Texecom Premier 24

[Northbeach]

Ok - I've understood the technical aspects, but I seem to have neglected the set up and location of the sensors. I've had another good trawl through some discussions/advice online and think I have sussed a plan.

Yes - I probably did get the sensors mixed up...I do only have door contacts and PIR's.

Hallway: door contact (main exit/entry) *possible PIR (facing away from the door).
*There is a double glazed window in the hall, but although non openable it obviously could be smashed with enough source. If I didn't have a PIR in the hallway, then the alarm hasn't yet gone off. There is nothing in the hall worth stealing and once the other downstairs rooms have been entered the alarm will then set off. However, I hadn't planned on placing a PIR on the hall upstairs (lack of experience with alarms made me think one of us would set the alarm off during those early hours WC trips...I suspect I could possibly set this zone as daytime during the night if required?
Also concern on postie pushing parcels/letters/newspapers into view of PIR - possibility? I could locate it above the door and set the angle so this won't occur?

Kitchen: UPVC porch (back door onto garden) leading onto kitchen door (same type of door as the front door - Richmond style wooden, mortice locked etc). I now intend to place a contact on this door and PIR in the kitchen?

Living room: faces front of street - appropriately placed PIR.

Dining room: facing back garden. French windows with side panels - south facing - huge amount of light, especially in the morning. I now believe it best to mount the PIR facing into the room on the same side as these french doors. I didn't quite factor in changes in light effecting the PIR.

So -

Downstairs hallway 1x contact 1 x PIR
Upstairs hallway 1 x PIR
Kitchen 1 x contact 1 x PIR
Dining room 1 x contact 1 x PIR
Living room 1 x PIR
2 x smoke detectors
(not forgetting RKP in hall and possibly at a later date, the bedroom).

With that scenario, I'll just need to pick up another PIR (not that pricy in the scheme of things).
I don't really want to go OTT on this - afterall, we've survived without an alarm for 15 years but we definitely miss the piece of mind an alarm would provide us with.

Many thanks.

 

[pcaouolte]

Looking good.

Locate the hall PIR above the door and make it a dualtech (I dont know if your outher PIRs are dualtech) as these are less likely to false alarm.

The PIR in the hall upstairs will be ommited on the part set that you use at night. This will allow you to get to the bathroom without setting the alarm off.

Do you need 2 contacts on the French doors or does one leaf always have to open first and close last? If they can be opened in either order use 2 contacts (on the same zone if need be).

Any rooms upstairs that can be accessed from a flat roof or drainpipe etc? These rooms might need protection.

Wise not to go over the top. Much of the deterent with any alarm system comes from the sounder on the front of the house (and possibly a dummy on the back if people can approach from that way). One a thief is in he will grab something even if the alarm goes off. Make sure that the physical security (locks, bolts, window locks etc) is also good.

 

[Northbeach]

Hi - the PIR's are 'Prestige Compact PIR'

Spec (though of course you may already know of this model):

Specification

•Range: 15m (50 feet), 90° volumetric coverage
•Supply Voltage: 9 - 16VDC
•Current Consumption: 10mA typical
•Alarm Output: Built-in normally closed relay, <24VDC, 50mA, 18
•Dimensions: 90mm x 63mm x 40mm
•Packed Weight: 125g (4.5oz) approx
•EMC: Independently certified to EN50130-4 : 1996
•Design: Noise reduction circuits with maximum ground plane
•RF Immunity: No false alarms from 80MHz to 1GHz at 30V/m

I guess I can always replace these in the future if I tend to notice them failing, though again, the reviews seem fairly favourable (they are sold as a kit with the texecom premier range).

PIR upstairs hall: - great - will set it to do just that.

French doors: Ahh...I noticed them earlier and thought that I might need two contacts, but only one door (the leading door) can be opened before the other can so I presume I can get away with one?

Upstairs: No real access to any of the rooms via roof or drainpipe, so I think the hallway PIR will suffice.

I might be up to those 8 zones already however!

I've actually just a moment ago started to wire the RKP up to the panel (installed on the wall a short while ago). I'm usually good at stripping (oo-err) and use a guillotine type trimmer (I usually use on CAT6) but these tiny wires in the 6 core (7 core as it happens...a rogue black, rubber one in there for some reason!) are so delicate (not a problem when kroning). My electrical cable stripper (which works great on T&E) has taken a few strands too many from my black wire....need to cut back and start again!

Aside from that...pretty confident now : )

Many thanks (again!)

