Brinks home security system disabled following a power outage?
Jeff asked:
My Brinks home-security system was working fine until a long power-outage drained the system battery. When the power came back, the battery eventually recharged, but the keypad display remains blank. The buttons beep when you press them, but nothing works.
My Brinks home-security system was working fine until a long power-outage drained the system battery. When the power came back, the battery eventually recharged, but the keypad display remains blank. The buttons beep when you press them, but nothing works.
I called Brinks and they said this behavior is by design. They eluded to the fact the system could be reactivated over the phone line … but they ended the call because I’m not paying monthly to have the system monitored.
Does anyone know how to re-activate this system?
Caffeinated Content
May 10th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
home security
It sounds like the alarm panel lost its programming. In theory, this shouldn’t happen because the program should be stored in non-volatile memory.
Unfortunately, Brinks is probably the only one that has the access codes and/or programming device necessary to restore the program. Most Brink’s panels are designed especially for them and can’t be serviced (at least legally) by anyone else.
There was a on-line source that offered technical manuals for Brinks panels (http://www.tech-man.com) but he got the pants sued off him by Brinks and had to remove the material from his site.
If you don’t want to pay Brinks, you may wish to consider replacing the panel/keypad with industry-standard equipment that can be serviced by anyone, including you.