Newbie Questions

[DY444]

Hi all, new member here.

I’m just about to embark on a long overdue project to replace our 30 year old Castle Omega 5 system. After a lot of reading and research (including many helpful threads here), I’ve decided to go with a Texecom Premier Elite 24, Keypad with proximity tag reader and SmartCom. I’m also going to renew the PIRs, door switches and bellbox and add some additional PIRs for areas not currently covered.

I have a technical background and so I think I’ve grasped the essential principles of alarm systems in general but I do have a couple of initial questions (with no doubt more to follow) which I’m hoping the experts can assist me with.

1. I intend to re-use as much of the existing wiring as possible as it seems to be sound and will save a lot of work but the new panel is larger than the old one and so will have to be mounted in a slightly different place. This means the cables to the panel will have to be extended and the plan is to employ tamper fitted junction boxes to achieve this. I am unclear though as to what is considered best practice for monitoring the junction box tampers. It seems to me that each could be connected to their own zone, or they could be connected in series to a single zone, or connected in series to the “Aux/Fault” input. My working assumption is the “Aux/Fault” input?

2. If the “Aux/Fault” is triggered does that fire the alarm if it’s armed? I can’t find anything on this in the information I have but I assume it does (or can be configured so that it does).

3. If there’s a power failure then the SmartCom unit will be unable to communicate as the broadband router will be down. Would it be wise therefore to use a UPS on the router or am I just being paranoid? If not can anyone recommend a UPS to supply 12V DC with about a 2Ah rating?

Thanks in advance

 

[sparkymarka]

Or ....get a router that's 12 v and power from a alarm psu with a battery back up.

 

[DY444]

Or ....get a router that's 12 v and power from a alarm psu with a battery back up.

Thanks - the router I have is 12V so I'll look into that.

 

[converse]

Presumably the router's PSU is a mains power brick, or inline adapter - like most standard ones? If so, just use a normal small UPS and either make up a cable/extension lead with an IEC plug to run from the UPS output to a trailing socket/4-in-1 extension for the router; or you can buy consumer grade UPS units which supply mains sockets as their output rather than IEC sockets - APC make some of these.

 

[DY444]

Presumably the router's PSU is a mains power brick, or inline adapter - like most standard ones? If so, just use a normal small UPS and either make up a cable/extension lead with an IEC plug to run from the UPS output to a trailing socket/4-in-1 extension for the router; or you can buy consumer grade UPS units which supply mains sockets as their output rather than IEC sockets - APC make some of these.

Thanks. I'm going to go with a UPS that has a 12V DC output which I can plug direct into the router as a replacement for its stock power brick. Based on the current consumption of my router that should give me between 60 and 120 minutes backup.

 

[Nintendofan]

3. If there’s a power failure then the SmartCom unit will be unable to communicate as the broadband router will be down. Would it be wise therefore to use a UPS on the router or am I just being paranoid? If not can anyone recommend a UPS to supply 12V DC with about a 2Ah rating?

Do you get regular power outages? if not you'll probably find your broadband connection less reliable that your electricity supply.

Personally I'd spend the UPS money on a GSM dialler as a backup, something cheap like this https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/232463453900

 

[JohnD]

more reliable than GSM, the infernet, and your power supply, is a telephone landline.

 

[Nintendofan]

more reliable than GSM, the infernet, and your power supply, is a telephone landline.

That all depends on where the customers drop wire is located.