Galaxy 8 - a few questions

[morph]

What type of cable is installed is it BT(solid) or alarm cable(stranded)?

By the sounds of things there is no cable fitted for the keypad yet is this correct?

Is there one cable for each device?

Is there a bell cable?

Is there a fused spur for powering it?

I would suggest you need a 7ahr battery and the texecom boxes would do what you need.

As far as joining the cables go, i would suggest that you solder them and then heatshrink over the top, enclose all the joints in a Box.

Did the companies that quoted, actually look at the job?

[black knight]

Hold on a minute lads.

Prewired house 4 CABLES.

3 PIRS

2 CONTACTS

1 KEYPAD

1 SPEAKER

1 BELL

I make it that there should be 8 CABLES.

So how much is PREWIRED?

48923[/snapback]

i would think its being wired ;

first 6 core feeding 2 pirs (2 conductors per sensor = 4 + 2 for power)

second 6 core feeding 1 pir

third 6 core feeding 2 * doors

fourth 6 core feeding bell

usually these kind of prewired jobs assume you are using a on board keypad and internal to controls speaker so they won,t wire for them

either way its a bodge. If you start putting joints in you are asking for more problems.

MAKE SURE YOU SOLDER THEM DON'T PUT IN CHOC BLOC

this is far than simple if you want to use galaxy.

my advice - pit the galaxy back on ebay , sell it for a profit to what you bought it for(there always a someone who wants one), then use that money to buy a small domestic panel with keypad on board (i prefer SCANTRONIC '9448+' - 7 zones, economical panel that comes with full programming instructions and even shows you how to fit/connect sensors!!). you can fit that in original position without joints.

the galaxy is a nice and reliable panel but best fitted/programmed by experts. Also if it goes faulty where are you going to get spares from?

as it is the 4 cables indicates it has been wired incorrectly and you are going to have to put joints in sensors.

As you said this an advice forum and the above is mine

paul

[antinode]

I think the guy meant that there were four wires too short to terminate at the panel end, so I'm assuming (hoping) that there are more than four wires at the panel end. There should be if it's been done correctly (which you won't know as it's all under your floorboards and behind plasterboard) If it has'nt been done correctly, there could be all kinds of problems; cables joined by just twisting them together, several wires for detectors joining to one 6 core somewhere, staples through cables, damage to the cable's insulation. Are the cables even marked up at the panel end? Are the detector wires sited correctly so that your detectors will be covering the right area? Is the mains feed to the panel run with the alarm cables? Does the panel even have a mains feed? Just some food for thought...

[Guest]

I think the guy meant that there were four wires too short to terminate at the panel end, so I'm assuming (hoping) that there are more than four wires at the panel end.

48937[/snapback]

Nope, I read it as 4 wires only at the panel end. All of which needed moving as the panel wouldn't fit. If there are only 4 wires in then I very much doubt anyone has done anything other than wire 3 PIR's downstairs and slung one in the loft for an SAB. No thought needed, sparky prewire job.

Basically, a rewire and start again job.

[antinode]

Nope, I read it as 4 wires only at the panel end. All of which needed moving as the panel wouldn't fit. If there are only 4 wires in then I very much doubt anyone has done anything other than wire 3 PIR's downstairs and slung one in the loft for an SAB. No thought needed, sparky prewire job.

Basically, a rewire and start again job.

48941[/snapback]

Reading it again, it looks like you're right. Must be my Notherner-ness The way I am, I read it "These 4 wires are too short wheras these other 4 wires are long enough"

[Guest SoulessEye]

Hi everyone.

Firstly thanks to all for replying.

Secondly there's a bit of confusion from my previous post so let me clarify.

I have the relevant information to program this panel and at the moment I have the panel working correctly on a test bed

Ok, the property is a small 3 bedroom house. The house was prewired with 6 core alarm wire as follows: one wire for the rkp, one wire for the front door, one for the living room, and one for the kitchen. I really don't want to start going into details about my home on a public forum so please take it from me that given the layout/location of the property this is pretty good coverage.

I propose to put a mk7 keypad on one wire (hall), a magnetic door contact on the front door, a dualtech PIR in the living room and a dualtech PIR in the kitchen, these will be the four wires that need extending as the wires terminate in an area that is not big enough to house the panel.

I will be putting a third PIR upstairs which will have a direct run to the panel and I'll also be running a cable to the bellbox(s).

I've been thinking about an additional door contact on the back door but it would mean a lot of messing around with cabling and it's probably not worth it as there is no access to the garden and the area is covered by the dualtech anyway.

Each sensor will have its own cable and its own zone and this is how I have it setup at the moment, as I stated earlier I have the panel working on a test bed

It's true that the cable that goes to the RKP is not a Belden wire but researching through this forum there's one install that didn't use Belden wire for the RKP and he's had no problems. The RKP is only a short distance and I've checked that it doesn't run near power cables).

