Re: Alarming Antiquity

[Jim Davis <alarminex@xxxxxxx>]

On Friday, March 13, 2020 at 1:54:08 PM UTC-4, ABLE1 wrote:
> Hey Guys,
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> Just for a little extra humor, as if we haven't had any recently.
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> In the next few weeks I will be starting a project that
> involves working on a Dictograph G-1800 security panel.
> Don't know for sure but I believe it was installed in the
> mid 1950's.  It has a Ademco 694EN for communication.
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> Is set up with Key Switches for arming and disarming and
> has Ultrasonic Motion Detectors as well as Floor Mats under carpet.
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> Zone 1 has about 15 Windows and maybe 3 doors.
> Zone 5 has 18 Smokes and 11 Heat Detectors.
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> New owners what to upgrade.
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> The amazing thing is the system is monitored and fully operational!!
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> Thought I would throw this to the "Old Pharts" here just to get
> some memory juices flowing again.  LOL
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> This is going to keep me awake at night........................
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> So anyone here ever worked on a Dictograph G-1800 in the past??
> Or maybe have a install manual laying around collecting dust.
> I search Google & Ebay and nothing.
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> Thanks for holding back........  No, never mind....... Let'er rip!!
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> Les

That Dictograph has got to be the winner.

The best I can come up with is an Ademco 5600 wireless system with the "tun=
eable" door and window transmitters. It has a couple of smoke detectors wit=
h the little sliding battery drawer and there weren't any transmitter PIR's=
 back then so you had to purchase the Visonic 2000 series motion detectors =
with a special back box. Then you had to take a transmitter out of it's cas=
e and put it in the back box with it's own 9 volt battery and attach wires =
from the contacts on the motion detector through a hole in the back of the =
PIR to the input terminals of the transmitter. And the PIR had it's own 9 v=
olt batter in the front. All this had to be "stuffed" into the two boxes an=
d it was hell for the end user to change the batteries because they had to =
be double sided taped in order to stay put while you closed everything up.

This is the system with the ambush code that only require that the last num=
ber of the regular code be one digit higher. CONSTANT false alarms. It's go=
t a Napco 1465 (?) communicator and a remote panic button bigger than a pac=
k of cigarettes'=20

There was a "setup device" that you would hook up to the system that requir=
ed an FM radio tuned to a certain frequency that would allow you to hear a =
certain number of beeps on the radio to determine signal strength. If you w=
eren't getting a good enough signal from a transmitter you could "tune" the=
m with an adjustable capacitor on the PC board. I had a transmitter cover w=
ith a hole in it so I could stick the screwdriver through the cover to adju=
st the capacitor. I installed the system so long ago I've forgotten just ab=
out everything about it. And my Ademco chip programmer crapped out years ag=
o.

Every time I get a call (which isn't often) for service the hair on my arms=
 stands up. But I've been able to keep it going all these years. There's no=
 standby battery anymore. It was a 6 volt ni-cad battery shaped like a stic=
k of dynamite which I haven't been able to find anymore.=20