Re: Bad Alarm Installation Pictures

["FIRETEK" <firetech(change-the-ch-to-k)@telus.net>]

I just happened across one the other day on a monitored fire alarm system.
Picture this:  a DSC 5010 control board mounted inside a PC-1000 box with
double sided tape.  The keypad is also located inside the same box (you got
it...  wedged between the cover and the pc board).

Regards,
Frank
(No, not that "Frank".  The other one.)

<emaillogins@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1146070276.152972.64790@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Hey All,
>
> 20 year alarm professional here. I am helping put together a low
> voltage course at an inner-city trade school that will include security
> / fire. I'm looking for pictures of bad installations. Nothing private
> labled, I don't want to harpoon any particular installation company.
> But we all know that even the best companies can hire bad installers.
>
> Wish I thought of this years ago. The stuff I've seen, and fired techs
> for.
>
> Looking for things like resistors in the control, improper color codes
> (wrong wires for pos & neg), non-fire wire for smokes, a rate of rise
> in the attic, crooked devices, smoke detector in the garage, bad cable
> runs, staples in the wires, using a T-18 on Coax, firewire running
> diagonally across the dining room ceiling...
>
> You get the idea. I've seen all of those, and many more.
>
> My fav was a service call because of no monitoring station response
> from an alarm.
> The phoneline was wired to the motion sensor. The phoneline never made
> it to the panel. 4 cond wire ran straight from the phone block to the
> PIR. Yet the monitoring station had a full set of signals on
> installation day.
> The tech (using that word lightly) probably sent the sigs from his
> house prior to install. I do not wish to speak evil of the dead, but
> Emergency Networks was the pioneer of "slap 'em in, and run like hell
> with the signed monitoring contract, and sell it to whoever is paying
> the most that day". Installers were paid piecework & commission. 4 one
> man installs in a day were not uncommon.
>
> Emergency Networks was the same company that pretty much bankrupted the
> Alert Center, with the volume of contracts they sold them, with very
> high attrition rate. No credit checks back then.
>
> Anyways, if someone could point me in the right direction for some
> really great pictures of horrible installs, it would be very much
> appreciated. Does not need to be limited to security, could be cable
> TV, satellite, anything low voltage.
>
> Thanks for your time,
> Bill
>