Guest Cyberprog Posted March 6, 2006 Posted March 6, 2006 Just been replacing an ADE Logic 4 installed by my dear old dad (no longer with us, otherwise i'd have f***ing murdered him when i saw what he'd done one installing this system). Where do I start... 1) No system backup battery, instead there was a big-ass capacitor on the battery terminals. 2) All the zones were wired on the Entry/Exit zone. 3) An interesting mixture of 4 core alarm flex, bellwire and 4 core phone cable. Lovely. 4) A very strange bit of wiring on one of the PIR's, up under the bath I discovered (upon tracing the cable) an small box, containing a 555-timer circuit wired to a bell-push (which i'd always wondered what was for) on the landing. It seems that this was wired so that when my mother went wandering to the kitchen she could hit the button and the PIR would be linked out of the circuit for about 5mins. 5) The alarm was setup to arm and disarm using the downstairs door lock, with a microswitch inside the door, kinda neat really, until recently when the 20+ year old microswitch gave up the ghost. The keyswitch on the alarm board had been bastardised to allow this to work! Mind you, it was handy finding he'd wired all the downstairs doors with reed switches, sometime during the mid 80's according to my mum, which saved some hassle (in that the cable runs were already there!) So, share your horror stories on takeovers etc. I could do with a laugh
arfur mo Posted March 9, 2006 Posted March 9, 2006 the wierdest 'takeover' i have done was on a large house in hampstead, the owner (+ 90 years old) in his younger days installed his own home made alarm system. in many ways it was a work of art the controls cabinet weas in the loft, and took up an area of some 2 x 2 x 6 feet. relays transformers and other wonderful stuff - a acr battery as standbye batts with car charger but mains operated bells - so no main no alarm system the 'keypad' was built into a very ornate wall mounted light fitting, having glass shell designs which masked several toggle switches which simply shunted out different sections, not so much 'part set' as 'bit set'. but the above was not all, the windows were protected by insulated copper wire which had been unwound from transformers, and run up and down the casements using old radio dial guide wheels, each end of the wire was attached to a long leaf microswitch. ammusingly it relied on the intruder pushing apart the wires during entry causing the switches to be pulled, but all you had to do was cut the wire door contacts were made from the brass prongs of old 4.5v flat pack torch batteries. making contact onto a large brass washer fitted to the door, like the ones used to ring a bell when you go into a shop. it must have taken him days possibly weeks to install all this, and he was obviously very proud of his handywork, looking for my approval as an expert - it was very hard to stiffle my astonishment. strangely i felt sad that i had to distroy his work, and he had been insistant i should try to repair it for him. it took me and his 3 sons some time to gently talk him arround, and tactfully to convince him no insurrance company would be impressed by it. although in truth it was never any good as an alarm system by any accepted standards, i had to admire the sheer effort this guy had put in. it left me feeling a bit guilty when i spotted him watching the removal of his prized project, so i left some of his old 'protection' in place and swore blind it was in circuit - but his sons knew it was only 'for show'. it reminded me of my early career, when i used to service systems which at that time were 20-30 years old installed by Rely-a-Bell. controls were hand built on site by the engineer, using brass and copper sheet mounted onto wooden boxes (hence the old term 'lock block & coffin') and large GPO Relays - happy days. If you think education is difficult, try being stupid!!!!
Guest Cyberprog Posted March 9, 2006 Posted March 9, 2006 Aye, they don't make em like they used to And my laziness came back to bite me in the ass, had a false alarm today off one of the old door contacts, just spent the last few hours replacing them all
Guest Posted March 9, 2006 Posted March 9, 2006 looking for my approval as an expert - it was very hard to stiffle my astonishment i had the same thought...
Guest Alarm Guard Posted March 9, 2006 Posted March 9, 2006 I was called to an accountants offices to repair the intruder alarm..... but I couldn't find the alarm! The secretaries insisted that there was one, and said the neighbours had complained about the noise when it went off by mistake. The accountant, who was the person who turned the alarm on and off wasn't there, so I kept looking, but I couldn't find any alarm.... Eventually, piecing together bits of information, I discovered that the so called alarm had been fitted by the accountant.. It was a 240 volt bell with no weather protection screwed to the outside of a window frame in the rear yard, which was plugged into a 13 amp socket and was triggered by a door switch (not a contact) on the main office door. Apparently, each evening the guy turned on the socket to 'set' the 'alarm', but the door switch had become worn and would sound the bell randomly during the night. They seemed quite surprised when I refused to attempt a repair. They did see sense after some time, and now they have got a shiny new alarm...
Guest Cyberprog Posted March 9, 2006 Posted March 9, 2006 i had the same thought... My thought were that it was something that I might have designed as a kid
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