Specialist

Never seen them used as butt splices on alarm cables. They strip & twist the conductors together, put the twisted joint into one end of the butt connector then crimp as well. Wasn't talking about the national using butt splices, that was the Gel IDC crimps.

Al: I know what Gel crimps are for & no mate not IT, large national installer. Boxes of Gel crimps were what we had provided for repairing & extending alarm cables over several large sites where the cables had been vandalised and couldn't be replaced due to finished walls / floors & ceilings. Many of these were used, with as far as I know no adverse effects either in the short or long term. Not my preferred way of doing it but they do the job.

Hi: Look for closed end wire splices on eBay. Simple to install, just strip and twist then crimp on cap. That's it, job done. There are Small Tell filled (Waterproof) IDC connectors available, originally made for Telecom work & need a special crimping tool to do the job properly. Some people don't agree with using them for stranded wires, but we used to be supplied with big boxes of them and to be honest I've never had any problems with them. Again available along with the tool, via eBay at quite good prices. Have also seen a lot of jobs where the Red butt splice crimps have been used. Hope that helps: Andy

Just wondering if anyone uses them or has any info on quality ?

As has already been said, supervision loss is often due to faulty batteries in the detectors. If you disable alarm on supervision loss, how will you know when there's a problem ? and then what would be the point of having the alarm ?. How long has the system been installed and when were the batteries last changed ?, It might be a good idea to have the system checked by a competent engineer and all batteries tested / changed rather than mess about with it yourself.

Thanks to everyone who replied, much appreciated guys. Satsuma thanks for that, certainly has good reviews. Will grab a couple in the morning & see how they do on a nice Welsh stone wall.

Cheers guys: Just looked at Screwfix, don't normally use them but they're listing 10 x 1000mm for £9.99. Will pop in tomorrow & see what they're like.

Thanks guys, Local CEF quoted me £52 for a 10 X 1000mm and TLC £40 after discount. Unfortunately a large proportion of the properties in Wales have 600mm+ thick stone walls, so drilling to get cables out for external Sounders & CCTV cameras needs the use of long bits & they don't last that long.

Hi guys: As title, I need some new long SDS bits at a reasonable price. Specifically 8mm X 800mm and 10mm X 1000mm, checked a couple of local suppliers but they're asking stupid money for them.

Hope that mains cable isn't still live, don't see a spur anywhere.

I normally keep 6 and 8 core, 6 for contacts & 8 for everything else.

Have to agree with SWB: it might be dearer than some but never had any problems with CQR cable & I like to fit once, not have to replace cheap cables.

If you didn't use the above option, then my best advice would be to contact your original installer and pay them to sort it out for you. The ion's are excellent but really not a DIY system and it may need to be powered down, defaulted and re-programmed.

When you say disconnected in engineer mode, do you mean you used the remove keypad option then powered down before removing the keypad ?

Hi & welcome.

Hi SWB: It's going to be down to his budget a lot and knowing him, it won't be large. At least with the panel and kit I was going to spec with an ACT1313 thrown in for good measure, he should be well covered and have peaceful nights.

Thanks for that, will give the Pyronix wireless stuff a look.

Have to be honest, if it had been my choice there wouldn't have been a cheap tat wireless system fitted in the first place. It's a small takeaway and during working hours the front and back doors are open constantly, so roughly 10 hours a day. You can imagine how well it goes through batteries, the other thing with the Prime is that the detector cases are really brittle and the securing tabs snap off easily.

Hi James: Sorry for the late reply, I missed your post. It's probably going to be replaced with a Castle Euro mini panel, Pyronix detectors & external sounder. It's a nice panel and so far I've never had any problems with them.

Well the LED street lighting outside this property has been reconnected for 4 days now and each night when the light is on, they have at least 1 false alarm normally 2 or 3. So out it comes, to be replaced with a nice wired alarm.

Oh Gawd, I'm back to being a Chimp . Fault finding was always my favourite part of the job rather than installation and I loved being on callout, go on tell me I'm weird . I don't sleep that much either anymore, last night was about 4 hours & night before 2 and a bit. Hope your young one is ok.

Oh dear lord no, wouldn't touch another 1 with a bargepole. It's a mates alarm that he bought as a kit, then realised he couldn't fit it. So roped me in for the price of a Chinese takeaway. To be fair apart from eating batteries, it's worked ok for just over 2 years. No mate: My normal kit would be DSC, Gardtec, Pyronix & Texecom.

Hey al: You having an early start this morning or a late finish from yesterday ? i.e On call ?

Welcome. Speak to your supplier about the missing parts, they should hopefully give you replacements.

Yes mate, they apparently pulled the fuse / breaker in the street lamp outside to see if the lamp was causing interference. Whatever they did it worked, since then he's had no falsies. Dreading it being made live again tomorrow, but if it starts up again then we'll know for sure and the bloody prime is getting ripped out.