Changing from wireless to wired burglar alarm

I am going to change my wireless burglar alarm to a wired one would I be correct in thinking as most alarms are 12 volt I will not have to fit a new alarm box on the house wall.

Reply to
alan kearn
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No, you don't have to change it but if you're new to alarm installation you might find the wiring connection differences confusing between different systems.

Reply to
StealthUK

Heh heh - I reckon it's a maker's conspiracy. Different names for the same thing, etc.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

On 19 Jan 2005 11:06:53 -0800, "alan kearn" strung together this:

You mean the external sounder? Depends if it's wireless and how it is wired if it's not wireless. If you'r putting a proper system in then get a new SAB. Texecom Odyssey series are a good bet.

Reply to
Lurch

Don't fancy a wireless external sounder. Surely they should be pretty inaccessible, so difficult to change the battery? And you'd need a fair old battery to give a decently loud siren for 20 minutes?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 00:15:51 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)" strung together this:

The wanky pile of s**te known as a Response alarm system came with a solar powered wireless external sounder. If the OPs external siren came with some cheapo Micromark\B&Q\Yale\Response alarm then I'd bin it whether it was wired or not.

Reply to
Lurch

And how is the battery kept charged in a wireless system ?

Reply to
Mike

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 00:37:23 -0000, "Mike" strung together this:

Which one, there's loads of them!

Simple answer, you don't, that's why you have to change them all every year.

Reply to
Lurch

Sorry. I meant the external one high up on the wall.

Reply to
Mike

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 09:17:22 -0000, "Mike" strung together this:

Some wireless alarms have a wired external sounder or a solar powered one. They're all shit anyway.

Reply to
Lurch

The alarm is powered by 240 volts ac. to the alarm control box where a ac. dc. transformer changes it to 12 volts dc to run the alarm. I thought all alarms wireless and wired were run on 12 volts so the question again is can I use the alarm box that is already fitted

Reply to
alan kearn

On 20 Jan 2005 06:48:45 -0800, "alan kearn" strung together this:

No, if the box on the wall, (control panel), is wireless, it's wireless. You need a new control panel if you want to turn the system into wired..

Reply to
Lurch

When you mean alarm box are you referring to the control panel inside or the bell box outside?

Reply to
StealthUK

On 20 Jan 2005 11:49:19 -0800, "StealthUK" strung together this:

I've asked that and he didn't answer and threw a strop. I assume he tried sending it through the ether as a brain frequency radio signal but I didn't get it.

Reply to
Lurch

The sensors are wireless. The alarm bell box on the outside wall is connected to the control panel via a 4 ply wire cable. The power is supplied by 240 volts ac to a transformer that changes it to 12 volts dc. Hence the system is run on 12 volts dc. I will make the question easy, do wired alarms have a 12 volt back up battery if so I will be able connect the alarm bell box that is already fitted to the outside wall to the new control panel.

Reply to
alan kearn

"alan kearn" wrote | The sensors are wireless. The alarm bell box on the outside wall is | connected to the control panel via a 4 ply wire cable. The power is | supplied by 240 volts ac to a transformer that changes it to 12 volts | dc. Hence the system is run on 12 volts dc. I will make the question | easy, do wired alarms have a 12 volt back up battery

Yes.

| if so I will be able connect the alarm bell box that is already fitted | to the outside wall to the new control panel.

Err, well, that depends. There are several different ways of wiring an external bell box. As well as the sounder wires itself there are anti-tamper connections, which inform the panel if the sounder has been tampered with; hold-off connections, the absence of which triggers the sounder if the cable has been cut; and arrangements for charging the battery inside the sounder which is used to power the sounder if the cable is cut.

Especially for a consumer-grade packaged system, those connections might be proprietary or simply not supported, but might be required by a new panel. By the time you've figured out what the old system did you might be as well buying a new bell box that you know is compatible with your new panel.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

A hard wired intruder alarm system needs minimum of 6 core cable to the external sounder unit. The 4 core external sounders are specific to wireless alarms because the external sounders usually have wireless tamper signalling on them, which stops the need for at least 2 wires from the sounder to the control panel. Most hard wired systems also have 1 wire for self activation of the external sounder to tell the control panel to activate if an attack is made on the sounder which doesn't activate the tamper loop. The other three wires are used for continuous power and battery charging. That usually makes 6 wires all totalled on a hard wired intruder alarm.

You'll also find the batteries in a hard wired or wireless sounder unit are only 8 and a bit Volts, but they are high capacity rechargeable. They rely on the control panel and internal circuitry to obtain the correct Voltage if wiring is long and there is a lot of Voltage drop across them. So if the sounder you have has a 12 Volts battery, then it won't do for a hard wired system.

Hope that clears up a bit of your questions?

Reply to
BigWallop

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Reply to
BigWallop

As my first response, yes no problem in keeping the original bell box but if it isn't a major hassle you are better off running 6 core and buying a bell box manufactured by the same company. I've even run two loads of 6 core in the past when I was getting paranoid about wires getting damaged during routing.

Reply to
StealthUK

On 21 Jan 2005 13:23:33 -0800, "StealthUK" strung together this:

Doesn't have to be from the same company, any normal SAB will work with any normal panel.

Reply to
Lurch

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