Pyronix Sterling 10 issues: "zones" broken

Hi there,

I'm from Italy but I prefer to ask in a UK forum because the Pyronix Sterling 10 has been sold mostly in UK.

The problem I have is very strange.

A few years ago one of the zones resulted "open" even if all dors and windows were closed. Short-circuiting the zone it resulted open as well, so that I used another still available zone and I programmed as "unused" the broken zone.

Almost one year later the same thing appened to another zone, and then again and again. At the moment, I have anly 4 zones working, and they are the minimum I need for my apartment.

I tried to study the problem, hoping it was only a question of capacitance to be changed or things like this. Well, the strange thing is that each zone is connetted (in the mainboard) to its specific PIN of a microcontroller, but both brocken and un-brocken zones give exactly the same trigger to the microcontroller.

In other words, when a correctly-working zone is not armed, the related microcontroller PIN is at 0v, and it is almost 4v (if I well remember) when the zone is armed. Exactly the same thing happens for a brocken port!! It probably means that the problem is in the firmware of the microcontroller. Is it possible?

Any idea?

I also thought to buy another board on ebay (a used one, the sterlinhg 10 is not produced anymore) but I see that two models exist. One (the one I could buy on ebay) with only two fuses and a long microcontroller with a sticker on it with the written "RTES 014 - Ver. 1.7". The other (the one I have) with 4 fuses and a square microcontroller (RTES 085    - Ver. 1.9). Are they much different?

I am not familiar with the sterling 10, but if you can move the zone wiring from one circuit to another and it works there, that does indicate the panel is in error*. If you are having to do this once a year (and so are now running out of "spare zones") I would suggest you change to a totally different make / model of panel, since any that you can buy will be around the same age as yours and so presumably suffer the same problems. You will at some time "have to bite the bullet" so why not do it now while you still have a working system.

* Or you have an earth fault or similar which is taking out the components on the board.

Thank you Richard. Yes you are right, I would like to avoid to program another panel and explain everything to the other components of my family .

But can the problem be that some components are broken if I can measure the right voltage at the microcontroller? That's the very strange thing!

As I said, you will have to bite the bullet sooner or later, may as well do it now.

You can measure the voltage at specific components but the question is what will you be looking for? without the correct  information / knowledge  how do you know if what you are looking at is correct, and suppose on the odd chance you do find a "faulty" component and you find a replacement and you change it you may damage something else in the process. The other thing is if you measure the voltage across a component the chances are that it will be "bridged" by something else as the norm, and so give incorrect readings.

When it comes to alarms you want reliability, so if something on the panel or a device is not working as it should you change it, its quicker, cheaper and reliable.

The Sterling 10 was never really the mark of quality so I wouldn't bother doing much with it other than replacing it.

I fitted a few Sterling 10's years ago, as Lurch said they were never high quality. All i fitted have been replaced as the keypads wore out very quickly. A new panel is not much money and possibly the same operation to arm-disarm.