strange problem setting alarm - please help! :)

[skuba]

hi everyone

i've got a problem with my alarm which i've put up with for the past few years, but now it's really starting to annoy me!

it's a scantronic i-on 40. i've got 2 door contacts and 3 x PIRs. the keypad is in a cupboard in the hall, which is protected by one of the PIRs. it's configured so i have a 15 second exit time, which is fine. when the countdown starts, it's a constant beep until the system is armed. however, sometimes when i arm the system it beeps on and off (beep-beep-beep...) for the 15 second exit time. when it gets to the end of the countdown, the alarm sounds! (although it's only sounding internal via the keypad speaker. the bell box doesn't actually go off). on other occasions, a similar thing happens but the on/off beeps return to a constant (normal) beep within the 15 second exit time and the system arms fine

what's going on here? the hall (where the keypad is) is protected by a PIR, and it's almost as though it's not happy allowing you to set it because it's detected movement. however, 75% of the time, it sets absolutely fine!

thank you in advance for any advice

 

[Nerdish Nerd]

The beeping on countdown means a detector is being tripped. If the beeping continues and exit faults the alarm (making all keypads and internal speakers sound the alarm tone), a detector is being constantly tripped. For example, if there's a door open.
If the beep turns back into a constant tone and sets you should be fine unless the detector trips again when the alarm is set. The keypad should display what zone is being tripped when it's setting. A zone list will also come in handy because if zone n is being tripped, you can find where the detector is by using the zone list.

 

[skuba]

yeah, the zone tripping it is my hall PIR! but what's weird about it is, the PIR in the hall is set as 'final exit'...
90% of the time:- walk up, key in the code, constant beep, alarm is armed
5% of the time:- walk up, key in code, intermittent beep, alarm fails to arm
5% of the time:- walk up, key in code, intermittent beep turns in to constant beep, alarm is armed

it's very strange. either the hall PIR is not working properly 90% of the time! or i've got some sort of configuration problem. i'm not entirely sure what the 'confirmation mode' (set to BS8243) is, but there's an option to change it to 'basic'. could this help?? also unsure what the 'abort time' is??