Quintas

Thanks guys for all your support. I'll have to decide what do do.

I have a GD 96. I suppose it could also be a GD 48.

I'm aware of that. Thanks anyway. If I stick to the Galaxy, I'll have to buy a new panel. Do you know what is the latest firmware I should look for?

Ir really looks like it's a detector thing. That's why I was told there might be an incompatibility of these panels with SSR detectors. But I have both detectors with and without SSR and it doesn't seem to be any difference. What puzzles me is that smoke detectors also have the problem (and their relays should be closed all the time), and once a door contact and the tamper loop also had high resistance (don't know the resistance of tamper loop, but I had a fault warning, years ago, that never happened again). Power supply, battery charging, etc seem to be ok, according to diagnosis option. Anyway, I replaced the backup battery with a new one, the same with all the fuses. I can also exclude a power supply issue, because external RIOs used to be supplied by an external PSU and had the same issue with their detectors. They are now supplied by the panel, for testing purposes. After dozens of tests I've already done, I was thinking of a panel issue, but can't be sure. Between buying a new panel and two new RIOs, latest versions, I' m more inclined to go to another brand, if they can do everything this panel does, independent groups, etc.

Hi Tech6. I hope everything is OK with you. I´ve already done tons of different tests. I think I can conclude that the problem is not RF interference. Changing the response time, either to Fast (20ms) or Slow (1000ms) makes no difference. The problem is more frequent with external RIOs, but, I think, changing resp.time makes no difference with these ext. RIOs: they are V1.00 and the manual says that function 6=Resp.Time in 52-Program Zones is only applicable to zones on RIO rev 1.2 and above. Anyway I kept this function = System in all zones and changed Parameter 27=CCT Debounce to either 20 or 1000 ms, for testing. It made no difference, even with onboard zones. I tested with only one detector connected either to an external RIO or an onboard RIO, screen cable wired to earth, the problem persists. And its not that one detector problem, since it happens with different detectors, from different brands. Twice, there was a detector in an external RIO with high resistances for several consecutive days. I covered the dectector with a paper and the problem went away for as many days (14) as it was covered and came back after I uncovered it. I did this test because I noticed that, in rooms in the house where we rarely go to, their detectors rarely have high resistances, and the opposite happens. From here, I should think that the problem has something to do with the relays opening and closing. But it also happens with smoke detectors, once with a door contact and once with the tamper loop to sirens. If I close the zone with a 1K resistor inside the detector, bypassing its relay, the problem seems to go away, so. I think, this also excludes RF interference. Spare zones closed with 1K resistor on the panel side never had the problem, except, perhaps, once. These zones normally have resistances between 1000-1020 Ohm, and only once one spare zone reached 1042 Ohm. It seems like the panel is not reading or calculating the resistances correctly, but it also happens (and more frequently) with external RIOs; I don´t know if the resistances are calculated by the external RIOs or by the main panel with the data from the RIOs. I've runned out of ideas and spent so much time with this that I'm willing to buy a new system. Either stick with Honeywell (but I would have to buy a new PCB plus two RIO expanders) or go for Texecom (Premier Elite 48 ?) or Pyronix (EURO 76 ?). Do you know which one would be easier for a DIY? Thanks and I wish you a great 2025.

Give me some weeks to implement these things and be sure of positive results. I'll be giving feedback. Thanks a lot Tech6.

Yes, I got it, thanks. Just one thing: if the cable has a screening wire, I don't need to also connect the spare cores to earth, just the screening wire, right? Haven't done it yet, because of what you wrote earlier: This gave me an idea. One of my outdoor detectors has a function of activating the alarm relay contacts for 10 secs, whenever there is a detection event, to activate a surveillance camera. I don't have that function On (DIP Switch setting), but I am wondering if that could be malfunctioning, so I closed that zone inside the detector with a 1k resistor - circuit not going through the detector. I'll see what happens in the next days, but I don't believe that is the cause because that should give a high resistance only in that detector, I think. I can change the response time next, but I have to understand it first. Guide me please: I should change the response time of one zone (to 10 msecs?)at a time and see what happens. If the issue is gone, it means that zone is responsible? But if that is the problem, shouldn't that be happening only with one zone, or one type of detectors/brand/model, and not randomly with many zones with different detectors/brand/model?

