System Specification - Help Needed !

[muddymickey]

Hi all

I'm in the finishing off stages of my selfbuild project, and am at the stage where I'd like to get the alarm system installed.

I'd be really grateful for some advice to help me select a system.

I will be doing a DIY self-install. (Competent at everything electrical but no experience of alarm systems...yet)

Firstly I'll give some info on the house:

It's a mixture of 1, 2 and 3 storeys (5 bedrooms; 3 on middle & 2 on top floor).

There are 3 external doors (one "main" front door and two rear/side doors).

Majority of house is out of sight from road and mostly out of sight from neighbours.

One ground-floor room/window in particular is very hidden from view.

During first-fix I ran the following cables for PIR sensors (all 6-core):

- One to each downstairs room containing windows and/or exterior door

- Two to the main downstairs hallway for PIRs (one in middle, one towards one end). Probably only need one for PIR - could use other for sounder/speaker ?

- One to the upstairs hallway

- One to the master bedroom

And also the following for keypads:

- One next to each of the 3 doors

- One in the upstairs hallway

Finally for a bell box:

- One to the loft space next to a gable end wall.

(I should add, the PIR locations were suggested by a local alarm company who looked at our plans. I think they are no longer trading.)

There are no cables for door or window sensors.

All cables run back to a central point where I intend to fit the main base unit.

I put in a dedicated non-RCD'd feed from the consumer unit for power.

Elsewhere in the house I have a "node-zero" where cat5 & coax cabling from every room terminates.

There are two cat5 cables from the alarm base unit location back to my node-zero.

I have mains-powered, interconnected smoke & heat alarms (one heat alarm in kitchen, 3 smoke alarms one on each floor).

The main features I think I'd like:

- Ability to arm whole ground floor at night but leave upstairs disarmed.

- Ability to fully set whole house.

- Chime when any of the 3 ground floor doors are opened.

- Ability to enter/exit from any of the 3 ground floor doors.

- Dial-out to several phone numbers of my choice in case of alarm.

- Ability to dial-in and listen to sounds in house.

- Ability to dial-in and talk over some sort of speaker.

- Ability to trigger alarm if smoke detectors are triggered, and have a dial-out that tells me the alarm is due to smoke detectors.

- Ability to configure/program system from a PC, ideally over ethernet. (Have cat5 cabling in place back to my node-zero.)

- Ability to control external equipment under certain conditions. Haven't played with X10 yet but eventually I'd like the ability to turn on various lights under certain alarm conditions using X10.

- SMS messaging of alarms might be nice but not essential, depends on cost !

Looking back, I'm not sure why the local alarm company didn't suggest I ran cables to each door and certain windows for sensors. Maybe they are not needed, or maybe they assumed I'd do that anyway...I probably should have queried that at first fix. Hey ho.

But if I want door chimes then I guess I would need to use some wireless door contacts.

Also I think one window really should have a sensor on it so guess I need a wireless one there too.

This means I need a part-wired, part-wireless system if such a setup is possible.

So - can anyone recommend a particular system to fit the bill ?

Feel free to query / challenge my ideas !

Many thanks

Lee

PS Also need some advice regarding PIR selection for certain rooms but will post a separate topic with more detail.

[marx]

I would use scantronic panel. 9752 or 9853(easy to add wirless stuff later on if reqired). with proxy keypad. and mabe even second keypad upstairs in hall. U can program 4 different grups. Only thig is that if u havent done alarms before im not sure how can program panel! U need to know what u doing!! I hope that helps

u said u wanna dial in and talk! But do u know that when u r dialing in then all u can hear is your sounders!

[alterEGO]

u said u wanna dial in and talk! But do u know that when u r dialing in then all u can hear is your sounders!

It can be set up to silence sounders on dial-in.

TBH dialing in is a waste of time IMO, you would be much better off with a monitored system, with a police response.

[Cubit]

... you would be much better off with a monitored system, with a police response.

Indeed you would. But, you got Dibble that follow it through in a timely manner?

[james.wilson]

agreed the best is police response, and cubit they tend to respond quicker than keyholders but i am generalising.

However

If you want IP access then your choices are limited.

Texecom premier is well supportted and liked and have one of the best manuals. Also has all comms choices (ie ip, sms, arc etc)

Galaxy Dimension has ip module but software isnt readily available.

I beleive scantronic software is downloadable from their site but AFAIK they dont do an IP comms mod.

Pyronix and castle do ip modules again not sure about the software.

James

[Guest old-hand]

How about Visonic Powermax Plus?

IP enabled

[james.wilson]

not as srd and you need an as yet not available in the uk part.

[y-i-out-of-bed]

castle euro one might be an easy one to start with, it ticks a fuw of your boxs but will need a auto dialler fitting for voice calls, has txt + digi can have IP, 4+ areas, each keypad can have own area so all down stairs keypads do hole house wile one on stairs dose night mode, listning in might be problem you will need extra gear for that, or just fit dvr and cameras and watch

power max dose most of your boxs but only has away or home so if any extra areas are needed you will be stuck,

scantronic homelink 75 has 4 part sets and dialler included not sure on txt though. euro, powermax, homelink or galaxy have fire zones and outputs, euro and galaxy have wireless addons hope this helps, hope that company said cable keypads in belden or cat 5

fyi

powermax two wired zones 28 wireless

homelink 75 no wired zones 30 wireless

castle euro one 10-200+ wired zones and or wireless expanders 8zones on each

galaxy 16-500 wired zones and or 8 zone wireless expanders

any wired panel with visonic or scantronic wireless reciver 2-16 zones depending on model needs each one hard wired in though

[breff]

One advantage a Premier might give you is that the keypads have 2 zones inside them, as you havent cabled the doors you may be able to fit the keypads by them and cable the doors to the keypads.

[y-i-out-of-bed]

castle also has two zones and speaker output or standard output on keypads if this helps think prem also has speaker out as well