Burglar and Fire Alarms...who has fitted them?

[breezer]

Most systems are now iD systems which allow all the detectors to be wired in any configurate,

errrrm, no they are not, most engineers do not like or understand the id principal. in theory its great, but if your main cable goes down you loose a lot of your system.
galaxy panels do not have id, neither do most menvier, scantronic, castle,texcom, shall i go on?

 

[Big_Spark]

Most systems are now iD systems which allow all the detectors to be wired in any configurate,

errrrm, no they are not, most engineers do not like or understand the id principal. in theory its great, but if your main cable goes down you loose a lot of your system.
galaxy panels do not have id, neither do most menvier, scantronic, castle,texcom, shall i go on?

Breezer, I do not understand this post, all engineers I have ever spoken too about alarms prefer the addressible systems. If they are installed correctly they are trouble free, unless some plnak cuts a cable etc, but then you can have that problem with any system.

And the comment about the Engineers not understanding, I find this most odd, if they cannot understand DIP switches, Plastic Pin-out cards or automatic addressing then they have no business being in the electrical game at all as they are a plank!!

 

[breezer]

Breezer, I do not understand this post,

Kimba is not refering to fire alarms as you are, he is refering to the ADE karizma, it has iD biscuits (small little thing 3 wires, that is retrofitted to the ...........what ever you are wiring into the burglar alarm they are very small fiddly) then when you have done that you have to programme the panel, its attributes for each cct (yes i know you have to do that for most intruder panels) but they are alkward. Personally i like them, but most dont. you may like too for your guys (get one and see)

info is here biscuits are at bottom

 

[securespark]

I hate myself for this, but am agreeing with FWL!!

id BA systems are easy to install and in most cases lots less cable and disruption. On a large install this can save miles of cable and loads of (wo)man hours of cable bashing.

Karisma is an ancient system design-wise - there are easier ones out there, including more up to date ADE panels.

 

[breezer]

.

Karisma is an ancient system design-wise - there are easier ones out there, including more up to date ADE panels.

who do you suppose makes the karizma....its ADE.(they invented the iD biscuit as it is now)

you were not reading my post properly, i never said i didn't like it, you may have only installed one or two or even 10, i agree it is eay to install one cable does it all, but i am talking of intruder alarm engineers who work with alarms 24/7 for a living do not like them, they are hard to fault find on (when loop goes down) and FWL engineer was refeing to fire alarms, as they do have dil /dip switches, ADE dont

 

[Big_Spark]

Breezer, I was also referring to Intruder Alarms. There are some decent ones out there now that use dip switches to identify points on the circuits. Not too common as yet, and rather expensive, but they are out there.

I cannot understand why people believe addressible fire alarms are difficult to fault find..if it has all been set up right then finding fault is a doddle

 

[Kimba]

Most systems are now iD systems which allow all the detectors to be wired in any configurate,

errrrm, no they are not, most engineers do not like or understand the id principal. in theory its great, but if your main cable goes down you loose a lot of your system.
galaxy panels do not have id, neither do most menvier, scantronic, castle,texcom, shall i go on?

ERRRR what are you on about?

I mainly fit Menvier panels, in particular the TD790iD or TD690iD panels.

CastleTec have a number of iD based systems too, as do scantronic (who are actualy part of Menvier anyway).

"The main cable goes down" - that's a bit like saying if the onboard fuse blows, or the CMOS Chip dies, or the NVM fails.... there are lots of single points of failure, but if it is probably installed and maintained, most systems are highly reliable.


I spent 3 years installing alarm systems and CCTV/ACcess control. 2 with a company, and 1 freelancing. The vast majority of people I have come into contact with favoured the iD systems.

IF the loop is "down" it basically means the fuse has blown, or the cable as been cut (Which is why you write down the sequence dectors are linked in, to later discover any breaks and their location).

 

[Big_Spark]

IF the loop is "down" it basically means the fuse has blown, or the cable as been cut (Which is why you write down the sequence dectors are linked in, to later discover any breaks and their location).

This is why "As installed Drawings" are invaluable and worth their weight in gold.

 

[Kimba]

Absolutely, and I also produce on, leaving a copy inside the end station so should any other engineer be called to site, or I return after a couple of years, no one looks like a pleb walking about trying to work out how a wire gets from one place to another, or which colour was used for the H/O- on the bell etc