I've been thinking about replacing the Optima XM panel which was already installed in my house when I bought it, about 6 years ago. I'd like to be able to have a couple of remote keypads, because the panel itself is installed in a cupboard, plus the panel is pretty old anyway.

I had a look at the installation manual for the Accenta/Optima G3, and the board and connections look very similar to the XM, so I was hoping I'd be able to do a straight swap.

However, I can't understand the way the board has been connected, and because of the inaccessibility of the wiring there's no way I can trace it - I think there are a load of cable connections hidden in a partition wall behind the panel.

The puzzling point is that the strobe -ve terminal has a connection to it, but not the strobe +ve, and also the T (Tamper return?) terminal of the bell box tamper terminals, but not the A terminal. I can't see how this would work, unless the wire connected to the T terminal is tied to 0v. I've never seen the strobe working, so wouldn't be surprised if it's not connected.

Anyway, my main question is - if I wired a new G3 panel in exactly the same way is there any reason to think that it wouldn't work? I've attached a picture of the board for clarity.

Does look a bit dodgy, looks as if the external sounder hasnt been connected right as I would have thought A is the switched output to activate the sounder, but its not connected! I assume behind the blue there's a T - for negative tamper return.

Has one of the wires come out? Does your external sounder work?

Yellow is switched neg to activate Strobe,

Red (+12v) Black (-ve switched) power... not sure why there's two black wires?

Blue is negative tamper retun - as Dave correctly pointed out this is actualy hold- (although dunno why they called it A?)

D

Edited May 21, 200422 yr by dale

"A" is the bellbox hold- Dale, the Bellbox isnt Tampered .. ?

And the Bell- is the Switched negative.

The strobe+ must be bridged to the bell+ (hold+) from inside the bellbox, as it looks like its only been fed with 4 core.

You would have thought they would standardise the letter codings for SCB connections. Texecom use ABCDS, Pyronix use BA, +BS-, BT, STB. Surely it would be better if they standardised it? Then it would save engineers havin to work it out, can be quite confusing with different manufacturers.

Dale

There doesn't appear to be any loose wires, and the external sounder does work. I've never seen the strobe work since we've been here.

I was expecting the T & A terminals to have to be connected together?

Edited May 22, 200422 yr by Nervous Amateur