, and says it will never happen.

I'll leave it with you......

1976? That was the year the Apple 1 came out. Commercial computers that could fit into a  room with all their peripherals (e.g. washing-machine sized disc drives) had been around for a while, & were shrinking fast. The first VAX was sold in 1977, & commercial computers you could put your coffee mug on were hitting the market. I worked with some in the early 1980s.

Are you sure you've got the right decade? Or maybe how you remember it has grown over the years.

In the early 90s I was working on computers that were bigger than any house I've owned.

[rafletcher]

Met office online weather forecast. How come it takes you until 14:30 to update your "dry until 19:00" forecast to "heavy showers at 13:00".  I can do that by looking out of the bloody window    Ah well, at least I'm waterproof!

[Kim]

Ah, related grumble: The Met Office Android app seems to have trouble with British Summer Time, to the effect that it gets confused about what day it is for an hour after midnight.

[Arch]

Wildlife experts who keep harking on about the extraordinary collision-avoidance-sonar abilities of bats: please come to Witham and explain that to the one I got a faceful of during my ride last night!

David Attenborough told a story of how he once did a piece to camera at the mouth of a cave housing a huge bat colony, about the collision avoidance of bats, while bats flew in and out around him.  At the end, the director called "Cut", and a bat flew straight into Attenborough's face....

[Kim]

That's the Law Of Demonstration, which exists in all things.

[Greenbank]

Power cut.

Only very local, just 5 or 6 houses in our stretch, they're digging up right outside our house.

Our alarm goes when the power is cut with no way to silence it. It's taken 2 hours for the battery to die and the internal 130dB siren to stop.

Luckily MiniGB has slept through it despite being less than 5 meters from the siren.

[Kim]

Our alarm goes when the power is cut with no way to silence it. It's taken 2 hours for the battery to die and the internal 130dB siren to stop.

There's fail-safe and then there's fail-annoying.

I see no reason for a burglar alarm to go off for more than about 5 minutes, and once triggered it should require human intervention before going off again.

Why yes, the students have just gone home for the summer...

[Greenbank]

The alarm isn't our doing, it came with the flat (with no instructions, only the code). We don't use it (or even tell the insurers it exists). The control panel is dead whilst the power is off/out.

I did try and get ADT to come and look at it for us but we just got a sales droid who wanted to sell us back into a monitoring plan; lots of fear and horror stories.

I think tonight serves as a reason to get the alarm sorted (disabled) properly now.

Oh, and Electrickery workmen have just fired up the stone cutter! That's a quiet thing to do at midnight.

[hulver]

The alarm isn't our doing, it came with the flat (with no instructions, only the code). We don't use it (or even tell the insurers it exists). The control panel is dead whilst the power is off/out.

I did try and get ADT to come and look at it for us but we just got a sales droid who wanted to sell us back into a monitoring plan; lots of fear and horror stories.

I think tonight serves as a reason to get the alarm sorted (disabled) properly now.

Oh, and Electrickery workmen have just fired up the stone cutter! That's a quiet thing to do at midnight.

Sounds like the internal battery needs replacing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vsC9jgkVbo

Burglar alarms are generally reliable but if the internal battery is flat and will no longer hold charge it should be replaced as soon as possible. A flat internal battery can mean that if there is a power cut the external siren will sound because the hold off circuit to it is no longer present. If the outside siren does not have a self contained battery (scb) the alarm can still go into tamper mode and activate when the power is supplied to the alarm system ( this is why many burglar alarms sound after a power cut). This video shows how to replace the back up battery.

[hulver]

Dear Body,

I know I've been asking a bit of you lately. It's come as a bit of a shock that after 40 years on this earth I'm now asking more of you then I've ever asked. If you just hold together for a few more months I'll start taking it a bit easier, I promise.

Please stop failing in old and boring ways.

Thanks,

Your Brain.

[Bledlow]

Met office online weather forecast. How come it takes you until 14:30 to update your "dry until 19:00" forecast to "heavy showers at 13:00".  I can do that by looking out of the bloody window    Ah well, at least I'm waterproof!

Yeah, but my drying wasn't.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I had a reasonably shit morning.

[Greenbank]

The alarm isn't our doing, it came with the flat (with no instructions, only the code). We don't use it (or even tell the insurers it exists). The control panel is dead whilst the power is off/out.

I did try and get ADT to come and look at it for us but we just got a sales droid who wanted to sell us back into a monitoring plan; lots of fear and horror stories.

I think tonight serves as a reason to get the alarm sorted (disabled) properly now.

Oh, and Electrickery workmen have just fired up the stone cutter! That's a quiet thing to do at midnight.

Sounds like the internal battery needs replacing.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/4vsC9jgkVbo&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/4vsC9jgkVbo&rel=1</a>

Burglar alarms are generally reliable but if the internal battery is flat and will no longer hold charge it should be replaced as soon as possible. A flat internal battery can mean that if there is a power cut the external siren will sound because the hold off circuit to it is no longer present. If the outside siren does not have a self contained battery (scb) the alarm can still go into tamper mode and activate when the power is supplied to the alarm system ( this is why many burglar alarms sound after a power cut). This video shows how to replace the back up battery.

