Hello, I’ve adopted this MS-4 fire lite alarm when I purchased my 4-plex. The unit is alarming with “system trouble” “power trouble” and BATT LED.
Both batteries are definitely in need of replacing and I’ve ordered them, the line connecting them was also corroded so I pulled it and scraped it clean. The AC power is GREEN, and the batteries won’t be in for about a week. Will it keep alarming or will it stop now that I’ve pulled the batteries? All error lights are still on… thanks
The trouble will stay on until you get the new batteries. Unless your panel has a reminder enabled, it shouldn’t beep. Your system should be ok until you get the batteries (as long as the power doesn’t go out).
Is it still beeping?
I acknowledged the alarm and it’s quiet right now, but I did the same thing yesterday (but yesterday I didn’t pull the batteries).
How do I see if it it has a reminder enabled?
There’s some dip switches located behind the plastic cover.
Locate SW1, switch 5. If it’s ON, then trouble reminder is enabled. It’s not enabled by default, you’d hear the buzzer sound every 2 minutes if it was on.
So to confirm, if it was enabled, even if I acknowledge and silence the alarm it would still sound after removing the battery? Thanks.
Yes, with trouble reminder, the buzzer will sound every 2 minutes for troubles and will need to be silenced again every 24 hours the trouble remains. If this is off, there should be no beeping.
If you need more info, you can look here: https://jmacfiles.s3.amazonaws.com/MS-2.pdf
Yes, looks like the switches are off.
Also, if you are replacing the batteries, I would be very careful. If you hook up the batteries the wrong way, you will blow up your panel. I did it once when I was a younger and newer technician, wasn’t paying full attention to my connections and blew a booster panel.
As well, many areas have codes regarding batteries. For my area, they need to be a certain type, have a visible date code and be less than 5 years old. Anything more than 5 years and the battery needs to be replaced. Our code is changing it to 4 years very shortly too. So make sure they fall into the right category and work as intended.
I have seen building managers fined and put in jail because they decided to change the batteries, didn’t test them or got outdated ones, fire happened, fire alarm didn’t work because batteries were dead, and someone died.
For type, I would recommend 7AH batteries. Lol I have no clue what the code is, but those seem fine for a small panel like the MS-4.
