DSC Questions

I am now thinking of replacing my existing Honeywell Accenta/Optima alarm with a DSC alarm in order to facilitate better integration with Indigo.

I have been reading the DSC installation manual for the PC1864 and comparing that with my existing system. This in turn has posed a few questions:

Q1: My existing setup has two external bell boxes ( Reson 8 ) with strobe, alarm and tamper connections. The DSC board only looks like it has one bell output - how does one connect a tamper circuit and setup a strobe only circuit - is this possible?

Q2: My existing system has an internal sounder (loudspeaker) that sounds if the alarm goes off. I can't see any connection on the DSC board for this.

Q3: Can the DSC board be mounted horizontally rather than vertically in a cabinet?

I was hoping to just replace the existing alarm box with the DSC and reconnect the wiring for the motion detectors, bell boxes and internal loudspeaker. Obviously I would have to replace (and rewire?) the two existing keypads - looks like this may all be more problematic than I was hoping it would be?

Hi,

Q1. Not sure about this.

Q2. I'm [pretty sure you can connect an internal and external sounder to the same bell circuit, as long as the power output isn't exceeded. From the manual I found this:

"These terminals supply 700mA of current at 12VDC for commercial installations and 11.1-12.6VDC for residential installations (e.g. DSC SD-15 WULF). To comply with NFPA 72 Temporal Three Pattern requirements: Program [013] Opt [8] ON. Note that Steady, Pulsed alarms are also supported.
The Bell output is supervised and power limited by 2A PTC. If unused, connect a 1000 resistor across Bell+ and Bell- to prevent the panel from displaying a trouble. See [,][2]."

Q3. No. The cabinet doesn't have enough space to do this. Don't see why you can't use your own cabinet that allows you to do this.

I found that I had to trawl the Internet for various manuals to better understand the system. While it does come with one which is fairly comprehensive, I also found there were others online that helped fill in some of the blanks. I can email you some of the PDFs I found if you like to see if that helps answer some of your questions.

Simon

For the tamper, I just use another zone on the board and set its type to 24hr.

It's a while since I did mine but I agree with autolog about multiple sirens.

There are also 2 (4?) custom outputs - not sure if they could be used for the strobe output, and configured to operate upon alarm.

The PDFs are definitely variable. My favourite one is an A4 programming booklet - multiple A4 pages with all the settings and boxes for you to write what you've setup, instead of the big unwieldy fold-up sheet with just boxes and no explanation.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ps, no, there's nothing stopping you lying the cabinet horizontally if you so wish.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

For the tamper, I just use another zone on the board and set its type to 24hr.

That said you don't really need tamper if you're using DEOL resistors. I haven't bothered with them on my setup.. for one thing if a break of the tamper wire appeared anywhere in the chain it'd take you forever to work out where the problem is... and if you're like me and keep changing things it's just going to be a constant headache

Don't run a DSC panel, however will do my best to provide answers..

Q1) Probably need to run both Alarm Bell Boxes in SCB mode (as opposed to SAB). This will allow you to connect both outputs to the same connection on the panel, but won't cause massive current draw on activation as SCB uses internal Bell Box battery to power siren.

Q2) Be careful that the Internal sounder is not used for information tones such as exit delay - as connecting it to the Siren output might cause problems

Vangelis

For the tamper, I just use another zone on the board and set its type to 24hr.

That said you don't really need tamper if you're using DEOL resistors.

I'm not; I'm using SEOL, and on the wrong end at that! All my resistors are in the alarm cabinet just to get the damned thing working.

My old PIRs don't seem to work with DEOL or at the correct end, so I just made individual tamper lines using the existing 6pr wiring from the old system. I spent longer arguing with the resistors than the entire rest of the install/setup.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm not; I'm using SEOL, and on the wrong end at that! All my resistors are in the alarm cabinet just to get the damned thing working.

My old PIRs don't seem to work with DEOL or at the correct end, so I just made individual tamper lines using the existing 6pr wiring from the old system. I spent longer arguing with the resistors than the entire rest of the install/setup.

Ah fair enough... although again it'd seem most alarm installers don't usually bother with them these days even on SEOL at cabinet end for domestic installs. Atleast from the postings i saw on t'interwebs when i was researching it a couple of years ago. (PS Notice how i've added some of your local vocabularly so you can understand me better? aren't i so kind?)

You mean t'interweb? You've done well to remember that from whichever post I used it in


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A belated thanks for all the replies to my original questions

I am still mulling over whether to take the plunge on this and have got slightly sidetracked on other matters - I will revisit this in due course if I can't get my existing system to play ball