 

[pcaouolte]

If you need to buy another PIR I would get something like the Texecom Prestige DT for the hall. They combine infrared and microwave detection for extra imunity from false alarms. Wiring is similar to the PIRs that you already have.

Sounds like one contact will be ok on the French doors.

If you get over the 8 zones remember the two extras available in the keypad or you can get an 8 zone expander to fit inside the panel (8XE) for about £15 or separate 8 zone expanders (8XP) for abot £25.

Alarm cable will usually strip ok with a normal pair of side cutters (wire cutters). Practice on a spare bit of cable.

The rogue black rubber "wire" is just a strainer that the real wires are wrapped around. There's usually a bit of "string" as well which can be pulled to split the outer cable sheath.

Don't chop off the spare cable cores that you are not using, keep them long and coil them up inside the device in case you need them in the future (wires break).

 

[Northbeach]

Beat me to it...I just did 'the math' and the upstairs PIR would take me up to 9 zones now.
Options I thought were: add the French Door contact and Back Door contact to one zone?

Purchase an expander (not preferable as this refurb project is costing enough as it is - looked at one around £45).

Given there's a cheaper expander for inside the panel, that's a better option, but of course, I'd neglected the extra zones inside the keypad (just wire these directly to the contact/PIR?)...and that might be even better!

Thought the rubber wire might have a purpose (similar to how CAT6 has a screen running down the centre of the cable). Thought I had a rouge roll of 6 core

Will keep spare cable coiled...but it's a dainty wiring system isn't it?!

Cheers...will post pics of updates (read: cock ups!).

 

[Northbeach]

Ah, ok...this dual tech model:

http://www.alertelectrical.com/prod/859/prestige-dual-technology-digital-detector

So - a better option for the hall, which may be prone to more false alarms (letterbox and parcels being one example). Cost a bit more (four times as much!) as the compact ones, but I assume they'll be a better option.
If I can get away with not purchasing the extra expander then this should just make it through the 'accounts dept'

 

[pcaouolte]

Doubling up contacts on zones makes fault finding harder.

Just use one of the zones in the keypad for the nearest contact (probably the front door) try to avoid using them for PIRs as the only power in the keypad is on the network connections and its not good to use this for PIRs. When connecting to these zones there are 4 terminals per zone, use the outside two and ignore the middle two.

Twisting the spare wires together in pairs makes them neater and easier to handle like this:

Untitled

• pcaouolte
• 12 Mar 2013
• 1

 

[pcaouolte]

Yes, that detector.

Try here or fleabay for cheaper.

 

[Northbeach]

Doubling up contacts on zones makes fault finding harder.

Just use one of the zones in the keypad for the nearest contact (probably the front door) try to avoid using them for PIRs as the only power in the keypad is on the network connections and its not good to use this for PIRs. When connecting to these zones there are 4 terminals per zone, use the outside two and ignore the middle two.

Twisting the spare wires together in pairs makes them neater and easier to handle like this:

Untitled

• pcaouolte
• 12 Mar 2013
• 1

Excellent - will do that...and yes, the front door contact is but a couple of feet from the keypad. Unfortunately, the only ceiling I haven't taken down downstairs is the kitchen (the only room that was just about complete when we moved in) which means I'll have to channel the ceiling out to feed the back door contact. I need to add a couple of cables for lighting and a thermostat in there anyway (plus speaker cable) so now's probably time to get the ol plasterboard knife out (I've been putting that bit off whilst the rest of the house is done). Honestly...I'm putting in over a mile of cable (many varieties) in this house...the quicker we get those ceilings back up the better.

I was actually terminating the individual strands much further up - giving me only around 20-30mm before I hit the white sleeving on the six core. That pic you posted suggests I can run them with much more core length. Good labelling too (I'm a bit OCD on the labelling front. I purchased a DYNAMO label printer for my ethernet switch - probably make use of it in the alarm panel too!

Many thanks pcaoulte.

Thanks for that linkie too - fair bit cheaper that.

 

[pcaouolte]

When you run your alarm cables try to keep them separate from mains cables by at least 150mm where possible. Don't feed them through the same holes in joists as mains cables. Where alarm cables cross mains cables they should do so at 90 degrees to each other.

Alarm cables are not shielded (although shielded versions are available) and can pick up induced AC from mains cables if run next to them. This can cause false alarms which can be very dificult to trace.

 

[Northbeach]

Thanks pcaouolte.
Just means drilling a few more holes in the joists either side of mains/lighting and data cables. These 6 core cables are quite thin, and in the main, only one cable per hole...so only small holes required.

I haven't ordered that dual tech yet - will do this week - but is the PIR wiring that different to the standard prestige PIR?

