Why Do I Need Onboard Diagnostics?

February 4, 2012

If you have a lot of pine trees on your property you will be only too aware of how much of a mess their needles make as they endlessly fall, covering any flat surface nearby. The solar panels provided with our Parabeam® systems are not immune to the accumulation of fallen pine needles, so over time you can imagine how the system may not receive an adequate solar charge and the internal batteries may gradually run flat.

Our older systems had no way of giving you advanced warning of this problem and the only way you would know something was amiss is when the system just did not work anymore or started giving intermittent service.

Thankfully the diagnostics on the new 700-FSK means there is very little mystery anymore; this model will tell you if one of the beam-units is not receiving adequate charge and allow you to pinpoint the problem easily in the majority of cases.

For example, if you should ever see a red flashing light on say ‘zone 1’ instead of the usual green light, this will tell you to go and check that the solar panel on the ‘beam emitter’ side is clear of any debris like pine needles or grime from a dry dusty road. Once clear, the battery charge will pick up to normal in no time and the red light will return to green by itself.

Another diagnostic indicator is the ‘solid amber light’ – should you ever see this it means something may have permanently fallen in the path of the IR beam, or a vehicle has parked itself there. In this case you would hear the normal alert sounds first, followed 20 seconds later by a series of short chirps. The normally green ‘zone’ light will show solid amber instead, telling you to go and see what object is blocking the beam.

The zone light can indicate four different kinds of ‘trouble’ making it very easy to go straight to the issue and resolve it. Should any issue show up that you are unable to resolve yourself, we will be able to help you resolve this over the phone with the help of the diagnostic indicators.

For more detailed information please read the 700-FSK installation manual.