Premier Elite 24 PSU Fault

[sparkymarka]

Just to confirm you are taking readings from here

 

[Chris Tino]

Hi Sparky
Got the panel wrong its a 48. Yes measured off the Aux and bell terminals. Dissconnected the battery from the bell today and it is hard wired.

Thanks

 

[sparkymarka]

Are detectors and keypad still lit up ? What are you getting on the + and - on the network bus

 

[Chris Tino]

All detectors are working, keypads are in power save mode ie light up when pressed. Network is at 12v.
All is working fine on the battery.

Thanks

 

[Chris Tino]

Spoke with tech support today and pretty much confirmed bad PSU due to high voltage in free air and low voltage once connected to the board.
Thought they would have sent one out by return post, however have sent me back to the supplier with an RMA code!
Spoke with supplier and informed me they are out of stock of Texecom PSU as they have had over 20 returns for failed units from May..................doesn't fill me with much confidence.
Any how stock due in Monday hopefully be with me Tuesday.

FWIW this Texecom replaced a rock solid 25 year old Abacus 8ABI that gave up the ghost giving falae alarms on several Zones either set or unset............miss it's cimplicity

 

[secureiam]

unfortunately the process is to return via your supplier, under consumer law, you go back to where it was bought from in the first instance.

The PSU situation has been embarrassing, that said I have yet to be 100% certain as to why they fail as, I know on systems I have been to there is no obvious cause, and on systems that have had mains power issues some have been fine.

Even had one fail on install.

Its too early to tell if the latest PSU has resolved the problem for sure, but it does look promising.

 

[Handymanjo]

We have loads of PSU faults withTexecom panels.Worst thing they have done changing the old wire wound transformers for these crap switch mode psu.
If you get a power surge from the mains then the psu goes faulty. We have changed some customers two or three time. Texecom are not bothered ,we have had the rep in on various occasions to no avail.

 

[sparkymarka]

Abacus ABI panel that was a nice all in one panel .....the old premier 48 where trouble free until the elites with switch mode psu’s ...

 

[secureiam]

@Handymanjo that's not strictly true, are the units pre -6?

Not sure how they are tested for robustness.

went through period of no issues and they started up again.

My understanding is Elmdene make Texecom power supplies these days

 

[sparkymarka]

Elmdene....again had a few elmdene switch mode psu’s ( boxed power supplies ) go faulty ....think most of it’s made in China..

 

[secureiam]

we are probably way too reliant on China, but bnot all things from Chain are bad

 

[Chris Tino]

Am I right in saying that the wire wound were AC with an inverter to converter it to DC on the borad and these new ones do it in the power suppy itself, so more stuff to fail?

 

[sparkymarka]

In one ....a hundred bits to go wrong ....replaced about 6 transformers in 30 years and 3 of these where probably just had a buzz ...

 

[Chris Tino]

Power suppy arrived yesterday, fitted and all is again well. Checked the voltage as a matter of interest and is reading a steady 13.8v on and off the board. Lets hope that Rev.6 is the last and they don't now fail prematurely!
Thanks to all for the heads up, history and advice.

 

[bernardgreen]

Switch Mode Power Supplies ( SMPS) are not as resilient to abnormal conditions as a supply using a wound transformer, rectifier and smoothing with analogue voltage control.

The major advantage is to the manufacturer as an SMPS is much cheaper to manufacture than a supply using a wound transformer.

One abnormal condition is when the fuse between an SMPS and the equipment it supplies blows leaving the SMPS with no load on it's output. A well designed ( more expensive ) SMPS will survive without a load. Many SMPS have to have a minimum load without which they may go unstable and self destruct.