installer_dale

I'm hoping to get accredited in the next year or two, most likely with SSAIB. Are there any qualifications that are essential to have? The pack just says competent and conversant with the standards. Lots on Tavcom but I'm not sure what I need. Also how do they calculate financial criteria? Is it 3 months operating costs in the bank etc? If anyone has any advice or templates of forms etc I'd be very grateful.

I fitted one so far it was just the same, super slow, freezing and errors. Was like using a udl keypad on slow connection, 3 second wait until button responds. Gave up powered down, Monday morning back on site to finish and much better no errors, but no where near as fast as the good video. Looks like a wired. This was a new kit with the 48w panel. Doing a 64 next week im wondering if its gonna be better. Just figured they were always gonna be slow as it's wireless. Contrast I agree is ****, I always fit at eye level where possible. But this is not correct really should be same as accessible switches.

Why don't you want text? I prefer it as it's much more informative. Dialler just plays a prerecorded message of you saying the alarm is going off. If you get speech module then 2 numbers per arc, so 6 total. Benefit is you can assign different reporting options to each arc, for example you get all alarms but others only get priority. Disadvantage is you need an arc for ip if you want the app later on. If you got a speech dialler or a speech and text dialer (remember unlike the com2400 with its speech module addon, this is a self contained product) you could get creative with digi outputs. Again my recomedation - as you already have a com2400 then get the speech module. Also means afaik you can carry on using it for udl, but you will prob never do anyway. Then if you also want texts get a Comgsm (better than the com2400 for texting as you can text commands back plus it's genuine instant sms, not a dial up modem going through service centre)

As u already have the com2400 then u can add the speech module to it (goes inside the panel) which allows it to ring you instead of only texting. The speech dialler and speech and text dialler is a standalone product that looks like a keypad which can ring and text you when it receives an input from any make of alarm. Old product tried and tested but nothing special. If you want a second backup communicator (which rules out speech dialler as it's connected to the same phone line as the com2400 as well as ip) then get the speech module for phone calls and also a Comgsm that will give you two way texting over gsm with a pay as you go simcard.

Add a Comgsm for texts and a speech module to get to the com2400 to ring. Or vice versa but the Comgsm can be texted back.

Texting gives you so much more information though. If possible change the sms sound for that contact to make sure it gets your attention. Does the speech module still work with the new elites? I'm sure I read somewhere it was being phased out.

If panel is on show I always fit screw covers. They usually push in easily the right way round and if not a quarter turn to raise/lower them. Mains cover is in the bag so it may as well be fitted, takes 5 seconds and helps keep things safe. More of a pain to remove though. Does anyone use the battery clips? Most systems I take over have tiny 2ah or less batteries, and a bigger battery either falls out when you open the panel or its got a cable tie wrapped round it.

I'm impressed u figured out the mains cover most installers don't seem to know that or they cba

Did you do it? I haven't got round to doing mine but no benefit of doing so until the new app is released. And then it might be pretty basic without Connect.

On my garden office I fitted a PSU200XP off which I have an external bell box, door contact, PIR's, fire and keypad. Also a small extension speaker so I can hear chimes from the house doors. A short run is usually ok to share cables with speaker, but not on a long run and especially not with keypads as you'll get network errors.

Just wanted to update. Many thanks to Paul and Mike at SystemQ for helping me with this. It's been working for the last month and the customer is very happy with it. I couldn't quite get the relay to work properly, it kept getting stuck in a loop. Instead added a changeover relay connected to the alarm outputs, so the custom toggles on and off an alarm output which activates talkback and disables the mic and vice versa. A bit clunky for my liking plus the popup for the alarm output covers half the image, but the customer is happy with it, and there is no feedback. I also outputted to the burglar alarm so that we have a doorchime and push notifications via the Texecom app. There are several of these video entry systems on the market, a lot of standalone systems with their own app. If you could adjust the doorknox to have a proper full duplex audio system it would be a great addition to the alien range. Ideally push notifications would be expected nowadays. Thanks again Dale

which is which?

