Optima Gen4 - 2 Bell Boxes

[eigbrown]

Can anyone help re wiring diagram given for installing 2 bell boxes - p10 Engineer's Manual. Findable through

and then accessing the instruction manual.

Within the second 'Reson 8' diagram there is an arrow from A (Hold Off -) to RTN. Is this a link connection or what??

Hope you can help

[eigbrown]

Sorry, web link did not appear. Hope you can view the diagram enclosed as a JPEG file and confirm that a connection is needed to complete the tamper circuit. Thanks. eigb

[sixwheeledbeast]

Within the second 'Reson 8' diagram there is an arrow from A (Hold Off -) to RTN. Is this a link connection or what??

That link is built into the sounder. To feed the negative to the first bell.

No extra link is required, tho the box may have a jumper to switch on this feature.

Please note when wiring two bellboxes, both boxes power cannot be drawn from the panel.

One should be set as an SCB or fed from a separate PSU with the negative commoned.

This ensures the panel will not be overloaded upon an activition.

[eigbrown]

Thank you for replying.

Please excuse my ignorance. Not sure how a box is set as a self contained bell.

The two bell boxes I want to use use 0.5 amp and 0.3 amp resp.and I had thought that would be ok re fuse of 1 amp but happy to set second box as SCB but how?

I have been travelling this road for quite some time and did buy and still have a relay operated power supply but would prefer your suggestion of setting one box as an SCB.

Thanks again. eigb

[sixwheeledbeast]

Please excuse my ignorance. Not sure how a box is set as a self contained bell.

The two bell boxes I want to use use 0.5 amp and 0.3 amp resp.and I had thought that would be ok re fuse of 1 amp but happy to set second box as SCB but how?

That is a total of 800mA alarm current, even if the bell fuse is 1A, the panel's PSU normally only supports a total of 1A.

This 1A would include the Panel PCB, Detectors, Keypads and Bell(s).

Also bear in mind total standby current should be <560mA on a 7Ah battery, for the system to be without mains for >12 hours.

Both boxes would probably draw 120mA each in standby, so you may need a PSU anyway.

Why would one box draw 500mA and the other 300mA, you should be using two of the same bell to ensure compatibility.

It is possible SCB feature is not available on that box.

[eigbrown]

Thank you again.Hadn't considered that two different units might create difficulty.

I have an armour flash unit positioned where neighbours would respond and a dummy box to the main street to alert there is an alarm system. Would be happy with a dummy box with laser flash only but haven't come across such.

I have a spare armour flash but tlc have sold out of them and their dummy units and no longer in their catalogue. Haven't found another supplier on-line.

Had also recently bought two Activeguard bell boxes from tlc - they draw much lower current 20mA quiescent, 260mA combined sounder and strobe. I may well use these - but haven't bitten that bullet as I do like the robust armour flash!

I presume that using these two boxes would not overload the control unit and could wire them as per the diagram which you helped me understand (thanks again).

You will deduce that I have been dithering on this for some time and leaking cash in the process!

Any further davice would be welcome. eigb