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House Security Alarm
Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:09 pm
by airfrance7
I have recently moved house and the alarm system needs changing. With the PIRs already situated in individual rooms, how do I find out which zone is which? Using a Multimeter to bell for continuity which feed do i bell? The tamper (Blue and Yellow) or (black and Red) so i can distinguish what does what! Please could someone shed some light on this?
Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 7:46 pm
by ericmark
To standardize wiring on alarms does make sense on alarms as it allows those who want to bypass them to do it easier. Once you have identified the colours used tamper is the easy way to identify which is which you would need to open something to see what colours are used. White and green were used on system I worked on for tamper but red and black are normally power but I am sure you can see the point in not having standard colours.
Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 4:05 pm
by stevenc1603
I would say you would want to use the tamper side to test but I don't know if the tamper switches are normally closed (ie break to alarm) or normally open (ie close to alarm). The former makes testing easy, the latter and your going to have to short out a pair at each end.
Alternatively you could try a tone tester if you can get hold of one.
Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 10:19 pm
by ericmark
Most Tamper normally closed.
Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 3:03 pm
by sparx
Hi as said there is no deliberate standard but most of use use our own way, personally I use red/black for power to PIRs, blue/yellow for alarm circuit and white/green for tamper, [N/C in all cases to meet standards].
First look in one pir for connections to establish power connections colours, then find alarm pair and tamper pair.
I just connect to power pair for each outgoing set from panel using alarm battery and walk around until I find which pir 'flashes' it's LED at me, mark cable and do another one. If, as can be, there is no LED then put a ohm meter across alarm pair of circuit that you are checking and get 'assistant' to do walk test and note meter change.
I just did this for a local youth club and found after doing so that all worked out fine except the old bell box was incompatible with new panel!! In future will buy matching set of bell/panel!
good luck SPARX