Module Tamper Trouble? See How To Resolve All Module Tampers On A DSC NEO Alarm System

Hey, guys. Hayden here again from alarm system store. And today we are going to be going over some module tamper issues that can happen with the HSM 2108 zone expander, the HSM 2208 PGM expander, the HSM 2204 power supply, the HSM 2300 power supply, and the HSM2HOST9 module for the DSC power series Neo. And basically what I'm going to be showing you today is how to clear those tamper issues and what it looks like on the keypad when you receive one. So I'm going to get the camera set up over here and we'll get to it.

All right, guys, so fairly simple setup again today, but basically all I'm going to connect is: I got the mainboard here, got a keypad, and this is the HSM 2108 zone expander that adds eight zones to your system. This is the only one that I'm going to actually hook up to the system because the trouble condition looks the same, but it will actually tell you specifically which module is actually having the problem. So I'm going to cover how to clear the tampers on each of the devices. But real quick, I just wanted to show you guys what it looks like when you run into this trouble condition.

So whenever you hit star two, if you got your little triangle there, you're going to see press star for module tampers. And if you hit star on that, it is going to tell you that it is a module tamper for a zone expander. Now, on here, it will tell you whether it's a zone expander, whether it's a power supply, or whether it is the transceiver module. So, as you can see, there's another star here. And if we hit star, it's going to tell you which of those devices it is, because you can have multiple of each of these modules, except for the transceiver. You can only have one receiver or transceiver per system. So you won't have this page for that. But for zone expanders and power supplies, you can have multiple of those modules. So it will tell you whether it's one, two, three, whatever the case might be.

Now, if whenever you enrolled your zone expanders or your power supplies, if you didn't keep track of which one is number one, which one's number two, et cetera. The easiest way, without having to go into programming, is just to see what zones are connected to it. So zones 9 to 16 are going to be zone expander 1, 17 to 24 going to be zone expander 2, so on and so forth. So that is generally the easiest way to tell. But with power supplies that you don't really have that option. They don't stick to a specific set of zones. And if you have multiple, the only way to know is to go into programming.

So you go into *8 5555, and then you'll go to section 903 and it's going to say confirm module, and then it's going to say view all modules. So you can click that and it will run you through all the different modules. But the easiest way to find a specific one is to scroll to the right. The first option is going to be confirm keypads. So if you have multiple keypads, you can make sure they're enrolled properly. On top of seeing what keypad number is assigned to each keypad. There's another way to do that for keypads, but we're not worried about that today.

But there's a section for 2108s. 2208s, those are PGM expanders, so they look very similar to this, but it is for programmable outputs rather than zones. The HSM2HOST9, which is going to be this module, this is the transceiver for the system. So if you're not using an RF keypad, this is what gives your system wireless capability. The 2955, that's not a module that's used very commonly, so I'm not going to mess with that. The 2300 and the 2204 are the other ones that are used commonly, and those are these power supply modules. So there is a limit to the amount of power that this system can put out. So you might need some of these for your system. Usually one cuts it for even larger systems, but occasionally you need two or three. But that is a power supply, and it allows you to power different devices that the system cannot support power wise. So those are the ones we're going to be going over today. This is how you find out what number each module is enrolled as. And then once you have that, we can go back to our trouble and we can begin to alleviate the issue.

So if we go into *2 again, hit * on module tampers, click * on zone expander. It's telling us that it's zone expander one. Now, in my scenario, it's very simple. This is the only zone expander I have, so I know that's the right one. But basically what it's telling you is that there is a step that was missed during the installation. It's very easy to miss. It's like a single line in a long paragraph, but essentially what it wants to see is a jumpered wire from the TMP terminal here on the left to the black terminal. And basically all you're doing when you jumper those is you are grounding the tamper terminal to the black terminal, and that tells the system that it's okay. Now, the reason these exist is because for these types of modules, occasionally you do have to have multiple cabinets. Now if you have multiple cabinets, you can use a tamper switch to actually notify you whenever the cabinet has been opened. So I'll show you one of those switches right now, actually.

So if we did want to use the tamper, you could use something like this. This is just a switch that attaches to the side of the cabinet. When you close the door, pushes the button. When you open the door, it releases the button. But basically it's just a two wire connection. You could actually hook that to this and create a tamper for it so that, you know, if anybody has opened your cabinet. But if our goal is just to alleviate the tamper, we're not worried about tamper switches. All you're going to need is a short piece of wire like this. It's only about two inches long. I just have it looped around to itself. And what we're going to do is we're going to attach it to the tamper and the black terminals. So I'm going to do that real quick and I'll be right back.

You do want to power down whenever you do this, because you are technically messing with the ground for the system, and you don't want to short the zone expander or potentially the mainboard as well. So I recommend powering down, unplug the transformer. You can disconnect the battery by pulling this out right here, and that will remove all power from the system. And then come over here, attach, match the jumper as you saw. And that's all we have to do.

Now, as you'll see, we still do have a trouble condition, but that is because anytime you power cycle a DSC system, it resets the time and date. So we have to go in there and set that real quick. All right. And now that that is done, that is all there is to it. Now, this style tamper is used on all modules except for the HSM2HOST9. The HSM 2108, the HSM 2208, the HSM 2204, and the HSM 2300 are all going to be tampered using a short black jumper wire like this. Or like I said, you can use an actual switch for it, but the only one that is different is going to be this host module.

So I'm going to open this up, and I'm going to show you how the tamper works on that. This one is dedicated specifically to whether or not this front cover is on the device. So once we get this open, you can see here in the middle, there is a little spring loaded button, and that is the tamper for the HSM2HOST9. Whenever you put the cover on, it depresses the spring, which also depresses the button. And that tells it that the cover is on and that it's good to go. So if you happen to be messing with your host and you see a spring laying around, double check that it's not this spring because they do come off. It's not super easy to take it off, but I've knocked off a couple working with them. But essentially, if the spring is not on there, the cover will not push it down whenever you put it on.

So you need to make sure this spring is still here and make sure when you put the cover on that it is depressing that you should hear a slight click whenever it pushes it in. I'm sure you guys can hear that, but it is audible. So when you're putting the cover on, it definitely dampens the sound, but if you listen closely enough, you'll be able to hear it actually pushing that down. But that is how you clear the tamper on the host module, and I will, while I have you show you the tamper on the HSM2204 because the terminal is in a different location. So as you can see on this one, we have a much larger terminal block, but this is used, as I said, to provide additional power to devices. So the terminals are moved around and it has a bunch of different listings for terminals than what you would see on the zone expander or even the PGM expander.

But what you're looking for on this one is the TAM. So on these modules it is labeled TMP+. On the power supplies it is labeled TAM and it should be right there next to my finger. That needs to be jumpered to the black terminal on these as well. So I don't know why they use different labels for the two different device styles. Maybe it's just a difference between the two boards whenever they're in manufacturing, but essentially on the 2108 and the 2208 look for TMP+ jumper that to black. And on the 2204s and 2300s look for TAM and jumper that to the black terminal. So that's really all there is to it with these module tampers. So that's where I'm going to cut it off. If you guys have any other trouble conditions that you get commonly that you think we should cover or have not covered so far, just let me know, I will make sure they happen and I will catch you guys on the next one.