Can burglar alarm panels be “jump started” by applying 12V to their auxiliary power output, or will that damage the panel somehow? In particular, I’m curious if this works for a) Vistas and b) the smaller B-series Bosch panels.
No idea why you would think that or what “jump-starting” a panel is when you simply apply whatever their listed power is to their standard power terminals, but as I just said powering them in the normal way with a transformer hooked to their power input terminals is how they’re powered at least (& as you said applying power to terminals not designed to take such more than likely would damage it).
Do you mean factory reseting by jump starting?
Apologies, but no – I am referring to powering up the panel with a DC supply via one of its power outputs. (I’ve seen the term used before with regards to fire panels, in particular the Potter fire alarm panels which can be powered up using a 24V supply of the correct polarity on their P-Link power terminals.)
Yeah I’m going to assume that not only is such a function exclusive to Potter panels but that any panel is normally designed to be powered with both normal AC building power & with backup batteries.
Yes, you can. Connect your backup battery and run 2 jumper wires from the battery and VERY quickly attach them to the AC power terminals.
However, this is not recommended and MAY damage the panel if this is done repeatedly.
Also, on the B series panels they will power up on battery alone.
My thinking is that the reason it works on Potter panels is more of a happy accident of the P-Link 24V supply being connected to the internal 24V DC bus on the panel by nothing more than a PTC or equivalent component, if that, and the upstream regulator circuitry in the battery charger not getting fried by the reverse power situation that results.
I just didn’t know if there were other panels it was true for, or if it’s more common that the regulator in the charger isn’t reverse power protected and thus may sustain damage from a “jump start”.
Maybe, but I still would not try it on any other panels if I were you (at least if you want to avoid potentially damaging them).
Well, I actually traced out the circuitry on the Vista-10SE I know have, and it may be OK to do it on that panel (there’s a 2-transistor current limiter between the internal B+ bus and terminal 5, need to ask around a bit to see if reverse power would damage that, but the regulator that drives the B+ bus does have a reverse power protection diode from output to input, and there are no other power sources on the B+ bus aside from the battery itself, so it’s unlikely that anything else’d be harmed by such an attempt.)