Texecom installation - assistance/confirmation.

One Wireless External sounder occupies 1 wireless zone
Hard wired external sounders do not occupy any wireless zones.

If you live in a castle forget it as the wireless wont go through meter thick walls.
You end up using 8xp-w and have them more locally, there is more than one way to achieve the end goal.


The wireless expander is best if its in a central location

Now if I was looking at a job I would have a wireless panel with me to take some readings, I have an Agility 3 in a demo case for this purpose, I can demonstrate that alarm and do some readings relatively easily.

Modern new builds have hollow walls and they don't tend to be foil plasterboard so you get better distances on individual devices.

If you have an older house with proper solid walls then the signal wont travel as far.

It be foolish of me to try and guess if its suitable, I have no idea what the construction is like and have no readings to back anything up.

Think your biting off more than you can chew to be honest.

why not get some local companies to quote you, but it will be a fair few bob.

I know what you mean with biting off more than I can chew, though I find its the best way to learn sometimes.

Build is solid walls and distance from end to end of the house is a good 120ft.

There is wiring for one sounder and I could always pinch one of the upstairs cables that was destined for a wired pir, for the second sounder. Replacing the pir with a wireless.

I know it's not going to be a cheap project regardless of whether I diy or get an installer in. Im at around £1350 of parts so far, and I'm wondering if my time would bexpect better spent getting the cctv put back in (I took it all out while we had the builders in for a year). She who must be obeyed wants tone bring some of the valuables back home and won't do it until I've got both the alarm and cc tv sorted.

I was going to sort the heating system myself but decided against it in the end and there's an installer setting up evohome for me tomorrow. Lol.

I could give an alarm installer a head start and at least get all the cables that are in place tested and marked up. At present there are about 15 cables hanging out of the wall and it's anyone's guess where each one of them goes.

Had that much going on during our building work I stupidly forgot to label any cables up. Oh well a day with a cable tester beckons.

Used to it though, we bought an office building where the NHS kindly removed all patch panel numbering when theyleft and I had about 250 ports to sort out.

Any installers reading this thread that fancy this alarm project?

How many cables to loft ? How many pirs upstairs ?

Where you are based may help someone decide on that.

A rough plan diagram of what you want where, and where you have cables may help to work out a more workable solution for you.

Somethings are easier to visualise at the moment I am struggling to visualise the layout and construction of the building.

Apologies I didn't realise that my location isn't shown on my profile (that many forums it gets confusing)

I'm in the Chesterfield (north east derbyshire) area.

I'll get the pdf layouts of the house with proposed layout and all cable details (number in loft etc) posted up. I appreciate it's all a bit speculative without seeing this.

I'll try and get it sorted tomorrow. Thanks again for the help, it is appreciated.

make sure there is nothing showing your details.

Apologies for the delay, life got a bit busy!

Im starting to think that wireless and my home just aren't good friends! Myself and the heating installer spent an age trying to get the evohome to work properly and had to re site some of the receivers for the boiler and hot water. If honeywell employed the mesh technology, the install of that system would have been so much easier. Its not that the house is ridiculously large, more that it is spread out and has more solid walls than a modern home.

Anyway, heres the layouts. Ive decided against door contacts on the juliet doors on the first floor (playroom and master bedroom). As there are PIR cables to those rooms anyway.

I am uncertain whether there is a cable to the cinema room for an alarm sensor, so have put down for a provisional wireless sensor in that room.

Im thinking of mounting a panel in the garage, using the cable I have installed for one of the PIRs, then running a PIR off that panel. Also installing a third panel in the rear hallway, and wiring two of the PIRs into that, seeing as the cables all run back to that area.

Out of the two sensors on the landing, I think I may be better off removing the one on the left (as any intruder would be stuck to the bathroom, or would be entering through another alarmed zone first) and using this cable to go to one sounder on the front of the home. It may be that a second sounder on the rear could be wireless, as it would be much closer to the main box, sited in the rear hall downstairs.

All walls downstairs are solid, and other than the stud walls that create wardrobes or en suites, all upstairs walls are also solid.

I think the only "ask" of a wirless system may be the sensor in the cinema room, but if this can relay through the door sensor on the front of the house, it may work - thats if I havent run a cable there.

Thanks again for any thoughts or observations...

Ground floor:

First Floor:

Is upstairs all loft or is there flat roofs ? You could mount expander in loft and run bell box from expander plus will also free up cable for bellbox

Nice house, I would ask whats in the kitchen behind the proposed spot for the panel, as sparkymarka suggests there are ways of freeing things up.

Just have to keep in mind on what you want on the system hardwired and wireless. Theres a hand full of wireless devices near the main unit and one near the cinema.

The distance shouldn't be a major issue, depends on the construction for the signal worst case its a device or two somewhere between the wireless expander and the cinema pir for increased signal security.

where you have detectors back to don't use DT's as they will interfere, with each other.

Mark is a lot closer to you than me though if your looking for a pro to do the install.

out of interest whats the walls construction and what cables did you use 4,6,8 or 12 core?

Hi,

The solid walls downstairs are block, but not the light modern type, they're 1960s solid b*ggers.

The walls of the kitchen are all brick cavity walls (it was built out of the old garage and they just kept the double skin walls). So between back hallway and kitchen is cavity wall. Same between kitchen and family room.

This also follows upstairs, so wall between master bedroom and play room is also double skin cavity wall. Wall between playroom and cinema is cavity wall too, as is the wall between family room and garage.

I'm sure it will save a bit on heating bills, but it makes it a pig for wireless signals. Just noticed the evohome keeps losing one of the radiators in the cinema, first world problems eh?

If either of you fancies this project let me know. I've got more than enough on with the rest of the house, and a pro would have it sorted a lot quicker than me anyway.

Edited to add, cables are 8 core and it's all loft, no flat roof.

sparkymarka said:

Is upstairs all loft or is there flat roofs ? You could mount expander in loft and run bell box from expander plus will also free up cable for bellbox

Click to expand...

Is It possible to wire a sounder from a Texecom expander, I'm pondering adding an extra external sounder (an Odyssey X3) but have no way of getting the cable to the control panel but I do have access to an expansion unit in the loft, can this be done?

Yes it is on the 8XP, just have to be aware of available power.(may need a PSU if theres not enough power from the system as it is)

wire to Bell to output 1, strobe to output 2 of the expander and the tamper the Aux input, and power to the power terminals. Program up the expander outputs as bell sab, strobe and the aux input is programmed in the expander programming as bell tamper. You would use a zone to monitor the power faults if the bell is a grade 3 variant.

previous thread:

//www.diynot.com/diy/threads/setup-bell-box-for-another-are-using-op.424876/

secureiam said:

Yes it is on the 8XP, just have to be aware of available power.(may need a PSU if theres not enough power from the system as it is)

Click to expand...

cheers, yes thought about the power requirements after I'd posted, I have a Prem Elite 24 poly with a 1.5A PSU. The panel shows usage at the moment around 0.4A, I presume when the existing external siren sounds this will jump up?

I was thinking of the Grade 3 Odyssey X as it has 2 piezo's this is listed as using 600mA when active, that leaves 500mA for my existing siren, not sure what it is as it came with the house and was never replaced as it looked ok (it is reasonably modern, slim design, two flashing leds's) Do you think I'd be pushing it a bit with both sounders active and would blow the sounder fuse?

put your system into alarm, you have the app/ look at the system/Panel status you will see what it draws.

then you know how much its drawing in alarm, you can work it out but you have to do all your sums, so easier since its set up to test?

You can use low current mode, or the E version if your struggling for power, some bells use more than 500mA and others very little.