Burglar alarms...

[Troll]

I have a burglar alarm in the house,this morning at 05:00 is it went off even though it wasn't armed.

Suspiciously it did the same thing about this time last year.

Also suspicious is that it is due for its annual maintenance visit.

Being paranoid I suspect there may be some kind of timer attached to generate the alarm and hence ensure the annual maintenance visit is booked (chargeable)

Opening up the box reveals nothing obvious i.e. added circuits etc - any counter espionage agents on here could say what to look for?

[expat]

I have a burglar alarm in the house,this morning at 05:00 is it went off even though it wasn't armed.

Suspiciously it did the same thing about this time last year.

Also suspicious is that it is due for its annual maintenance visit.

Being paranoid I suspect there may be some kind of timer attached to generate the alarm and hence ensure the annual maintenance visit is booked (chargeable)

Opening up the box reveals nothing obvious i.e. added circuits etc - any counter espionage agents on here could say what to look for?

Is that by any chance when it calls in to report? Maybe it sounds if it can't call in. Mine did that: kept getting calls in the middle of the night in other countries, not very reassuring at all.

[xoggoth]

It is clearly haunted. Probably by the ghost of an alarm installation engineer and an exorcism is needed.

[Troll]

It doesn't need extra circuits, the timer is built into the software...

If you knew the engineer's password, you could probably get in & frig about with it... but I wouldn't recommend it unless you know what your doing.

What make is it?

I have made a career out of not knowing what I am doing!!


The alarm is unmarked - I am searching for the manual which will tell what model, but as befitting my mansion I have to say it's probally a top-of-the-range jobbie non of your council house tat

A foolish mortal once told me the engineers code so that's not a problem

[mcquiggd]

Are you sure it isn't the Polish builders who are squatting there as you haven't paid them their £2.50 for the gold urinal to be fitted in the study...?

[TheMonkey]

Might be mice. The feckers set off the PIR detectors in my place.

[TheMonkey]

Yeah. Personally I prefer the "firewall" principle, not the "get the ****ers once they've got in" principle i.e. glass break detectors and reeds on the doors.

I built my own alarm system btw (fully zoned with a PIC18F452 running it with a cute little 2x16 LCD screen). It has a serial port that is supposed to connect to a server to fart out an SMS if it goes off but I got bored and couldn't be bothered to read the UART section on the datasheet.

[Clog II The Avenger]

It’s probably got a maintenance ROM chip programmed to sound the alarm once a year. (and I’m not joking)

[Troll]

Just so you have to call the "engineer" out...

Do you think it would be OK to call him out and hold hostage until the secrets of the maint. programming are divulged?

[lukemg]

Alarms

I can confirm this can be set up in some alarm control boxes, if there is a display it can indicate maintenance required, which usually involves putting a code in to reset the clock for a year but costs 100 notes to get them out. Total scam !