Alarm help

GristlyEnd

Have fitted an alarm in the house which was prewired. Seems to be working but some of the contacts when open are not showing up on the walk test.

Here's an example of how I have wired the shock sensors and door contacts.

Living Room : Shock sensor on 2 windows
Red to 1 contact on shock sensor and black to 1 contact on reed. 1 wire from other contact on shock sensor to other reed.
Yellow & Blue to tamper's

Problem: Last sensor on the circuit will trigger when I open the window, the other window will not. This window has the wire coming to it from the window that works and then the wire back to the panel. I wired it as above but putting the 2 reds together, likewise the black.

Have I wired it correctly?

The kitchen is the same except it has a 1 door contact and a shock sensor on the window.

tapest

DarrenG wrote:

Have fitted an alarm in the house which was prewired. Seems to be working but some of the contacts when open are not showing up on the walk test.

Here's an example of how I have wired the shock sensors and door contacts.

Living Room : Shock sensor on 2 windows
Red to 1 contact on shock sensor and black to 1 contact on reed. 1 wire from other contact on shock sensor to other reed.
Yellow & Blue to tamper's

Problem: Last sensor on the circuit will trigger when I open the window, the other window will not. This window has the wire coming to it from the window that works and then the wire back to the panel. I wired it as above but putting the 2 reds together, likewise the black.


Have I wired it correctly?

The kitchen is the same except it has a 1 door contact and a shock sensor on the window.

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Can't follow you wiring description, but probabilitly is you wired some sensors "parallel" and not "in series" as it should be. This would explain last sensor working
t

GristlyEnd

I thought about it last night and came to the same conclusion. How do you wire them in series?

Lex Luthor

for example, you bring a pair of wires to the first sensor, one black one red. Also, you bring a 2nd pair of wires from that sensor to teh next, one red one black. Connect the 2 blacks together, connect the 2 reds to the terminals in the first sensor....so on & so on. on the last sensor you just have one pair and they connect to both terminals.

GristlyEnd

Thanks Lex

Still trying to get my head around this. When you say connect the 2 blacks together do you mean in the sensor or just free?

tapest

DarrenG wrote:

Thanks Lex

Still trying to get my head around this. When you say connect the 2 blacks together do you mean in the sensor or just free?

he means connect black to free / spare screw, placed there for your convenience only,
In other words, 12volts down red wire to contact point on first sensor, 12V back out to next sensor on red wire, and so on, current travelling back to alarm panel on black wire, for convenience joined together at each sensor. NOTE some sensors have 2 "switches" one for shock sensor and one for opening contact. these must be in series also
any clearer??
If stepping on your toes Lex apologies

t

Stoner

I agree with all, it's the most common mess up to make, join the club really, usually sparks make these errors as most of the stuff they hook up is in parallel. If you have PIR movement detectors , it is not usually a good idea to approach them the same way, a direct cable back to the panel per PIR is usually best. As I advised here before, try to get it commissioned or checked by a decent company, it is usually the best way and they will maintain it once a year or so, Nothing worse then a dodgy alarm, or one that wont work. You could just tell em you just moved in and you wanted to get it sorted out.

GristlyEnd

I think I understand now. When I get home I'll take some pics of the sensors and panel and post them up.

Lex Luthor

tapest wrote:

he means connect black to free / spare screw, placed there for your convenience only,
In other words, 12volts down red wire to contact point on first sensor, 12V back out to next sensor on red wire, and so on, current travelling back to alarm panel on black wire, for convenience joined together at each sensor. NOTE some sensors have 2 "switches" one for shock sensor and one for opening contact. these must be in series also
any clearer??
If stepping on your toes Lex apologies

t

not at all tapest....just as I would have explained.

when I wire alarms, (only done 2), I would check my wiring is correct first before hooking into the panel. I would connect the 2 wires back at the panel for that loop to a multimeter set for audible continuity checking. Then you can walk around the house and open close each window/door and hear whats happening.

tapest

Lex Luthor wrote:

not at all tapest....just as I would have explained.

when I wire alarms, (only done 2), I would check my wiring is correct first before hooking into the panel. I would connect the 2 wires back at the panel for that loop to a multimeter set for audible continuity checking. Then you can walk around the house and open close each window/door and hear whats happening.

I check after each ope is wired up. fault found immediately if exists....I suppose that makes us amateurs . I never had an unexplained alarm activation, and it always worked when needed and I wire tamper up to actual contact / sensor, not just main loops. ..maybe not experts, maybe not too amateurish...lol
t

GristlyEnd

Thanks for the help everyone

When I got home yesterday it all made sense looking at the sensors again. Everything is working fine now. Will probably get someone to give it the once over. Don't want the neighbours complaining about false alarms.