Yep, that's what I was thinking. It's slightly more complicated in that there must be a battery in the internal siren too as something is powering that when the mains power is cut.

I'll see about taking the case off it tonight (once I've found my earplugs).

I've no idea whether the outside siren (if there even is one in the box on the wall) was sounding. I didn't go out to find out. Easily checked by flicking the appropriate fuse.

[Biggsy]

I haven't had a reasonable shit this morning.  I'll take some lactulose.

[mcshroom]

The alarm isn't our doing, it came with the flat (with no instructions, only the code). We don't use it (or even tell the insurers it exists). The control panel is dead whilst the power is off/out.

I did try and get ADT to come and look at it for us but we just got a sales droid who wanted to sell us back into a monitoring plan; lots of fear and horror stories.

I think tonight serves as a reason to get the alarm sorted (disabled) properly now.

Oh, and Electrickery workmen have just fired up the stone cutter! That's a quiet thing to do at midnight.

Sounds like the internal battery needs replacing.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/4vsC9jgkVbo&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/4vsC9jgkVbo&rel=1</a>

Burglar alarms are generally reliable but if the internal battery is flat and will no longer hold charge it should be replaced as soon as possible. A flat internal battery can mean that if there is a power cut the external siren will sound because the hold off circuit to it is no longer present. If the outside siren does not have a self contained battery (scb) the alarm can still go into tamper mode and activate when the power is supplied to the alarm system ( this is why many burglar alarms sound after a power cut). This video shows how to replace the back up battery.

Yep, that's what I was thinking. It's slightly more complicated in that there must be a battery in the internal siren too as something is powering that when the mains power is cut.

I'll see about taking the case off it tonight (once I've found my earplugs).

I've no idea whether the outside siren (if there even is one in the box on the wall) was sounding. I didn't go out to find out. Easily checked by flicking the appropriate fuse.

If the battery in the system is dead then you may be able to disable your alarm by removing the fuse on the circuit powering it.

My house when I moved in had been powered down and unoccupied for two years. The alarm would go off as soon as the electricity was turned on (and I don't have the code) as the batteries are dead. Removing the fuse from a panel next to the control box has silenced the alarm until I get round to getting it sorted

[Kim]

I always assumed they went off when the power failed as an anti-tamper feature.  Does the main system battery usually die before the sounder battery like this?

[Greenbank]

If the battery in the system is dead then you may be able to disable your alarm by removing the fuse on the circuit powering it.

No, that causes the alarm (separate internal[1] siren) to sound, with no way to turn it off.

That's the whole problem. Power cut == internal siren sounding. Trying to silence the internal siren is not solving the problem, it's dealing with yet another symptom.

The second problem (well, symptom of the same problem) is that when the power eventually comes back on I've got 30 seconds or so to reset the alarm or the siren will go off again. This is annoying to my neighbours when I'm not there to fix it.

Dead backup battery in the alarm is the likely cause of all of it and last night's shenanigans have given me the impetus to sort it out. I just need the requisite powertools and beer.

1. Internal to the flat not the alarm box itself.

[Greenbank]

I always assumed they went off when the power failed as an anti-tamper feature.  Does the main system battery usually die before the sounder battery like this?

I wouldn't expect a power fail to cause the alarm to sound when there's adequate (system) battery backup.

The failure modes get complicated as there are 3 power sources involved:
* mains power
* system battery (a.k.a. backup battery)
* sounder battery

mains	system battery	sounder battery	expected outcome
ok	ok	ok	normal operation
ok	ok	dead	normal operation, sounder would be mains powered if required?
ok	dead	ok	normal operation, panel may show battery warning light
ok	dead	dead	normal operation, panel may show battery warning light, sounder mains powered if required
dead	ok	ok	normal operation
dead	ok	dead	normal operation because no problem detected, dunno what would happen if alarm tripped
dead	dead	ok	my problem, nothing alive to tell the sounder not to sound
dead	dead	dead	no sound because there's nothing to power the sounder

[hulver]

When I changed the battery in my system, opening the cover triggered the alarm, but putting the code in stopped it again.

Your system may vary.

Of course, you will want to remove the fuse before opening the cover, in which case use ear plugs. 

[Kim]

I always assumed they went off when the power failed as an anti-tamper feature.  Does the main system battery usually die before the sounder battery like this?

I wouldn't expect a power fail to cause the alarm to sound when there's adequate (system) battery backup.

Then half the alarms in Silly Oak have a dead system battery and working external sounder battery.

Unless they detect mains failure as a tamper condition.

(They go off as power fails.  A couple go off again when it's restored.)

dead

dead

ok

no sound because there's nothing to power the sounder

I assume that's a typo for 'dead dead dead'