Upgrading Accenta G3

[Guest dmahon]

My sister's house has an Accenta G3 system that was installed shortly after their house was built. The installer, in Newcastle, is no longer in business. The house, and the others that were built at the same time were pre-wired - which means that everything is very neat. Six zones are in use, leaving two free. The front and back door are secured by magnetic contact switches and the downstairs rooms have PIRs. It has an LED control panel situated remotely near the main entrance and the main panel is secured two floors up.

The garage, however, has been overlooked. I would like to add detection to the garage and I can see a couple of ways of doing it:

1) Add a PIR (dual-tech) to the garage on a different zone

2) As above, with the addition of a contact switch on the door from the garage to the house

Unfortunately this requires me to get cable down two floors, surrupticiously - my sister insists that wires are completely hidden behind plaster and under floorboards. This leaves me with an attractive, simpler, alternative:

3) Add a PIR in series with one that already exists on another zone. Fortunately one existing PIR is mounted on the other side of the garage wall.

As a second question, I don't have the engineer code for the panel. I do have an installation manual and it would appear that I can reset the system to factory defaults. Will the external bell sound when I remove the power to the panel, which is required to perform this? If I go for option 3, I presume I won't need an engineer code as I won't be altering the status of any of the zones - which is another bonus. Do I still have to completely power down the system whilst installing another PIR?

Another alternative would be:

4) Add a wireless detector with a wireless receiver and connect this to another zone

Opinions on this? Some of the wireless receivers I've seen pictures of seem to only have a single connection for tamper though (and another for battery and one for trouble) which confuses me slightly (eg Visonic MCR-304). How would I connect it into the tamper loop? I was thinking of products in the Visonic NEXT range to complement those I already have. Are PowerCode and/or CodeSecure worthwhile as the older wireless receivers have standard tamper circuitry.

Finally. What advantage is there to an LCD panel in favour of the LED one. If I was powering down the system, I could fit this at the same time as a direct replacement and may even re-use the LCD one elsewhere.

Before I undertake it for her, if she paid to have the work done, how much is it likely to cost?

[mjw]

My sister's house has an Accenta G3 system that was installed shortly after their house was built. The installer, in Newcastle, is no longer in business. The house, and the others that were built at the same time were pre-wired - which means that everything is very neat. Six zones are in use, leaving two free. The front and back door are secured by magnetic contact switches and the downstairs rooms have PIRs. It has an LED control panel situated remotely near the main entrance and the main panel is secured two floors up.

The garage, however, has been overlooked. I would like to add detection to the garage and I can see a couple of ways of doing it:

1) Add a PIR (dual-tech) to the garage on a different zone

2) As above, with the addition of a contact switch on the door from the garage to the house

Unfortunately this requires me to get cable down two floors, surrupticiously - my sister insists that wires are completely hidden behind plaster and under floorboards. This leaves me with an attractive, simpler, alternative:

3) Add a PIR in series with one that already exists on another zone. Fortunately one existing PIR is mounted on the other side of the garage wall.

As a second question, I don't have the engineer code for the panel. I do have an installation manual and it would appear that I can reset the system to factory defaults. Will the external bell sound when I remove the power to the panel, which is required to perform this? If I go for option 3, I presume I won't need an engineer code as I won't be altering the status of any of the zones - which is another bonus. Do I still have to completely power down the system whilst installing another PIR?

Another alternative would be:

4) Add a wireless detector with a wireless receiver and connect this to another zone

Opinions on this? Some of the wireless receivers I've seen pictures of seem to only have a single connection for tamper though (and another for battery and one for trouble) which confuses me slightly (eg Visonic MCR-304). How would I connect it into the tamper loop? I was thinking of products in the Visonic NEXT range to complement those I already have. Are PowerCode and/or CodeSecure worthwhile as the older wireless receivers have standard tamper circuitry.

Finally. What advantage is there to an LCD panel in favour of the LED one. If I was powering down the system, I could fit this at the same time as a direct replacement and may even re-use the LCD one elsewhere.

Before I undertake it for her, if she paid to have the work done, how much is it likely to cost?

The wireles option is your best route,but you should be looking to be using a dual tec in a garage due to a gargae by nature suffering from draughts

[Guest Peter James]

You may find the detector close to the garage has an 8 core going to it, giving the spare cores you require for the extra detector.

[sparky83]

You may find the detector close to the garage has an 8 core going to it, giving the spare cores you require for the extra detector.

I'd get a professional to do it ... if that isnt the case that theres an 8 core rather than the wireless option it may be cheaper to get a panel that utilises DEOL resistors so that you can do it properly. What you going to do when it all goes off in the middle of the night and the neighbours are getting angry?! who you guna call?! You think your saving money but at the end of the day its better to get it done right, with a guarantee and 24 hr call out service.