Running New Alarm Cable

[Alarm Protection]

Yes sorry Pete. I could have worded that better.

[goncall]

Usually - changed out a '2 zone' 1980s panel once - was 12 core to every huge Racal PIR!

thats sounds like a group 4/lander job..lol

[datadiffusion]

It was a few years ago.

 

I remember it was a huge vertical white box with a 45 degree chamfer down one edge...

 

No branding whatsoever, not even on the PCB.

 

3 round black buttons on the front, of which one actually an indicator and couldn't be pressed. All back smoke effect plastic, one the size of a 2p coin, the others 1p

What I remember to this day was one had a very clear 'gun' symbol on, remember it looked very 'American'.

 

Dialler was a massive white box again! Actually, assume a digi. A ton on stickers on the inside about phone number and EEPROM changes! No outside bell.

 

The house was that of an ex England rugby coach, but before that a high court judge.

[goncall]

It was a few years ago.

 

I remember it was a huge vertical white box with a 45 degree chamfer down one edge...

 

No branding whatsoever, not even on the PCB.

 

3 round black buttons on the front, of which one actually an indicator and couldn't be pressed. All back smoke effect plastic, one the size of a 2p coin, the others 1p

What I remember to this day was one had a very clear 'gun' symbol on, remember it looked very 'American'.

 

Dialler was a massive white box again! Actually, assume a digi. A ton on stickers on the inside about phone number and EEPROM changes! No outside bell.

 

The house was that of an ex England rugby coach, but before that a high court judge.

i remember them lol,group 4 panel

[datadiffusion]

Ha, you were right then!

 

Expect the box was hidden in the copious amounts of ivy, we put a new one in a nicer place anyway!

[arfur mo]

Just for clarity AP means measure them using a multimeter set to ohms

to be politically correct -:

once old panel is powered down, remove cables from detector terminals and short all cores. At the controls choosing a 'common' lets say the black, measure between black and the other colours one at a time on the lowest ohm range of your meter, they should all be the same. Now test between RED and BLUE which again should be the same and proves BLACK is not faulty. Expect about 1 ohm for 10 meters average.

Set your meter to its highest range, now test between the cables and a good ground earth (keeping your conductive fingers away from the exposed cables and affecting measurement accuracy). Ideally this should be infinite open circuit, 1 meg is suggested as acceptable.

Now check for induced voltage by switching to you meters DC 12 volt range, and test as above, ideally no voltage shown, ditto on AC range.

Finally on your meters highest ohms range test between cores for shorts.

Do the above on every cable.

[effortless]

Hi guys, got an update on the system.

Decided to go with the Menvier M800. Picked one up cheap from 'a popular online auction site' for around £120 (included the MKP3 as well, bargain!) Old cabling was fine, went through and tested it all with no bother. Installed the new PIRs with no issues. Landing is now also protected. Had to buy a new bell box as the entire street has had external insulation fitted and they ruined the bell box and cable running to it. Decided to not have a PIR in the kitchen because the new boiler blocked the existing PIR and I had nowhere else to put one without it facing a window. Fitted a door contact to the back door instead. Also got a set of prox. tags for around £7. All zones have been tested and sounders tested and it's working like a dream. They're really happy with it and enjoy the fact I managed to do it with minimal fuss.

 

Thanks for all the help and advice!

Jack

[arfur mo]

In my experience the cables are normally the only thing that you wont need to replace. There is very little to go wrong with cable it is not made up of electronic components its just wire

old house? - rodent activity - prior damage done by carpet fitters, builders - and then what about dodgy joints on original instal or later repairs.

cables can not be assessed by any of us without proper hands on testing, without it your basically 'winging it' tbh. logic 4 did not have alarm memory, so very possible if users have,had issues might not have known about activations because of timing out before they return.

once you fit your modern panel it will indicate and record any activations in a 'log', but this is the wrong way round to approach security, you should read up on how to test cables for resistance, continuity and short circuits at least, with a modern digital meter to reduce possible problems.

all being well for what they cost i would recommend to fit modern detectors, technology having moved on so far ahead. Todays cheapest detector is far better than a top of the range expensive detector from 20 years ago.