I only use copper screened cables. But don't have the cables screen wires connected to the earthing pillar on the panel. All my 16 intruder detectors came from a Galaxy 16+ panel that I had for 20 years. Same cables, same routes. They cross electrical cables but don't go side by side with them, unless for short runs (max. 1 meter) and they are both (alarm and electric) inside separate electrical conduits, in these cases. And I had zero problems or false alarms with the old G 16+ in 20 years. But I don't know the resistances of the zones, because G16+ didn't have that option. I only added smoke detectors, one door contact and two panic buttons in the new GD panel. But I tested it disconnecting all smoke detectors, issues persisted. Honestly, I didn't test disconnecting the door contact and the panic buttons, because they don't have relays, but I will try now. And, if the issues persist, I will try earthing the screen wires of the cables.

I did option 61-Diagnostics again. RIO 0 13.74V 0.21A RIO 1 13.74V 0.20A Lowest battery voltage on last test: 13.27V Battery is completely charged with 13.95V, drawing 0.00A When charging, battery is 13.74V, drawing 0.06A Voltage in all 16 zones between 13.79 and 13.81V Everything looks fine to me. Next step, I'll disconnect detectors one at a time and see. Then I will begin changing cables. It might take a long time before I take any conclusion. Thank you so much Tech6. If any new hint comes to your mind, please let me know.

I had 2 external bells, 1 voice communicator, etc. But I also have an external Elmdene PSU. I was very careful balancing the loads, between the panel PSU and the external Elmdene PSU. Anyway, everything (bells , communicator, Elmdene PSU, RIOs) is now disconnected for testing purposes, except 12 zones wired to detectors, contacts and panic buttons and one keypad. And only 9 of those 12 are detectors (I assume door contacts and panic buttons haven't power consumption). So it can't be an issue of excessive load on the panel PSU side. The issue isn't reproducible, and it is kinda rare. Sometimes it is logged one, to three times in one of the zones during the 14 days log, but sometimes it's not logged in 14 days at all. Also it can occur in on particular zone today and for months it will not occur again with that zone, but it will with another zone. Very difficult to track down. The diagnostics showed a voltage of around 13,7 V in the peripherals. I don't remember the current, I'll check when I get back home.

No. There are 16 onboard (in the panel PCB) zones. I also have 2 RIO expanders, each with 8 more zones. But these RIOs are now disconnected, so I presently have 16 functional zones. High resistances were registered in zones of the RIOs but also in onboard zones. It seems to be an electrical issue that affects all zones. Since the problem persists after I disconnected the RIOs, I can conclude that the electrical problem comes either from the panel or from the detectors wired to the panel. One thing that puzzles me: detectors normal resistance is around 1k Ohm, because of the 1k Ohm resistor. High resistances logged are frequently 1297 Ohm. I swapped the 1k Ohm resistor by a 930 Ohm resistor in some detectors and still high resistances of 1297 Ohm were logged after that.

Firstly, thank you for keep trying to point solutions. Power supplies seem to be good. Option 61 - Diagnostics say everything is ok. Anyway, I changed to a new battery, tested with and without backup battery connected, doesn't make a difference. Not sure what you mean. If expanders are the external RIOs, I'm now testing without them and the problem persists.

Can you explain how to do this?

I've already done dozens of tests. I've a GD-96, two external RIOs, three keypads. High resistance happened with the onboard zones and with RIO's zones. One RIO was in Line1, the other in Line2. Swapped the RIOs, no luck. Disconnected one RIO at a time, changed the cable from RIOs to panel, changed the cable route (RIOs are 3m away from the panel), ended testing with just the panel and one keypad, tried different keypads, disconnected detectors by brand. Nothing works. I believe I have a faulty panel and I'm willing to buy a new one. But I'd like to confirm the information of the incompatibility with detectors with SSR first. Have you ever heard of that?

The problem is, if I go through the max/min resistances registered in the last 14 days log, in all zones, most of the days max resistances are OK (near 1K). But sometimes, in one of the 16 zones, there is one day out of the 14 logged days with a HR near 1.3K (frequently it is 1297 Ohm). This is a zone random issue and it happens occasionally. The problem is that sometimes it gets higher than 1.3K. I've never seen it in a spare (closed with 1K resistor) zone though. Also, doesn't seem to happen if all 16 zones are closed with 1K resistors at the panel. It seems to be more frequent the more the number of detectors I have wired and less frequent in zones without detectors (eg door contacts, panic button). Any ideas? Do you know if Galaxy panels are prone to this issues, because of the "common rail 0v on a Galaxy" you mentioned?