What's the mystery 4th alarm cable

[Alan_in_Wilts]

Puzzle for a wet weekend

 

House was built in 1997 and was pre-wired for alarm system but the 1st owner did not install. When we bought the house in 2001 I hid the ugly cables in electrical surface back boxes. At the time I presumed the 4 cables terminating in the garage were:

1. door switch - cable above front door

2. keypad - cable to side of front door

3. lounge - cable for lounge PIR

4. dinning - cable for dinning PIR

I wondered about the cable for the external alarm but never saw any cable in the loft - much of the loft was boarded over.

 

Fast forward to fitting my Elite 24 and I find:

1. door switch - cable above front door is only 4 core and leads to keypad outlet

2. keypad - 8 core cable to side of front door and links to garage cable

3. lounge - 8 core cable as a loop (no end) for lounge PIR and links to garage cable

4. dinning - same 8 core cable as the lounge

 

So that accounts for 2 of the cables terminating in the garage (keypad and lounge+dinning). The 3rd no doubt does go to the loft for the bell.

 

Any ideas what the 4th cable could be?

 

Note: we've now decorated the whole house and no cable has come to light or any indication of a hidden cable. There is no reason while the first owners should bury one cable when they were quite content to have the other cables hanging out of the wall.

 

Alan

 

 

[norman]

Drop your phone socket off and see if it's coiled up in there 

[Alan_in_Wilts]

Quote

Drop your phone socket off and see if it's coiled up in there 

 

Good try but no! I replaced the phone socket with a combined phone+ADSL splitter socket and wired the phone & ADSL lines out the back into my garage where I have the modem and my PABX.  There was no excess unterminated cable.

 

Thanks for having a go.

 

Alan

[james.wilson]

Be hard to find a buried cable when you dont have a clue. A tone tracker might help to find areas to dig out but unlikely. 

[Alan_in_Wilts]

As I said, a puzzle for a wet weekend - i.e. a non serious posting.

 

I shall just ignore the cable for now. I've already discretely run 3 more alarm cables without upsetting the domestic authorities! (on top of another 5 Ethernet cables I put in at the same time - total 28 Ethernet ports and counting! ).

Edited September 13, 2019 by Alan_in_Wilts

[MrHappy]

1 hour ago, Alan_in_Wilts said:

Puzzle for a wet weekend

 

Life's too short-

 

[al-yeti]

11 hours ago, Alan_in_Wilts said:

As I said, a puzzle for a wet weekend - i.e. a non serious posting.

 

I shall just ignore the cable for now. I've already discretely run 3 more alarm cables without upsetting the domestic authorities! (on top of another 5 Ethernet cables I put in at the same time - total 28 Ethernet ports and counting! ).

Depending on how much of a lunatic you are 

 

Get hold of a TDR ,measure the length of the cable , you may need to stick on a 100m before attaching that one might give distance for you to look at 

 

Like I said it's only if your bored and a lunatic and so on 

 

With the distance it can only be so far hahaha 

 

Otherwise tone tracer might help , but switch off all electrics at fuse box before trying to tone trace it

[Alan_in_Wilts]

12 hours ago, MrHappy said:

Life's too short-

[Ricochet]

 

Ah! I knew I was at risk of someone mentioning wi-fi    I've an aversion to it generally and read that burglars now having jamming devices. Plus problems with range and walls. Similarly not happy with keyless cars. Hired a car the other day and had problems. I do have wi-fi but it's normally off and comes on if I use the tablet (rarely) or guests stay but most people (including myself) now use mobile data as the packages have generous data allowance. Back on topic, the Ricochets use quite expensive batteries which need to be properly recycled at end of life. But I admit, not running cables is a big advantage in time and upheaval and I can see why professional installers use this option.

 

PS Saw this youtube video recently of a Scottish chap installing a network in his new flat - ended up like Swiss cheese with all the holes he drilled! I think he might admit to being a bit of a lunatic!

 

 

but he went for wi-fi when installing a Texecom Premier Elite 64-W (another video)

[MrHappy]

so far I have watched 15min of the fuck witted porridge wog fit a data cabinet like a 1st week  YTS...#

 

Again my life is too short for this....

[james.wilson]

On the upside that's what's expected from us. Gonna save a fortune I need to make everyone redundant...