Also, if I were to use the other zone (zone 2) in that RKP for, say, another PIR, would I take the supply from the + and - that's already feeding back to control panel? Most likely won't be requiring this, but just a thought...

Cheers.

 

[pcaouolte]

The dual tech wiring is very similar to a standard PIR, you will find the same terminals in the dualtech along with two extra ones (labelled FTA & RLED) which you dont need to use.

In the panel you have two terminals per zone, but in the keypad you have four - A A T T when wiring to the keypad zones use the outside two terminals (the left hand A terminal and the right hand T terminal) only.

Yes, you can take PIR power from the network + & - terminals if you must. The danger is that a fault in the PIR could trip the network "fuse" (actually an elecronic self resetting device) which would disable the keypads until the PIR fault is fixed. Without the keypad display you won't know what fault has occured. If you use the keypad zones for magnetic contacts which don't need power then you wont get this problem.

An alternative is to run an extra cable from the kepad zones back to the panel. You can then have the keypad zones available on a chock-block inside the panel and use the normal aux power terminals on the panel circuit board to feed a PIR. I usually run a spare 6 core cable between the panel and the keypad in case I want the keypad zones available at the panel in the future. Cable is cheap but installing it can be messy and time consuming.

 

[Northbeach]

Excellent - thanks. Will order the dual tech one towards the end of the week.

I've quite easily digested your great advice on here (and it is often very difficult to get advice across succesfully on the internet)...I'm struggling on this last bit however:

An alternative is to run an extra cable from the kepad zones back to the panel. You can then have the keypad zones available on a chock-block inside the panel and use the normal aux power terminals on the panel circuit board to feed a PIR. I usually run a spare 6 core cable between the panel and the keypad in case I want the keypad zones available at the panel in the future. Cable is cheap but installing it can be messy and time consuming.

Drop spare six core in RKP - just loose and not connected to anything or connected to zone 2 (left A and right T)? The other end of the six core in the panel...connect the two (A and T) to a choc block and then, if required, take out a door contact from a used zone which can be connected to the RKP zone (non powered) which frees up a zone for a new powered PIR zone? Have I got that right?

But don't spend any more of your time answering that....you've more than helped me out here and I'll probably drop a spare cable or two in there anyway (one for the future bedroom RKP and one for future 8 zone expansion...but I guess I can fit one in internally anyway.

Will also drop CAT6 in there - persume I can connect to modem via adaptor and will also want to look into digicom and phone alert (suprised there isn't anything internet based so I can connect panel to ethernet switch, but that's more to do with my lack of how these things work.

Cheers - btw - successfully connected (and carefully stripped!) panel to RKP and Zone 1 to contact

Huge thanks.

 

[pcaouolte]

You're on the right track with the spare wire to the keypad. If you want to use the keypad zones you connect them to the spare wire. The other end of the spare wire is in a chock block inside the panel, this gives you 2 extra zones in the panel.

There is an ethernet module available for these panels, the Com-IP. It lets you connect to the panel over a network to change the panel programming. It will also connect the panel to a monitoring station. You could set up your own private monitoring station using Texecom's free Montex software. All getting a bit complicated.

Speech diallers are available to phone you when the alarm goes off or the Com-GSM unit will send you text messages over the mobile network.

The Com-2400 can send text messages over a landline to your mobile but this is becoming less reliable as the service is becoming overloaded.

IF you have the RKP and the main entrance door connected up you could power up the panel and test it. If you do this then remember to remove all power again (mains & battery) before adding more connections to the panel.

 

[Northbeach]

There is an ethernet module available for these panels, the Com-IP. It lets you connect to the panel over a network to change the panel programming. It will also connect the panel to a monitoring station. You could set up your own private monitoring station using Texecom's free Montex software. All getting a bit complicated.

Fantastic. I did read a few things about the mobile services being a little patchy (numbers changing etc), so will look into other options. Like the sound of the Com-IP, but I'll leave that for the future (the network isn't fully set up yet...250 metres CAT6 currently going in).

Unfortunately the CU is not yet live - I'll get a sparky we know to connect it up in a few weeks once the wiring is complete (the grid switch solution for the lighting takes up a fair bit of cabling and planning - will eventually have that networked also). But, yes - I'll be sure to power everything down before connecting new cables to the panel. Now about to connect fire detector one - the other one (and kitchen PIR/contact) will have to wait...that involves a bit of ceiling PB partial removal

Is that your panel above by the way? I've also written on the incoming cables (and printed out the colour code to place inside panel...just as a reminder).

Cheers!