You always think you've seen it all

[Jim Davis <alarminex@xxxxxxx>]

One of my customers moved to a house that already had an alarm system insta=
lled. Vista 20 panel with a zone expander, two keypads and get this...=E2=
=80=A6

10 motion detectors and 9 audio glass break detectors. Two out of three doo=
rs have hard wired contacts. The third door has no contact (depends on moti=
on detector for detection). No windows have contacts.
The motions detectors and the glass break detectors are located in the corn=
er of each room BUT =E2=80=A6.. they are mounted side by side on the flat s=
urface of the wall in the corner. In other words, the motion detector only =
covers half the room and the glass break detectors don't face the windows.

But, get this =E2=80=A6.. there was an addition put on the house. So the l0=
th motion detector is mounted in the dirt floor three foot high crawl space=
 under the addition that is separated from the original basement by the old=
 foundation wall that has two basement windows as access. I guess because t=
he crawl space has an outside entrance. however, the two basement windows a=
re covered by a motion detector and a glass break detector located in the f=
inished basement.=20

There are three self contained 30 watt sirens in each of 3 attic vents powe=
red with an auxiliary power supply through a relay and the power supply als=
o powers all the glass breaks and motion detectors. No aux power is drawn f=
rom the panel. I'm guessing they did it that way because they had a problem=
 sharing the power with the panel because they didn't know that you had to =
have a common ground between the supplies and they couldn't get it to work =
right. =20

There's also a smoke detector in the boiler room.

So =E2=80=A6=E2=80=A6. fix that =E2=80=A6.. why doncha!

I'm guessing that this is a perfect example of a DIY project.=20

Ya just don't know =E2=80=A6=E2=80=A6=E2=80=A6=E2=80=A6. what ya don't know=
.