Vortex Bell Box

[Guest mick the builder]

I guess you've probably worked something out by now, but for other people reading this thread:

1 return : Tamper output to tell the control panel if the bell box has been tampered with

2 stb- : Strobe trigger input, typically from the control panel

3 tg- : Bell trigger input, typically from the control panel

4 hold- : Power-

5 hold+ : Power+

6 bt- : Battery-

7 bt+ : Battery+

8 bto : Battery park (not connected)

Power must be supplied to the hold connectors to charge the battery and stop the alarm from sounding (hold off). The Battery+ lead is connected to bto before the bell box is installed, this is moved to bt+ once the other connections have been made.

To get the comfort lights flashing alternately you'll need to supply power to hold+ and hold- (which you have), you'll also need to connect stb- and tg- to ground so that the bell box doesn't think its being triggered. Return isn't needed, as this is an output. The battery should then be connected to bt+.

There are a couple of other jumpers:

SCB/SAB : SAB uses the hold+/- lines to power the sounder if possible, and draws 180mA when the alarm goes off. SCB uses the internal battery when the sounder goes off, so hold+/- never exceeds 50mA.

Internal/External: Internal causes the bell box to trigger itself from the internal tamper switches. External means that the bell box is only triggered by the control panel. The control panel can still see the tamper switches on the bell box, so the bell box will still sound if it is opened, but if the control panel is completely disarmed (including tamper loop) the bell box can be opened without it going off.

Jumpers near the sounder connection are for the timeout period - 5secs, 3mins, 20mins.

When the LEDs flash together it means the alarm has gone off. They should flash once, twice or three times every 5 seconds:

Once : No power to hold+/- (i.e. cable cut)

Twice : Internal tamper switch triggered alarm

Three times : tg- input has been triggered but the control panel (this is probably what you're seeing if tg- is not connected to ground).

Wow!!!

Thanks for that in depth reply.Although I,m having trouble getting my head round it, I really appreciate all the info you gave and will play about with the box and see if I can get it working the way I want it to. Just one question, when you say I should connect stb- and tg- to ground,I take it you mean earth and can I use the earth from the lighting circuit ie. connect it to the earth on the 1.5 cable?

[Guest mick the builder]

No, definately not.

By ground or earth he means the negative connection on your low voltage supply

.... having re-read it I don't know what he means, but you must not connect it to the earth on your electrical installation.

Thanks for that. Got my answer before I had chance to shut down my computer.