Using one alarm to trigger another

Mr Gear · 16 Nov 2010

Hi

Hope someone can advise with this one ?

I fitted an alarm into the house a few years ago. The garage is attached to the house and the main garage door has a magnetic contact and a zone all to itself.

I now wish to separately alarm the garage, basically so the garage can be entered (and alarm unset / set again) without disturbance to the main house. Obviously if the garage alarm goes off I want anyone in the house to hear it though !

All straighforward so far. However... I don't wish to put up any more bellboxes.

It has been suggested to me that I could put a relay in the bell circuit of the garage alarm which would open the tamper circuit of the house alarm if triggered - therefore effectively both alarms go off.

Does this make sense to you experts, and if its feasible, could you recommend a suitable relay ?

Thanks

Alarm · 16 Nov 2010

What alarm panel do you have?

Adrian80 · 16 Nov 2010

Would it not be easier to add a second keypad to the alarm panel.

Slight problem is that when you set/unset the garage the house is set unset to.

If you live in a really dodgy area, and you want the house set, whilst working in the garage you could just exclude the garage zone.

2 keypads are pretty simple to wire, just daisy chain them together.

A

Mr Gear · 16 Nov 2010

Thanks for the replies so far,

the house panel is a Intellisense / Honeywell 800L and was thinking of getting the same for the garage if only to act as a future 'spare' if necessary.

Another keypad would be possible but I presume the entry/exit tones would also sound on the 'house' keypad if using the garage - want to avoid that as could disturb anyone sleeping in the house if need to use the garage early morning for example.

Probably sounds a bit odd so I should explain that I want to allow someone access to the garage (only to park up, not anything dodgy!) at all hours but not to disturb us in the house...

Alarm · 16 Nov 2010

Would be better to get a newer panel with group/ward/area set. Use two keypads.
Each setting an independant group/ward/area.
Tones would only workon relevant keypad when setting and unsetting.
The bells would then ring if either were set.

Mr Gear · 16 Nov 2010

Thanks, off the top of your head can you name a suitable panel I can look at ?

It would be the neatest solution but I must admit I would have a couple of reservations about doing it - firstly disturbing an otherwise stable system (hope the install notes I made are sufficient to swap panels easily) and secondly when I now recall the cable run from the garage to the panel it'd be a nightmare !

Alarm · 16 Nov 2010

Most decent panels will do this.
I think a Texecom Premier or a Cooper M series would be the ones to look at. There are others but you will ( no disrespect) struggle to either programme or even get a installation manual for them.

Mr Gear · 16 Nov 2010

Thanks yet again, will do some research.

Out of interest though - or my fallback option - would that relay trick work ok or are there any major downsides I'm missing ???

Alarm · 16 Nov 2010

It sounds liek you only have one panel now, from reading what you have put.

Downside is if the garage goes off, it will disable the other one. For instance if your out and both? are set.

Mr Gear · 16 Nov 2010

Yes, currently only the one panel.

Not sure I follow what you mean by it would disable the other one ?

I thought that if the garage alarm went off and it opened the tamper on the house alarm, that would effectively set both off and could solve the problem ?

Would mean having to reset 2 panels but at least it would have served its purpose ? I think !!!!

Alarm · 16 Nov 2010

Your out, panel 1 house is set, panel 2 garage is set.

Garage is tripped, goes into alarm, triggers house alarm, garage rearms, house alarm now has a tamper fault and will not signal again.

You can do it if you like, just not a professional way of doing things.

Lectrician · 17 Nov 2010

Your out, your friend goes in the garage, forgets code and does a code tamper. Alarms go off.

Your friend finally manages to put the correct code in. The garage alarm stops..........The houses will not.

I would go the ward route.

Swapping panels is not too testing......

joe-90 · 17 Nov 2010

I've never tried this but in order for a sounder to sound it only needs the switched neg to switch to neg (0v). Does it really matter where that neg comes from?

If there is a wire from the house alarm that can switch to neg and a wire for the garage alarm that is wired to the same switched neg in the sounder - does the sounder care which one it is that switches to 0v during an activation? I would have thought not. So just wire an extra cable from your garage to the sounder.

Alarm · 17 Nov 2010

You would have to fit diodes just in case.
Can open up a can of worms, tried this yrs ago on two old Ademco panels with shared internal sounders.

As long as there is a 6 core to the garage use a menvier system and there are two zones and a speaker output on the keypad, should deal with the garage. Another 8 on the panel for the house.

Mr Gear · 17 Nov 2010

Alarm said:
Most decent panels will do this.
I think a Texecom Premier or a Cooper M series would be the ones to look at. There are others but you will ( no disrespect) struggle to either programme or even get a installation manual for them.

I understand the Texecom Premier 48 supports 'areas' - would this be suitable along with a couple of the basic keypads ???

And would this come complete with installation manual or am I going to struggle with that ?

Final question (for now !) is any recommendations for suppliers to private individuals ?

Cheers

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