I am wondering....
I have a long unused 'Vector' burglar alarm system consisting of a non-working console panel which used to be connected to 'Vector via phone line, All the door and window sensors are still in place.
Can I buy a replacement console that will work with my sensors, and use the alarm with some sort of horn I would mount on the house?
Or should I even consider such a thing?
Thanks
Jethro
In all likelyhood, the wiring and sensors should all still be good. You can buy a relacement alarm panel and just rewire all the zones into that panel.
Jethro,
Yes, you can do that. And a lot of the wiring is already done. But first ask whether horns are effective where you live. A friend lived rurally and used this horn type system. His home was burgled, the horn went off, no one noticed except a neighbor who asked him about it a couple of days later.
Dave M.
When you live in the sticks your options are limited. A very large dog is reccommended. No thief want to tangle with a dog no matter how big or small. A larger dog is a larger deterrent however.
A watchdog is a better protector than any alarm or even a firearm. the bad guys are more afraid of a dog than anything else even a firearm.
There's no reason you can't have both a firearm and a dog.
If you shoot first, the dog will have an easier time putting the bite on the goblin.
If the dog gnaws on the scrot first, you'll have an easier shot.
They work together.
Against dogs pepper spray works well.
Absolutely.
A lot of people are very dubious about sirens and horns. I se there point, but I still believe in them.
If you don't want to pay 15 a month for monitoring, they may still sell, or ebay has, voice dialiers that you can connect to your alarm.
Some are meant to be connected to the fob that old people wear around their neck (I've fallen and I can't get up.), and others are meant for burglar alarms. I think I paid 100 dollars for mine and I got it connected but I never actually turned it on. Then the burglar alarm panel burned up, and now I'm depending on a friend who owns a burglar alarm compnay and I pretty much have to get monitoring. He may give me a discount.
To use a dialer, you have to know someone who usually answers the phone, yourself at work, your mother who rarely goes out, a friend. The dialers dial more than one number (3?) and play the message you choose to each one, in succession. If the person getting the message presses 1 or something, it won't call any more people. Then or even if he didn't press 1, that person has to call the police.
I like the siren because if everything is silent, it might increase the chance of caatching the burglar, but the siren may cause him to leave first. The one burglary I had, the guy broke in but took nothing, I suspect because the dog next door started barking. I hated that dog for keeping me from sleeping at 11PM and for waking me up at
7, but I guess he saved me from the burglar. If a dog can do this, a siren can do it too. Burglars don't want to get caught. You can have a dialer or monitoring also.And of course the police don't respond instantaneously.
I know about neighbors not responding. I have glass and wood breakage detectors, which worked with the doorbell, but then I got a nicer doorbell and put the original one in the basement, but then there was't enough power to run both of them so I got a bigger doorbell transformer, and I didn't think about the burglar alarm. I found out maybe a year later that whenever there was a certified letter for me, or something that made the mailman ring the doorbell, the alarm went off. The mailman should have told me, but he didnt'. A neighbor mentioned it in passing after this happened maybe several times.
I'lll tell you another story. My borther bought a beautiful house built in the 70's. It had a burglar alarm but he never used it, not even when he went out of town. I don't know how many burglaries there were there, in what had been probably one of the nicest n'hoods in town when the house was built. When I visited, I decided to get it working for him, so I armed it and tested a door, and I don't remember what happened, but 5, 10 or 15 minutes later - i dont remember -- I was going to take his bicycle and go for a ride, and I had the bik in my hands with the garage door open when the polic arrived. I told them I was visiting my brother, and I had tested the alarm. I have the same last name he does, but they didn't ask to see my wallet, or id, they didnt' ask if I had a key (which I did), they didnt' ask anything, even though it could have been that I was stealing the bicycle. I was 42 at the time, but looked younger. It was disgusting, because if I had been a burglar, they would never have noticed.
This was Dallas fwiw.
OTOH, if I had been black, even if i did have the same last name and even if I had a key that fit the door, they might have arrested me.
There is no reason the dog can't have a firearm.
Well, probably not if I had a key.
>
Are you a home intruder?? If the answer is no then how do you know. Pepper spray works if you are delivering the mail. I wouldn't take any chances with a dog during a robbery. You better have a large caliber firearm ready to go.
