GE Concord loses its mind

[misha.seattle]

I have a C4 with a GE Concord connected to it. Every now and then (e.g. after power outages), the two won't talk to each other any more and I get invalid bus 0 messages. The security system sets off a complaint tone every morning at 8AM, and every evening at 8PM and/or 9PM, and won't stop until i hit the keypad.

 

I am connecting the two with a network to serial bridge of some sort.

 

The technician came out to service the problem and simply re discovered the connector on the software and fixed it. He mentioned i could likewise remove something and have it redetect.

 

I tried disconnecting the network cable that goes into the serial converter dongle in the back of the unit, but that didn't fix it. 

 

I'm not sure if removing the serial dongle will.

 

Any suggestions?

This is an aggravating feature.

[Cyknight]

AM[insert number] bus failure? The AM is important as it stands for Automation Module - without the AM it should have nothing to do with your C4 connection, it's quite specific that way.

 

That said, the best solution would be to move the Superbus unit closer to a controller and use the current cable to do so, as this is generally aggravated b too long a serial run.

 

For now, resetting the controller with the serial port should bring it back, so would power-cycling the security system (remember to take both battery and line power off - you could get a call from your monitoring company, though they generally won't bother if you do this quickly). Note that the latter will mean re-doing the time/date on the security system.

[misha.seattle]

It says BUS FAILURE UNIT AM0

The alarm system is quite far from the C4, so i have a serial to network device by the automation unit next to the alarm, a long network run, and then a network to serial convertor at the C4 site.

 

When i power cycle the C4 it doesn't do anything to fix the unit. I have tried rebooting the security system completely before (including battery removal) with no luck. I can power everything down of course and back up.

[Cyknight]

what 'serial to network device' do you have - most of the time, what is meant by this is nothing more than a little 'adapter' that changes a RJ45 (network end) to an RS232 plug. This is not a 'network to serial device' it's just a way to turn a CAT cable to a serial cable. A proper 'network to serial device' is powered. The first has all the distance limitations of a normal serial cable, the latter does not.

 

If rebooting either end does nothing, the cable needs to be checked for pass through and/or the superbus unit for the alarm system needs to get moved as mentioned - the bus connection IT uses to the actual security panel can run up to a 100 feet.

[misha.seattle]

At the alarm side it is a powered device. On the C4 side it looks like a small connector and i do not believe it is powered.

[calbear]

It says BUS FAILURE UNIT AM0

The alarm system is quite far from the C4, so i have a serial to network device by the automation unit next to the alarm, a long network run, and then a network to serial convertor at the C4 site.

 

When i power cycle the C4 it doesn't do anything to fix the unit. I have tried rebooting the security system completely before (including battery removal) with no luck. I can power everything down of course and back up.

 

Bumping this thread back up.  Any progress on this issue?  I have the same problem: when a power failure exceeds the time limit of my UPS, and the C4, network and Global Cache IP2SL serial connector go down, C4 loses the binding to the IP2SL serial connector, and then the GE Concord4 behaves just like the OP described.  Last time this happened, Neil went in and reconnected the Global Cache device in the network bindings.  But obviously there must be some way to keep it from losing this???