Re: EOL's

["Al Colombo" <securitymission@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks, Frank.

I can assure you that Bass is not telling the truth on the issue.
including that of my work at SSI now or SDM before this.  He has no
idea about my background.  I think it's not that hard to tell a
"reporter" who writes about security from someone who's worked in the
field.  I've never elaborated much in the news group or in any of the
mags concerning my past.  Perhaps it's time to do that, not for Bass'
benefit, but so others know a little bit about where I come from.  This
will be one of the longer posts I've made on the news group, so please
forgive.

I had my own company from 1974 through 1986.  When I sold it, the name
of the firm was Alarm & Communications Co.  I specialized in apartment
security as I was a Nutone Independent Installing Dealer as well as a
Nutone Service Center. I also held a distributorship with tekTone and
Faraday.  I worked primarily with Napco burglar alarm systems in those
early days. In 1980 I studied and became a locksmith so I could offer
my retain clients not only a change of a 7- or 8-pin tubular lock, but
also a rekeying of their common mortise cylinder on their door(s) when
they got rid of an employee.  I also did residential locksmithing but I
did not do auto.

My forte ended up within the industrial fire suppression and detection
sectors as I worked for about 7 of those 12 years for a large fire
suppression company who worked three states.  I ended up selling my
company in 1986 to that firm and working for them for 3 1/2 years until
I took the full time position with SDM.

While I worked for that firm, I worked on burglar alarm systems (Napco
and Radionics), halon and co2 special hazard systems (Douglas
Randall/Kidde, Ansil), including common fire detection (Douglas
Randall/Kidde and Farada), in military computer rooms to large
industrial plants throughout Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
You can't help but pick up a thing or two with that kind of experience.
I also installed direct wire central station equipment in fire
departments, worked with direct circuit burglar alarms in
jewelry/retail and other high-risk apps, and I installed and repaired
the old Gamewell boxes and such that used McCullough loop receivers.

I re-entered the field in 2001 when I resigned from SDM.  I ended up
working at a large electrical firm where I establshed a low-voltage
company. We were in the black in about 2 years and three months.  I
resigned from there in the fall of 2004 when I signed on full time with
SSI.

To address the alarm problem/resistor issue itself, I don't even think
the original poster's problem was directly related to the EOL changing
it's resistance since he was referring to a burglar alarm system that
uses a closed loop.  I posted my thoughts on that as well.

As far as tolerance goes, there's not a lot to discuss, really.  If you
have a 1,000 ohm resistor and it has a 10% tolerance band, out of the
box it could be a anywhere from 900 to 1100 ohms in resistance.
Really, what else is there to say about tolerance?  But my point was
this, if you are dealing with a 20% tolerance resistor, and given time
with heat and humidity, or an induced high current from a nearby
lightning strike, the variance from the required ohmage can vary even
wider.  If you use a resistor with a tighter tolerance, say 10% or even
5%, you're to begin with closer to the ohmage you want so that a little
drift won't matter as much.

This was my point I was trying to get across in the begin with.
Thanks for letting me ramble on.



Al





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