Very Odd Alarm Faults

[securespark]

Had a couple of BA faults I've been called out to recently.

First one was the external sounder intermittently ringing. No inkling of anything wrong from the RKP.

Searched & searched, and eventually found a short induced by an ill-placed steel staple in a 12 core cable.

It was shorting together the 0v of the 13v output and the B terminal of the SCB......

Never seen that before!, Nor for that matter the next one.....

Got a call to a house where the guy had fitted a phone extension in the boxroom.

Complained that when he lifted the receiver, the external sounder of his BA went off and would not shut up.

I'll let you guess what he had done before I come back with the correct answer.....!!

 

[andy]

Complained that when he lifted the receiver, the external sounder of his BA went off and would not shut up.

I'll let you guess what he had done before I come back with the correct answer.....!!

wired the phone into the alarm cable?

 

[securespark]

Good, good. But you need to be a bit more specific...

 

[sparxfly]

mmmm better not answer the phone then.............
closed circuit when phone was on receiver and open circuit when he picked it up ..............lol

think i done that as a foreigner.....( was in a rush )

 

[securespark]

No, you would have noticed the core colours were completely different.

Wouldn't you??????

 

[sparxfly]

very true, we would have known the correct cable but diy sparks dont.
mmmmmmm...................................
long shot but did he clip phone cable along side alarm cable and pin or staple went through both cables ?????
know its a long shot but dont deal wit many alarms they are a pain in the arse.

 

[securespark]

OK, I can't keep it in much longer (as Bill Clinton said to Monica Lewinsky).

He had miraculously found a small loop of cable feeding the bellbox, and wired the phone socket using a master socket on terminals D & B in the bellbox wiring for terms 2 & 5 in the socket.

Of course, he didn't need to connect term 3 in the socket because being a master, it rings without. But I wouldn't like to be the neighbours when a call comes in!!

The hilarious thing was, because the IDC termination tool he had did not work with stranded BA cable, he had forced the conductors in with a large flat-bladed driver, not stopping to wonder (i) why the cable didn't fit or (ii) why the colour coding was different to 3 pair telecom cable...

When he plugged the phone in and lifted the receiver, the panel fuse for the bellbox blew. I'm surprised it didn't do any more damage....I wonder what the dialling tone sounded like?

Well, in all my 17 years as a spark (nearly 10 s/e) I've never seen either of these bizarre scenarios before.

Anyone else seen anything equally strange?

 

[Lectrician]

Seen some one fit an extension, got dial tone, could ring out, but no incoming calls. I went to look for dropped term3.

He had actually managed to take his extension from a sable in a crawl space which fed the appartment next door!! He had also used terminal blocks and tape - but thats another story!

 

[plugwash]

and what is wrong/unsafe about using terminal blocks/tape for phone wiring?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

The hilarious thing was, because the IDC termination tool he had did not work with stranded BA cable, he had forced the conductors in with a large flat-bladed driver, not stopping to wonder (i) why the cable didn't fit or (ii) why the colour coding was different to 3 pair telecom cable...

Were you able to remain professional, and straightfaced, or did you burst out laughing and say "You utter f**kwit"?

 

[securespark]

It smacks of amateur. You are required to fully enclose SELV connections which tape/blocks does not do in my opinion.

Also, you have a ready made solution for you in a telecom junction box: proper secure IDC terminals, and a cord grip.

Why fudge it?