Tests with Dobermans have proven that a dog can beat a man to his gun at 15 feet. One chinese emperor wanted to prove to his dogs were capable. he put the dog on attack and then beheaded the dog with a long sword. The dog did not stop biting even after being severed from the head.
A dog in a real fight is a fearsome thing indeed. Multiple dogs are the stuff of nightmares. I have never seen it but am a student of dog training and have read the stories. The criminals have read the same stories.
Their reflexes are so strong that they will be fighting literally for their life. They are so much faster and more deadly than you that you have almost no chance. Just to say, most bad guys won't fool around with you place if you have one or more dogs. The police know this from interviews with criminals and routinely reccommend dogs to people who ask for protection.
When the police enter a house known to have a dog they might prefer to call first. Seriously, the SWAT team uses tear gas on houses know to have dogs and gas is the only way to defeat them except to come in shooting and nobody wants that. Few burglers have access to tear gas.
Sometimes the bad guys will try to poison your dogs but there is training for the dog that can be used if you are worried. Involves baiting the dog with a pork chop that has a live wire inside. They say you only have to teach them once.
Are you a home intruder?? If the answer is no then how do you know? Pepper spray works if you are delivering the mail. I wouldn't take any chances with a dog during a robbery. You better have a large caliber firearm ready to go.
Tests with Dobermans have proven that a dog can beat a man to his gun at 15 feet. One chinese emperor wanted to prove to his guests that his dogs were capable. He put the dog on attack and then beheaded the dog with a long sword. The dog did not stop biting even after being severed from the head. There are many stories.
A dog in a real fight is a fearsome thing indeed. Multiple dogs are the stuff of nightmares. I have never seen it but am a student of dog training and have read the stories. The criminals have read the same stories.
Their reflexes are so strong that they will be fighting literally for their life. They are so much faster and more deadly than you that you have almost no chance. Just to say, most bad guys won't fool around with you place if you have one or more dogs. The police know this from interviews with criminals and routinely reccommend dogs to people who ask for protection.
When the police enter a house known to have a dog they might prefer to call first, lol. Seriously, the SWAT team uses tear gas on houses known to have dogs and gas is the only way to defeat them except to come in shooting and nobody wants that. Few burglers want to use tear gas.
You are right to say to use gas but pepper spray has a low rate of success compared to gas. From what I understand when you gas a place the people and dogs inside will want to come outside as fast a possible unless they have gas masks for dogs. That way the confrontation is outside the house. Pepper spray is an invitation to a private confrontation with your worst nighmare.
Sometimes the bad guys will try to poison your dogs but there is training for the dog that can be used if you are worried. Involves baiting the dog with a pork chop that has a live wire inside. They say you only have to teach them once
I should have said -
My system is entirely remote - that is, there is no hard-wiring from sensors to defunct control panel.
What now?
Jethro
Jethro inspired greatness with:
You may be able to use the current control if you can access dealer level programming. You need to provide the brand of the panel, Vector is a monitoring company - not a manufacturer. Manufactures will often privately brand control panels, and sometimes the programming is proprietary. Either way, you'll be able to use the wireless devices with a panel swap. State the panel and I'll get you a manual for it.
A more useful group for this question is alt.security.alarms, but mind you they are not DIY friendly if you are asking for hand holding.
mm decided the DFW police are racist by spewing:
Hmm.. Statements like that are uncalled for.
In the alarm world, remote does not necessarily mean wireless. Did you mean wireless? I'm guessing yes. Was the receiver(s) a part of the old dead system? If not, and if the receivers work, then yes it can be done. Just buy a new alarm panel (control board + keypad) and wire it up.
If the receiver was part of the old system, then no. It also would be cheaper & easier to start all over. Probably end up with a better system too; some wireless alarm things now are pretty slick.
Just because YOU can't tell a righteous citizen from a goblin, don't think the police can't.
As an ex-cop, I can still spot a scrot or a mope or a squint a mile away.
Here is a cool pic of one of my dogs, Buddy. he is very protective!!
WTF is a scrot, mope, or squint?
I think if the monitoring calls the police and tells them an alarm has gone off, they should check it out better when they get there.
You ever watch Judge Judy? She calls herself a truth machine, and since she never believes any statement that contradicts what she thinks, she never gets any contradiction. Same thing here.
scrotum, maybe a prevert? mope is a mope around depressed type person, psycho type squint has something to do with the eyes, maybe a lookout?
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