ticked off! + a bit of advice

[Guest Lorraine]

Hi everyone,

I finished changing over my alarm panel at the weekend. I have to say it was no where near as hard as I expected but I did find some alarming (excuse the pun!) practice by a local "reputable alarm installer".

here's how I went about it, first off I took the lid off my menvier panel and low and as expected the lid tamper went off, whacked the code in and then it shut up. next step was I wrote down the colour of the cables and what they did and labelled the white bit of the wires too so I knew what was what.

Then I proceeded to kill the 230v power supply, yes I know I should have done this first but I forgot!

then I disconnected the 12v panel battery expecting all hell to break loose but all i got from my bell was what sounded like a really weedy squeak, suggesting the battery was dead as a door nail, it then went silent after 3 minutes.

What irritates me is in the alarm panel box there was a service record by a local company who are NACOSS and NSI (is that right?) registered and it has been serviced every year for the past 8 years. The last service was in August of this year and I can't believe they didn't pick the battery fault up! anyhow that bit of my rant is over.

My next question is regarding the bell box! as I now need a new one, I would like to know what people recommend. I am considering purchasing 2 but was unsure?!? My panel has a max power output of 1A which by my rough calculations would allow me to operate 2x texecom odyessy 4E's in SAB mode (300mA for siren and 100mA for strobe, total 800mA)?

Anyone got any better ideas if so they would be much appreciated

Thanks in advance

Lorraine

[Smart Electrics]

Hi everyone,

I finished changing over my alarm panel at the weekend. I have to say it was no where near as hard as I expected but I did find some alarming (excuse the pun!) practice by a local "reputable alarm installer".

here's how I went about it, first off I took the lid off my menvier panel and low and as expected the lid tamper went off, whacked the code in and then it shut up. next step was I wrote down the colour of the cables and what they did and labelled the white bit of the wires too so I knew what was what.

Then I proceeded to kill the 230v power supply, yes I know I should have done this first but I forgot!

then I disconnected the 12v panel battery expecting all hell to break loose but all i got from my bell was what sounded like a really weedy squeak, suggesting the battery was dead as a door nail, it then went silent after 3 minutes.

What irritates me is in the alarm panel box there was a service record by a local company who are NACOSS and NSI (is that right?) registered and it has been serviced every year for the past 8 years. The last service was in August of this year and I can't believe they didn't pick the battery fault up! anyhow that bit of my rant is over.

My next question is regarding the bell box! as I now need a new one, I would like to know what people recommend. I am considering purchasing 2 but was unsure?!? My panel has a max power output of 1A which by my rough calculations would allow me to operate 2x texecom odyessy 4E's in SAB mode (300mA for siren and 100mA for strobe, total 800mA)?

Anyone got any better ideas if so they would be much appreciated

Thanks in advance

Lorraine

I think I would like to offer you a job depends on what you want your bell boxes to do most systems have a live (front) and dummy (Rear) of the property. is there 2 live bell boxes or is it as stated above. Odysseys are ok but remember if you go for 2 live bell boxes 1 needs to be set up SAB and the other SCB. B)

[Guest Lorraine]

hi, thanks for the reply so quickly.

I've got 1 bell box and 2 decoys. 1 is on the front of the house, which is live, and a decoy on the back and garage (which is attached to my house).

I was hoping my panel would supply enough power so I could run both sirens in SAB mode?

I would like my bell boxes to make the loudest noise possible and irritate the neighbours enough so they don't ignore it! or scare any burglars off. Incidentally do most alarm installers lock the NVRAM on the panels? As now i have the texecom instructions it would only take about 20 seconds to default a panel.

Thanks

Lorraine

PS Why do you wnat to offer me a job LOL!

[antinode]

hi, thanks for the reply so quickly.

I've got 1 bell box and 2 decoys. 1 is on the front of the house, which is live, and a decoy on the back and garage (which is attached to my house).

I was hoping my panel would supply enough power so I could run both sirens in SAB mode?

I would like my bell boxes to make the loudest noise possible and irritate the neighbours enough so they don't ignore it! or scare any burglars off. Incidentally do most alarm installers lock the NVRAM on the panels? As now i have the texecom instructions it would only take about 20 seconds to default a panel.

Thanks

Lorraine

PS Why do you wnat to offer me a job LOL!

Once you've taken into account the current draw of the actual panel, detectors and keypad etc, you're going to be pushing it close to 1A if you run both bell boxes in SAB mode, especially with both strobes. You'll likely need an additional power supply to do that, which brings its own problems, unfortunately. If you want to make as much noise as poss, take a look at the "Master Blaster"

[Guest Lorraine]

hi,

according to my manual the bell itself is protected by a 1A fuse, so I thought that 1A was for the bell only?!?

thanks

Lorraine

[Mavrick_001]

Stick with us all, one a sab and the other as scb is the correct way of doing it. Well done on the panel change.... I for 1 am imperessed!!!

[Nova-Security]

Stick with us all, one a sab and the other as scb is the correct way of doing it. Well done on the panel change.... I for 1 am imperessed!!!

QFA

On the panel side, it is rated a 1amp this is for everything (control Panel, Detectors, Keypad, Bell) not just the bells, even though the fuse for the bell is 1amp this is just to cover the initial current draw on alarm which could be 300 to 600ma in alarm depending on which bell you use.

[secboy]

To be fair to the servicing company the battery fault "MAY"have occured "after" the engineer tested the system on the last service! you just dont know for sure I'm affraid.

Regards Paul.

[Guest Lorraine]

hi everyone thanks for the replies,

my main bellbox is currently wired to the panel in SAB mode, my second bell box is going in my garage where there is an(actually I haven't installed it yet!) 8xp expander conveniently located,

would it be okay to run a wire from the panel to my garage bell box, set the actual box to SCB (not hte panel) and then wire the tamper up to my remote expander aux input?

with regards to the reputable alarm company, my house and all the ones round it had alarms installed by the same company in 1997ish so I suppose the acid test is to go to one of my neighbours houses and kill the power to see how much of a mouse squeak it makes! I would be *Very* suprised if they weren't all as flat as pancakes.

Thanks Lorraine

PS would anyone like any pictures of my diy install? I was thinking about putting up a website with all my diy on it. rewires, central heating etc.

[breff]

I assume you are using a texecom premier.

is it a 24 or 48?

The PSU on the 48 is capable of supplying 1.5amp total, so in alarm with 2 bells on scb along with speakers,keypads,expanders and detectors, chances are you will exceed that, so put the 2nd bell on scb.

regards the 8xp you can wire the tamper return into its auxiliary input and program it as bell tamper.