This year I have had a number of ‘oddball’ faults, on assorted equipment, and strangely the root cause of all of the faults was identical. This is across a number of products, installers and locations.
Basically, all faults were caused by the incorrect mounting of hardware.
The simplest was a report of poor catch rate on some motion sensors. It really really helps if you mount the sensors at the manufacturers recommended mounting height (typically 2.4m) and not at almost double that height. Yes, the PIRs had been mounted at about 4m from the ground, in fairly small rooms. To prove the point I got the installer(?) to extend the cable & bluetack the sensors at 2.4m. All of a sudden the sensors worked fine, even on a hot day.
The next fault was reports of a domestic intercom not working/working intermittently but only in the afternoon. Eventually, this fault was tracked back to the power supply being mounted in a very hot roof space. – NOT A WARRANTY CLAIM
The next one was an alarm panel that had stopped dialling. Once again this panel was mounted in a roof space. Vermin (cockroaches) had infested the panel & excreted on the main PCB. As this excreta is very acidic it actually ‘ate’ through a track on the board. Board had to be replaced.
The next, and most expensive, was an NVR, the fault reported was intermittent recording. The actual fault was the machine had cooked in the roof space & was periodically going into a shut down / restart loop.
The moral of these stories:-
Mount hardware ONLY in suitable environments. Look at the spec sheets on the hardware & think about installation location. In general, do not mount hardware in roof spaces, it will
cause issues.
The most common issue is over temperature, seriously think about it, here in Qld 60C + is not that uncommon in a roof space. This heat will not only cause issues with the electronics over
heating, it will also reduce both the effective capacity & the service life of batteries.
The next most common issue is vermin, typically cockroaches, also other bugs & rodents. These creatures are attracted to the equipment as it offers a warm location in cooler weather.
Of course, rodents tend to chew things, both rodents & insects will excrete & urinate on & around the electronics. As this is acidic it will corrode boards etc.
Also, dust can be an issue. I have had NVRs returned with so much dust that the cooling fans have seized. How did I know it had been in a roof space – there were strands of insulation bat
wrapped around the case fan. Guess what, even though the unit was only 6 months old it was NO WARRANTY due to the installation environment.
It is also annoying for service / maintenance.
For those who have never bothered looking at spec sheets here are a few numbers
Aiphone 18V 2A power supply – operating temperature 0 – 40C
Alarm Panel operating temperature – typically 0 – 45C
NVR operating temperature typically -10C – 45C
Whose roof space stays below 45C?
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