Module Tamper Alt Comm Trouble? - TL880 ADC Communicator Tamper Troubles Explained

Hey, guys. Hayden here again from Alarm System store. And today I'm going to be talking about trouble conditions with the TL880 alarm.com dual path communicator for the DSC Power Series Neo alarm system. Yeah, that is this module right here. This isn't all of it. There's a couple other components. But we're not gonna be talking about those today. But this is the actual communicator itself. So if you're experiencing in a module tamper and whenever you open that module tamper, it shows alternate communicator. It is talking about this module if you have it installed. And I'm just going to explain how the tampers work for this device real quick and tell you the best possible way to make sure that you don't have that trouble condition, or if you already have the trouble condition, how to fix it.

So first off we're going to talk about the cover tamper. So anytime you take the cover off of this device, which is just this panel here, there's a little rubber button right here. And this rubber button, whenever the cover is on, pushes on a little spot on the circuit board, which is that gold square right there in the middle. And whenever those two are making contact, the cover tamper is good to go. But a lot of times this back tamper does not get depressed all the way. And the main reason for that is because this device comes with anchors, and screws so that you can mount it to drywall and mounting it to drywall is perfectly fine. That's actually the full on intended method, but whenever you do so, drywall is a bit soft, and whenever you use anchors, there's a little bit of a gap between the device you're mounting and the drywall itself. So between those two factors, occasionally this button does not get depressed all the way. And if that button's not depressed all the way, it will give you that module tamper alt communicator trouble. So the best way to alleviate that issue is whenever you're mounting this device, find a stud in the wall. Mount it where the button is as close to that stud or directly on it if possible. And that way the stud keeps the drywall stiff and the anchors don't create enough of a gap to where that button can be released.

So that will work nine times out of ten for these devices. So if you have not installed yours yet, plan on installing it where the button is in line with the stud. Now, if you have installed yours already, you can either re mounted or if you don't want to do that, you're also able to take a little piece of cardboard or some plastic or something and basically, stick it behind this button while this device is mounted. So that can be a little, a little challenging to do. Usually or what I did in, in our case, I released the two left hand side screws because I knew the button was a little bit to the left and pulled it up as much as it would let me without, you know, messing up the two screws over here. Took a little piece of cardboard, slid it in behind it, and then just remounted it down. I didn't like, shaped the cardboard so that it fit the hole perfectly or anything like that. You just have to get this button flush with the communicator box. So if you just take a little piece of cardboard, stick it behind there and then remount it to the wall, the cardboard will be stiff enough to push that button in the rest of the way. And now if you got real thin cardboard, you might think about fold it over a couple times. and you don't want to use like an, like pop box, like link. You know, if you get a mountain dew box, it's got that real thin cardboard. You don't want to use that. You want to use like box cardboard.

Something like this. Yeah. This was from my, do it yourself pressure plate. But this is a box cardboard. And it's a little bit thicker. it does squish some, but even though it squishes, it's still sturdy enough to push that button down whenever it's mounted. So if you take something like this and slide it behind there and then just remount the device, it should be good to go now. If you, you know, continue to have issues, you know, you might look into, making sure that the little rubber covers are on, this button inside here also has one of those little rubber buttons. it's a little bit tricky to take this out and be very careful if you ever have to do so, but, these boards do just kind of slide in here, and they have a little prong that holds them in and you can pull it out. And it's kind of hard to see, but right there is the button that this push is on. So you can see as I push the button in it pushes that out. And if you're not careful that can happen. So if you've already mounted it to cardboard and you've done everything that I've suggested and it's still not working, make sure that that little rubber cover is on the button just like that, and then put the PCB back in and mount it down. And that way, whenever that's on, it will push on the button on the back side of the the circuit board.

So, nothing too crazy in this video. It was just a common trouble that we run into, whenever our customers are trying to install this unit or have installed it already, and they get to finishing up the system, and they notice that there's a trouble condition and it says alternate Communicator. But the covers on what's wrong with it? Well, it's that back button. So, like I said, if you haven't installed yours yet, the best thing to do is try to find a stud. Mount that button directly to the stud, and that way you have as much wall force as possible pushing against that button just to keep it level. If that doesn't work, cardboard is a secondary, very effective method. And that's all I got for you today. hopefully, this is insightful. And for those of you out there having trouble with it, it helped. But I will catch you guys on the next one.