arfur mo

the ist alarms i worked were all oc button contacts in the hinged side of the door, no anti tamper and no limit to numbers of them or pad's either. the times i have spent on tracing the foil type pads where someone dropped a dressmakers pin or needle which then penetrated the sleeve and shorted the plates. the hoover would reposition them too, once the plastic went brittle. i made a 'crasher' which was initially a simple monastable designed and used for intermittent loop testing, i then modified it to pick up fast shorts on o/c's. i'd attach it to the pair and walk into each room, jump in the air or stamp the floor. the bleep would sense and extend the signal of the short the client was also convinced, and could not the chair was not on the mat for instance, saved untold hours of carpet lifting, and seeing my 'mad genius act' they tended to sign on the dotted line no trouble regs alan

woa! there old hand, don't give away all our secrets - or they'll be putting external sirens up plumb next - OMG! you coulds start a rash! always loved the lazy gits who left the masking tape on the windows, and those who used permanant markers when setting out regs alan

blimey james, i thought i'd be the only one to remember using saddle (insulated) staples. companie's stopped using them in the '70s in favour of 1/2" galvenised. i always thought it was a backwards step . the 'logic' aplied being the insulated saddle could allow the cable to slip instead of break. the amount of earths, shorts and rots, thus false alarms that would have been avoided had we all stuck with saddled one's far outweighed this risk imo . BS.4737 then decided in its great wisdom we needed to use nylon insulated posts and screws for concealed anchors in stead of the 1/4" rubber gromet and 1 1/2" black japan screw . i know securitas used their T28 cable tackers for laced wire stapling - oh dear oh dear! regs alan

hi all, talking knockout rods i just remembered a customer when i was on Chubbs, she was a baraster, and only worked 6 months a year and travelled six months. she had every window on the house fitted with knock out rods so she could walk arround inside and be protected. the alarm was always armed, and about every 2 weeks she'd open a window and dislodge a bar calling the police. to stop here getting nasty letters from the CPO i said to remove the phone from the cradle within 30 seconds, so at least the 999 would be stopped and we did a dress rehearsal. next call for a reset, i asked did she take the phone off the hook? 'Yes' so the Police were not called 'er! yes they were'. baffled i check this old black phone (the one's with a chrome dial) no probs, so got her to demonstrate, she sets off the alarm rushes to the cupboard and lifts the receiver as planned - then plants here fingers on the wrest buttons banghead just glad i never needed her to defend me regs alan

Yer I'am forming a new firm called "retro alarms" it all tube & batten, cc wire & foil......... i Anybody know where I can get hold of mark II escort van some wooden ladders & a flared leg boiler suit? For the complete look? your not going back far enough, tube and batten is the modern version, it's tube and saddle frames using ebony coated coppr wire and insulated staples you really want for retro don't forget the kerry spring contacts and knock out bars either. as to clothes Chubbs issued its service enginners with blue plastic 'barbers' jackets, it got a bit saucy if you went into a gay persons flat i can tell you - backs to the wall and all that regs alan

on rely-a-bell and later Chubbs CA3 they called it a 'lockblock and coffin' design, same idea keyswitch, toggle switch and a reset button. house versions had an 'AGRO' buzzer, if you touched it while adjusting it would kick you across the room. the countless number of trainee's, and a few supervisors i 'got' that way - progress? where's all the fun gone if i had an intermittent on a laced wired circuit, i'd feed a spare agro buzzer via a 12 volt hpi battery, the induction would either weld the 'rot' or blow it apart. if at night or a basement and you were lucky you would see the spark, smoke or arcing from the fault. just some 'old skills' shown to me from my original service trainer - who needs these new fangled calibrated meters . regs alan

don't let us forget Heathkit regs alan

well, well you not as old as we was reckoning, I was betting, your first 'un was made from War dept surplus relay's in a metal box the relays were the old post office tye, brown waxed paper and all the panels i admire most were made from box wood and brass shim, actually on site by rely-a-bell installation engineers. an absolute work of art and an example of workmanship and precission not seen today even on the best panels. some of the early stuff i serviced had been in place faultlesly for 40 years. regs alan

hi guys, my first panel was made an 'in house' breed by Gaurdal for Burgot Alarms, 2 zones 'feed & return' in metal case, and the lid door secured by a wardrobe lock and key. it had a large rotary switch for 'Off - Test - On' and 2 toggle switches to isolate the zones for 'part set'. an upgrade was zone lights (now ain't that cutting edge stuff or what?) best bit was they fitted a switch on the control lid door, no not as a tamper but for if the door was open it isolated the 999 trigger. the thinking was that if a fault existed and the client did not test before moving the rotary switch to 'ON' it prevented a false alarm - problem was if they left the lid door open by mistake the police never got called anyway happy days regs alan