Optima 2 Plus Alarm - External Bell Box and Strobe

[backofthenet]

Hi - Update,

 

Have now wired in both Texacom's 

 

Front of house all working fine. 

 

Rear of house - bell works fine but no strobe - can't understand why as the control panel strobe connections are wired 48 blue and 49 white - so connected front strobe to 49 - white and that works - rear to 48 - blue and that won't strobe. I must admit that on the oriiginal config the blue was not connected to strobe in rear but green was - but no green wire is connected to strobe on control panel - only blue and white.

 

One other point - i have both external boxes set at battery yes and SCB yes - issue with that is if i power the system off (no battery in control panel yet) then the bells go off - so how can i open up the panels now?

[sixwheeledbeast]

One bell didn't have a strobe connection in the panel? The strobes are -ve trigger so you had a +ve and -ve wire where you need two -ve.

You can't the point is they self activate if you tamper with them, get some earplugs. If you remove hold-off power and battery jumper, they will be in test mode until you close them again.

[backofthenet]

 

 

Hi, thanks for the reply - if you look at the control panel then "strobe" is identified as 48 and 49 - both have a connection going in - 48 blue and 49 white 

although the manual seems to suggest that only 49 is -ve 

 

does that mean i need to take the blue wire out of terminal 48 and put it into terminal 49 as well along woth the white cable.

 

(i'm assuming that the blue wire in 48 is the cable that goes to bell 2 with the non working strobe?)

 

also if i'm in engineer mode can i take the front panel off the control unit and prevent a tamper?

 

 

 

Edited March 28, 2021 by backofthenet

[james.wilson]

one will be strobe pos and the other the switched strobe neg or trigger. They arnt 2 triggered outputs

[backofthenet]

3 hours ago, sixwheeledbeast said:

One bell didn't have a strobe connection in the panel?

No - both white and blue wires are connected in the panel - white to 49 and blue to 48

 

BUT the blue wire in the original external second unit did not have the blue wire connected at all - I connected the blue wire to the new external second unit

Edited March 28, 2021 by backofthenet

[james.wilson]

2 minutes ago, backofthenet said:

No - both white and blue wires are connected in the panel - white to 49 and blue to 48

 

BUT the blue wire in the original external second unit did not have the blue wire connected at all - I connected the blue wire to the new external second unit

as i said its a strobe +, not a strobe - hopefully it hasnt damaged your bell 

 

Strobe + is an additional permanent + on the days of way back when strobes were a seperate device not all built into a modern sounder

[backofthenet]

9 minutes ago, james.wilson said:

as i said its a strobe +, not a strobe - hopefully it hasnt damaged your bell 

 

Strobe + is an additional permanent + on the days of way back when strobes were a seperate device not all built into a modern sounder

The bell unit is still working in test mode just no strobe - which is why i think i need to move the blue cable in the control unit from terminal 48 and put it into terminal 49 (strobe -ve) 

[sixwheeledbeast]

I think both JW and I have both tried to explain as best we can.

Your Strobe +ve terminal at the panel will be unused. You need a -ve Strobe to each bell.

 

[james.wilson]

as long as its connected to strobe neg in the bell then yes. 

[backofthenet]

22 minutes ago, james.wilson said:

as long as its connected to strobe neg in the bell then yes. 

 

yep 100% blue is connected to strobe negative in the bell box - i'll make the control panel change in the morning and move blue to strobe -ve in control panel

 

on a side note I didn't realise with these bell boxes that the Left and Right LED's alternate slow flash when in operation even if alarm not set - which is a good feature.