I hope that's cleared up any confusion, so back to my original questions:

Junction Box

If the wires should be soldered and heatshrunk and placed in a box rather than placed in a junction block and heatshrink then that's good, I'm a competent solderer (is that even a word ).

Can someone suggest where to get this 'box' from?

Bell box

Looks like the Texecom Odyssey is in pole position here - can someone please help with the connections to the Galaxy?

Battery

Alarmgard suggested a 7ahr battery (thanks) - are these a one size fits all or do I need a specific one?

Did I mention - I have the panel working on a test bed

Thanks again everyone.

Dave

[Guest]

You keep mentioning the fact you have the system working on a test bed as if you know exactly what you're doing.

I'll leave you to it then.

[black knight]

Hi everyone.

Firstly thanks to all for replying.

Secondly there's a bit of confusion from my previous post so let me clarify.

I have the relevant information to program this panel and at the moment I have the panel working correctly on a test bed

Ok, the property is a small 3 bedroom house.  The house was prewired with 6 core alarm wire as follows: one wire for the rkp, one wire for the front door, one for the living room, and one for the kitchen.  I really don't want to start going into details about my home on a public forum so please take it from me that given the layout/location of the property this is pretty good coverage.

I propose to put a mk7 keypad on one wire (hall), a magnetic door contact on the front door, a dualtech PIR in the living room and a dualtech PIR in the kitchen, these will be the four wires that need extending as the wires terminate in an area that is not big enough to house the panel.

I will be putting a third PIR upstairs which will have a direct run to the panel and I'll also be running a cable to the bellbox(s).

I've been thinking about an additional door contact on the back door but it would mean a lot of messing around with cabling and it's probably not worth it as there is no access to the garden and the area is covered by the dualtech anyway.

Each sensor will have its own cable and its own zone and this is how I have it setup at the moment, as I stated earlier I have the panel working on a test bed

It's true that the cable that goes to the RKP is not a Belden wire but researching through this forum there's one install that didn't use Belden wire for the RKP and he's had no problems.  The RKP is only a short distance and I've checked that it doesn't run near power cables).

I hope that's cleared up any confusion, so back to my original questions:

Junction Box

If the wires should be soldered and heatshrunk and placed in a box rather than placed in a junction block and heatshrink then that's good, I'm a competent solderer (is that even a word ).

Can someone suggest where to get this 'box' from?

Bell box

Looks like the Texecom Odyssey is in pole position here - can someone please help with the connections to the Galaxy?

Battery

Alarmgard suggested a 7ahr battery (thanks) - are these a one size fits all or do I need a specific one?

Did I mention - I have the panel working on a test bed 

Thanks again everyone.

Dave

48956[/snapback]

fair enough

all the stuff you need (apart from quality alarm equipment) you can get from your local B/Q electrical section.

Most proffesional alarm suppliers won,t sell to joe public but you may be able to get on line but as i don,t buy on line i,m afraid i don,t know who to recommend.

i would recommend that you look in your local paper in the alarm section - you may find an local independant alarm engineer who will help you out on a consultation /at cost basis but you must realise we can,t be to in depth on a public forum. We have all given our opinions, please don,t think we are not listening to you but we are all professionals and we like to see a job done as we would do it.

good luck with your install

paul

[Chris Teague]

We have all given our opinions, please don,t think we are not listening to you but we are all professionals and we like to see a job done as we would do it.

good luck with your install

I think that says it all nicely Paul.

We don't seem to get this accross too well in the joe public section, whereby those of us doing this for a living have to do it to meet certain mandatory industry standards, or we get a non compliance with our inspectorate.

Most people asking for advice here (right or wrong) don't give a monkey's about such standards & only want to have a bash at it themselves. That's up to them and to quote another forum member " do it cheap, do it twice".

It's gonna be fun when EN 50131 kicks in & we start telling clients only wanting 2 PIR's, that it won't do banghead More wasted surveys me thinks

[morph]

I think that says it all nicely Paul.

We don't seem to get this accross too well in the joe public section, whereby those of us doing this for a living have to do it to meet certain mandatory industry standards, or we get a non compliance with our inspectorate.

Most people asking for advice here (right or wrong) don't give a monkey's about such standards & only want to have a bash at it themselves. That's up to them and to quote another forum member " do it cheap, do it twice".

It's gonna be fun when EN 50131 kicks in & we start telling clients only wanting 2 PIR's, that it won't do  banghead  More wasted surveys me thinks 

48996[/snapback]

Agreed. Generally clients know best, why because they were told in "acme DIY" that this is all they need, or they were told on the internet that 20 detectors on one zone is okay and that there is capacity for twenty more on this new ADE G3 panel.

With the advent of the internet, more and more information is readily available to the end users, and whereby they simply want a cheap fast fix, they don