Re: Keeping up with Cables in new installation

[julian <julian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 8 Nov 2005 21:42:48 -0800, "Jim" <alarminex@xxxxxxx> wrote:

>
>bhnjr@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> I have a number of commercial jobs coming up. They are all new
>> construction.  It looks like most of the jobs will have about 15
>> detectors, several keypads, several sirens,  7-8 access control units,
>> and 7-8 electric locks, and a digital video recording system (10-12
>> cameras)..  There will also be magnetic locks on several outside doors,
>> that will be locally monitored.  In all, there will be somewhere around
>> 60 cable runs.  Now I know that there are many ways that an installer
>> can keep up with his cable runs, but I would just like to know how you
>> would keep up with your cable runs on a simular installation, when
>> working alone.  One other ingrediant; there will be about 3 months
>> between running the cables and final installation.  My mind does not
>> remember things too well these days.  Thank you.
>
>Something I used to do on big jobs was to make all motion detectors
>.....say tan wire.
>All door contacts brown wire. etc etc along with a number list or word
>tags or writing on wire. Makes it a lot easier to keep track of ,sort
>out and trace wires if necessary. How the wires are marked  would
>depend on the size of the job, and how many people were working on it
>or if I'm not going to be working on it at all and having a sub do the
>work. If you do the work, you're going to remember some of what you did
>and you should have developed some pattern to your wiring. If someone
>else is doing it, you'll want them to give you the most detail as they
>can. Written wire list take the most time and attention but is best.


Yes I agree with the wire colour idea. We use red for powered devices,
grey for phone, brown for doors, white for windows. We run 24/8, CAT3
wire to all keypads. Often the end of the keypad wire is run to the
adjacent door, thus saving a brown wire run, We use the brown pair of
the CAT3 for the door contact, duh! Siren, strobe get individual 18/2,
with 18/3 run for power. Ground wire is present if needed, but panels
are generally not grounded. Smoke and other supervisory devices get
grey wires as well.

Additionally we use standard wrap around wire markers and keep track
on a wirelist that is later tranferred to disk and accessible quickly
from the office or my home office (thank you PC Anywhere!).

On the wirelest itself is a breif description of the location of the
device. Keypads are above light switches unless otherwise noted and
when used, motion detectors are in corners, hidden. Glassbreak
detector locations vary so much due to different layouts, that there
is little standardization, but since I purchased a digital camera,
it's easy to relate the wirelist description with the picture, should
there be a problem locating a wire. Since DVDs are so cheap, it's no
big deal keeping lots of 1 -1.5 Mb pictures around. I have to go to
each site to check the prewire anyway, so it's a good use of my time.
I also take pictures of speaker prewires so it's easy to see the
speaker location after drywall.

Our alarm and audio prewires are buried and this takes the drywaller
out of the wire location equation. How many times have you cursed the
drywaller for pulling a wire out of the wall in the wrong place? That
won't happen anymore.

It is alot of work to keep accurate records, but it pays off in the
long run. I don't know about anyone else, but when I sell my accounts,
the paperwork and recording keeping will be hard to surpass. I've seen
some real poor recording keeping as I'm sure most of you have.

Anyone ever use the inside of the can as the 'wirelist'? I took over
an old PC1550 system this week that had this done. I wrote it down on
my blank wirelist sheet anyway.....

Just wondering.... is it ethical to keep records, i.e. files including
programming sheets and wirelests, of systems that are now monitored by
others?

Julian