No one seems to want it

I was expecting 150 to 200 from what id read on here although threads are getting on 10 years old. Maybe I should just start employing

As I'm growing the business I've started to need extra labourers. For the last 9 months I've been paying 3 trusted people I know to help out as and when (usually 1 day a week). This is mainly clipping cable etc they have no technical expertise, although are learning. I'm paying about £130 for a full day. They cant give much more time than this. Eventually I want to employ but it's too soon. Maybe zero hours for now. I'm going limited this year and hoping to get SSAIB next year. At the moment it's a husband and wife self employed setup. However from reading on here it seems sub contractors are popular. If I can pay a sub to go to a site and fit an alarm to the SDP all by himself it seems too good to be true. I haven't got perfect physical health so as time goes on I will need more help with the work. Have I got the right idea on this? What are the going rates in South Yorkshire and how would I find one? Thanks

Go for texecom the backlit bells look much nicer

Hi Paul. Thanks again for the the help so far. Was great to finally visit and see the full range on display in the shop. I've built the setup on a test bench. It works great apart from the echo / talkback. I'm using the normally closed relay on the VoiceOff to route the audio back into the DVR and it just gets caught in a loop of switching on and off. Even the sound of the relay clicking is enough to cause an echo! The problem seems to be that the DVR audio out includes whatever enters the audio in as soon as the mic icon is selected on the app. Is there anyway to configure it so that it's audio out only comes from remote talkback? The speaker icon on the app doesn't seem to do anything, instead the mic button enables two way audio. I assumed that the speaker would toggle audio in and the mic would toggle talkback? Thanks Dale

Not a spark. Primarily residential a few commercial. Hoping to get SSAIB next year so I'm trying to concentrate on paperwork a lot more to get ready, whilst still finding the time to do the actual work!

Thanks for replies everyone. Very interesting. From browsing the forum I'm coming to realise I'm very soft with my customers! Got caught out a few times when they have supplied equipment and I end up making less on a job. So if you don't do a breakdown, how much information goes on the spec sheet? Make and models or just PIR etc? I like to give brands and say its the best equipment to help win jobs, on the other hand it allows them to source elsewhere.

That's a lotta screenshot lol I've never really used suites but afaik you deselect use keypad areas and the keypads area assingment will correspond to the suit instead of the area. So your upstairs keypad could be a suite which does area A & B. Then set area a to auto part arm so that it part arms as you don't open the door. However auto part arm is a pain if you ever want to arm via the app. I would personally not bother with suites (maybe because I'm not experienced enough in using them!) and have house as A, garage as B. Keypad in garage does B and keypads in house do A. Disable part arms for B. Master user codes with local attributes so you can arm garage from house if you forget etc. If you have a pir in the garage then use its 4 cores for the new keypad and wire the pir back from that keypads zone terminals. If you have money to spare and want to fully kit out the garage with bells and smokes etc get a PSU200XP. Should be cheaper than getting all wireless. Alternatively with no garage keypad. Maybe set B to auto arm after say 30 mins depending on what you do in there. Keypads A. Master users A&B, local arm and darm. Take off disarm first. Now the keypads will control A, and only B when specifically selecting it. The garage will automatically arm itself once the door is closed and no movement for 30mins. Then the garage is already armed when you go out or go to bed. Just select to arm or part arm the house as normal without worrying about garage. If you get car out garage, disarm it, arm house, drive off in car knowing it will rearm after you've gone. Could even try defered arming to get it to arm quicker. Not sure how this works with quick settings. Or have a seperate code for just the garage and assign each code its own area. Hope that makes sense and I haven't overlooked something.

Quick press of part button always does part 1. Only way to have another part in any situation is manually scrolling to it (unless u have a corrupt profile like above lol). You can add any zone to any and all areas. Personally I put fire on area they are in. Sounders all areas if u want all to sound wherever the alarm is. Do you already have wiring to garage or a wireless expander? New wireless expander and wireless keypad come out next week.

When only arming some of the areas it shows the part arm text as only part of the entire system is armed. A feature that annoys me. However as said you really should have the house as area a and the garage as area b. Then use part arms within area a. Also means you can then have the garage armed throughout the day and auto arm it etc

Thanks Paul that's fantastic! Would you still be able to supply me with a VoiceOff PCB as I like the idea of using its relay to stop the talkback? The cable run will be about 6 or 7 meters. I plan on having all the kit at the DVR end. Will alarm cable be suitable over this distance? Thanks Dale

When you send off your quote, do you give the client just a total price, or is everything itemised? Also, do you show the price of parts and labour separate or is labour worked into the price of each item?

Yes but take screenshots of each page first just in case! You often get weird errors like this when you don't default nvm especially on a major update.