Eircom BB with Phonewatch

Shanegggg

I have recently ordered broadband and have to get an engineer in to fix it. His coming on the 7th of June but just 2day i recieved the modem . I connected up and it worked.2mbits per secs . Does this mean i do not need to get an engineer out r should i stop using it cos it will mess up my phonewatch?

Robert

You nreed to fit a splitter to your line for Phone watch for the digital dialer in the alarm control panel the dialer will only dial on your line when your alarm goes off and will take over the line.

Stench Blossoms

Did they not tell you not to touch it?

There's a reason why you needed a engineer to fit it. If for some reason your house gets broken into and your alarm doesnt contact the guards or whatever its a bit pointless having a phone watch alarm then isnt it?

Solair

There's a device that phonewatch SHOULD have. It plugs into the RJ31X - RJ38X connector that they use.

http://www.excelsus-tech.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=products.ProductDetail&id=1749711

The RJ31X - RJ38X plug they use looks rather like an RJ45 plug that you'd find on the end of an ethernet patch cable. It's a standard US connector for security systems that need to sieze phonelines.

The eircom phonewatch system's made by ITI (now GE Interlogix) and follows normal US telephone wiring standards.

There's a phone jack of this type in the box located right over the alarm panel.
(be ware it's protected by a tamper sensor and if you attempt to open it the alarm will sound)

I can't understand why phonewatch can't get a few of these devices though they only cost a few quid. They should be installed on all of their alarms as standard considering that people might get DSL.


The video explains everything.

RJ31X wiring:



Perhaps someone should suggest it to them as it's an ideal sollution. Eircom's master socket filter with various loop backs is a workable sollution too but it's a bit of a mess of wiring in comparision. This device can simply be plugged into the alarm panel and your problem's solved!

This sollution's actually far more secure too as it still allows your alarm to fully sieze a line but your DSL signals will still pass through! Your phones will go dead though.

I assume, if you wanted to you could just buy it yourself and see if the installer would put it in.

There's a linked video on that site which litterally explains everything.

Shanegggg

Thanks for the advice.
So if i just connect when i'm in and diconnect it when i'm out it should be alright?

Shane O' Malley

Sorry but that will not work either.

The line is carrying the DSL signal now and as such the Alarm may not be able to send a signal down the line.

The engineer should have visited you before the line was enabled.

Solair

I really wouldn't worry too much about the phonewatch alarm not being able to dial out over a line with DSL turned on.

The system uses a very slow Bell 202 modem which is about as robust as they come. It would be able to dial out over a barbed wire fence never mind a phoneline with DSL on it. It can handle a lot of crackles, hisses, bad lines etc etc.

When it dials out it only sends about 1 line of data, so it doesn't need a very fast modem. It does however need to be reliable.

The problem is that in order for DSL to work reliably it needs to be connected directly to the phoneline. Your alarm sits between all of your phone sockets and the outside line so that it can sieze the connection when necessary.

If you install any sockets before the line you're comprimising the alarm system's ability to sieze a line. e.g. if the phone was taken off hook at any point before the alarm it couldn't clear the line down to dial out.

If your DSL signals are passing through the alarm, it may interfere with them and it may also cut you off should it decide to sieze the line to report back to the monitoring centre. It does this now and again to send back system messages about battery statuses, when there's been a recent power cut / phone line failure etc

The device I posted above can be installed before the alarm panel, by simply plugging it in to a socket and allows the alarm to function as normal while letting the high frequency DSL signals pass through.

Your alarm can still sieze the line, monitor the line for line cuts, etc etc.. and your DSL modem can operate over the top of it without any interference.

I don't understand why phonewatch don't just install these as standard on every system on the basis that DSL might be installed. They only cost about 20 quid!

Do a line test on the alarm panel if you're worried..

Press program, enter your password, go into the system test menu and do a "sensor phone test"

you'll need to bang a window or open a door to activate the test.

The alarm will sound for a few seconds and then connect to the monitoring centre.

You'll hear "Phone call OK" if the test sucessfully dials through.

The monitoring centre may phone you back, but more often than not they don't bother phoning back on alarm tests if they're busy dealing with real calls but the "Phone call OK" message means the modem sucessfully connected, did a handshake and sent data to its counterpart at the monitoring centre.

(That works for the first generation of Phonewatch panels anyway, I'm nots ure what the sequence of comands for the brand new ones are)

MarinoMark

Its all covered in detail here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=183353

Regards Mark