Deactivating one's own house alarm?

If they were published, I'd be worried.

Contact the makers?

FM Electronics 01594 827070 is a number I found on the web.

Ashley may or may not still work there.

Do any of the neighbours have a similar alarm? they may be able to help. A picture on here may help to identify it. Then at least you have a starting point.

You pretty much did, buy killing the power and disconnecting the battery. The problem you have is that the external sounder is self-activated, i.e. powered by its own rechargable battery. Two options - open it up and disconnect the internal battery. Opening it will set it off, so you'll need earplugs and to work quickly. (With the panel in Engineering or disarmed mode, it's possible that opening the sounder won't set it off; it depends how the system has been connected up.) When you have it open, there's often a jumper to disable the internal battery, and/or the internal battery is connected through a plug to make replacement easy. Be careful fiddling around in there because it generates high voltage to drive the strobe and the peizo sounder, and you don't want a jolt whilst up a ladder.

With absolutely no power and no batteries, the system will be effectively dead.

I would start with removing any mains supply to it, then the external sounder / bell box, but tampering with that will likely trigger it, so once opened up be ready to snip any wires to the internal batteries.

If you leave it long enough it will flatten its battery

I rented a house with a system like that - no instructions on how to use it were supplied - and on night it went off. For about two hours.

Then it stopped.

The battery wires can just be pulled off the battery clips, no need to snip them.

The siren has an internal battery too. Just let it run itself flat, if you can't rip it off the wall. And don't like your neighbours.

Thanks to all who replied.

As there are >three< external sounders to be dealt with, I think I'll Get A Man In - sorry about that as I was hoping to DIY it. It seems like home alarm systems are like the books in ancient monasteries - only the monks know how to deal with them.

Terry Fields

Quite likely one real and two dummies, but not necessarily so.

You want to find the magic code to put it into engineering mode. Every maker has their own preferred sequence deviate from it and it goes off.

You could always try the drill and fill trick on the bell box first using high density polyurethane foam to deaden the sound. It is very loud near the bell box so wear ear protection if you tackle it head on.

I'd hope it had been changed from the factory defaults.

Unless it's quite new, the internal battery on the siren is likely fairly clapped out. So may not even last the usual 20 minutes.