Recently, our DSC alarm system started showing a low battery warning. On our keypad, you can scroll through the different warnings item by item. I found that two of our door sensors had low battery conditions. It was clearly time to perform a DSC sensor battery replacement.
Which Battery to Use
Normally when I replace coin cell batteries, I just grab a few at the dollar store. For something as important as our alarm sensors, I decided it was worth getting a better battery. I picked up a 12 pack of CR2032 batteries at Costco for $12.
Opening the Sensors for DSC sensor battery replacement
Popping the cover off of our sensors was rather easy. I placed a small slotted precision screwdriver carefully placed in the provided slots, and applied a gentle twist. The cover popped right off, exposing the coin cell battery.
I used the same screwdriver to gently pry the battery out of its socket, and replaced it with a new one. Snap the cover back on, and voila! That’s what I thought, anyway.
I went back and checked the keypad. The low battery warning had disappeared, but now a tamper warning showed up for our sliding door. This seemed strange, but I moved on to the next sensor that needed to be changed. That was our front door. I followed the same process. After changing the battery, I again checked the keypad. Now, the front door low battery warning had disappeared along with the sliding door low battery warning, but the tamper warning on the sliding door remained.
Potential Pitfall when performing DSC Sensor Battery Replacement
I was unable to find any indication as to why the sensor would indicate it was being tampered with. It made sense to show tamper warnings while the cover was off, but I had already put it back together. I closed the door and went back to the keypad to do some troubleshooting.
Suddenly, the tamper warning disappeared. It finally clicked in my head that the tamper warning will show up until you actually close the zone you’re changing the battery for. In this case, the door being closed indicated to the alarm system that the sensor was working. Since the alarm could now see that the sensor was working properly, it cleared the tamper warning.
Make Sure You Finish the Process
The important thing to remember here when performing a DSC sensor battery replacement is that you need to actually close the zone you’re replacing the battery for. Once you replace the battery, the low battery warning will disappear. This makes sense. However, the alarm still doesn’t know that the sensor is working properly. It has no way of knowing that until you close the door.
The process isn’t complete until you close the door (or window), so that the alarm can see the sensor is working properly.
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