Alarm site

[George]

One for bookmarking if you need help on secuirty alarms?

[Steve]

A good site, but slightly anti DIY.

Steve

[George]

lol,then why do they have a DIY installation guide?

[Steve]

I suggest you read the diy forums on there. A lot of the answers tend towards the hostile when people start treading on "professional" installers toes.

Go and ask where you can download an install manual for your alarm :)

Steve

[George]

Well that would provoke any alarm installer ie its fruitless asking that Q because if devious tw*ts could get their hands manuals they would have a field day.

ps you do get the odd plonker asking where to obtain a manual. ;-)

[Man at B&Q]

Why plonker? It's a perfectly reasonable question for DIY. Are you sure the moniker doesn't apply to you?

MBQ

[George]

Do you have to be an arsole all the time or do you blame it on the midwife?

[Owain]

Why? The security of an alarm system shouldn't rely one someone not having the installation manual. After all, alarm installers have the manuals, and they can't all be as honest as a Scandinavian summer day is long.

Owain

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Right. I take it then it's only pro alarm installers that manage to bypass them in carrying out a burglary?

[Steve]

Not the bell box, the main unit, which is why leaving it in plain view is never a good idea.

I'm familiar with quite a few robberies of commercial and domestic units, and I think the clever robber defeating the security is a Holywood myth. An alarm is just a deterrent, every robbery I've seen has either been opportunistic, inside job, or just plain brutal. Alarms helped in none of them.

Steve

[George]

Eh! the control panels internal sounder will reveal where its sited anyway so it doesn't matter if its hidden or on full view.

[Owain]

That's why proper installers use internal sounders that aren't located at the panel.

Owain

[Man at B&Q]

messagenews: [e-mail]...

So answer the question, if you can. Why is someone doing DIY & asking for a manual a plonker?

At least my brains aren't in my arseole.

MBQ

[555]

Exactly. My view of the purpose of a domestic alarm is damage limitation and peace of mind. If there is someone in, it alerts us to anyone messing about. If we're out, the noise will hopefully cause them to grab the low-hanging fruit (replicable items) and bugger off before causing too much grief or digging out the better secured valuables.

So the inbred guild of alarm installers can maintain a veil of secrecy over the General Public that allows them to charge exorbitant prices. Real example of what happened to a friends parents: 5000 to install a domestic panel, bell box and two PIRs. Plus 300/year maintenance. Then claim it would cost 500 to replace the battery (17 from B&Q, but without the secret spell book not something you can DIY). I replaced the panel for less that

50 quid with one that could be maintained, and pointed out the couple of quid a year they saved on the insurance by having an "approved" alarm wasn't worth the 300 quid they were paying for the "approval".

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'm surrounded by pro installed alarms. As probably are most. Many of which go off for no reason. Or at least not set off by an intruder. My DIY installed one has never given a false alarm. And when you look at the way many 'pro' istallations are thrown into place with cables running under carpets etc it's no surprise they give trouble. Like everything electrical to do a neat and efficient installation is 99% building work rather than specific knowledge of those systems. And why pay technician's rates for skills you can probably better?

[ARWadsworth]

I picked a parcel up from a depot the other day and the notice on the wall by the main door said something like "an internal security sounder operates that may cause an intruder to lose control of their bowels".

Personally I would fit a Master Blaster.

Adam

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Of course. But once set up and a personal code entered a decent one should be hard to disable. Unless using a sledgehammer. Which you don't need a manual for.

[fred]

In article , ARWadsworth writes

The fat bloke from Mad Max or the sounder :-?

I think motor driven sounders with visible vanes are a bit susceptible to the lolly stick attack and a bit expensive, I prefer well made moving coil sounders internally with Elmdene ones from CPC being my current favourite (very dinky, cost effective & painfully loud).

[cj]

Hi Having missed the start of this thread I can see many points of view but this may help the original poster. All the alarm manufacturers I am aware of have a web site where instruction manuals are readily available for download.(just google the make eg.ADE.TEXECOM ) If however you want an engineers programming manual they want you to register with them or be an accredited installer. Their excuse (if that's the right word) is that a non qualified engineer may damage the equipment or themselves by being inexperienced in the panels operation. (IMO whilst having some validation is really a way of saying buy our stuff and we will let you have the instructions) On a lighter note there are at least 3 sites on the web that have the most common alarm systems manuals available for free download.

HTH CJ

[ukpanels]

Many of the older and diy installer manuals are on