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That 20-year-old DSC panel finally bit the dust on me yesterday
I had a residential call where the keypad kept chirping random codes and the system wouldn't arm. Turned out the main board had a swollen capacitor that looked like it was gonna pop. Anyone else run into old DSC boards failing like this or did I just get unlucky?
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anthony_wells1mo ago
Honestly, I gotta push back a little here. I see old DSC panels hit 25 years all the time without that kind of trouble. Swollen caps are more of a power surge thing or maybe a bad batch from that specific year. More often than not the battery or the keypad goes first, not the main board. I'm not saying you didn't have a bad part, but it's not some common failure pattern I've seen. Could've been lightning nearby or a cheap power supply that finally gave up the ghost. Most of the time those old boards outlast everything else in the house.
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shane_moore871mo ago
You know, @anthony_wells, I used to be right there with you. I figured those old DSC boards were pretty much bulletproof and would run until the plastic started crumbling. But after I saw three of them fail with the exact same swollen cap issue in my area last winter, I changed my tune. Maybe it is a bad batch from a certain year or regional power problems like you said, but I don't write them off as invincible anymore. I had one customer swear their system was fine until a storm rolled through, then the board went haywire the next morning.
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