Scantronic / Old System

[Spherehopper]

I'm a DIY installer just doing my own properties. I've installed three Veritas systems and decided I needed "something better" for the last house so went for the Premier. To be honest, as the pros here say, you need to know what you're doing. I found the Premier had a much steeper learning curve and most of the functions not applicable to a simple domestic install.

 

I've just moved house again and inherited a functioning Scantronic system but the house is about to undergo major renovation and rebuilding and was littered with remnants of at least two legacy systems and it was hard to know which cables were safe to cut. There were magnetic switches on every single door, PIRs in most rooms, pressure pads near several points of potential access and PAs in several places. Someone was keen to protect themselves.

 

I've done a factory reset, got myself an engineers code now, reconfigured the system and reinstated it. If I hadn't been able to work with the Scantronic 9752, I would have certainly bought another Veritas since I think the Premier is overkill for a simple domestic project.

 

The install of the original (1950's?) system was neat though, the cable sheaths were even stripped to pass every doorway so the cables wouldn't get trampled under the carpet.

 

The more recent (last two years) work was a lot more shoddy. A large local firm installed new pet friendly PIRs for previous owners. In testing/checking everything, I found two of them poorly mounted (single screw fixing), 10mm cable inlet holes drilled big enough for a tarantula to crawl into and wires trapped between case and lid on the PIR when it had been closed up after fitting.

 

 

Edited April 6, 2017 by datadiffusion
New thread created - please don't bump unrelated topics - thanks!

[datadiffusion]

Probably more 80s than 50s. And just as shoddy as the later work IMHO, no excuse for joints like this, or unsheathed cables running across open boards, ever. Junction boxes cost 80p.

Edited April 6, 2017 by datadiffusion

[Spherehopper]

3 hours ago, datadiffusion said:

Probably more 80s than 50s. And just as shoddy as the later work IMHO, no excuse for joints like this, or unsheathed cables running across open boards, ever. Junction boxes cost 80p.

 

I am surprised that the staples didn't end up breaking through and shorting out some cores. The previous owner had a history of spurious alarms looking through the invoice file. One particularly troublesome zone had been set (or left in) 00 (unused) after they had been billed for the installation of half a dozen new "pet friendly" PIRs. As far as I know, none of this older wiring was used in the current set up although there could have been hidden joints somewhere.

 

In any case, anything (phones/alarm) that was buried in walls/unknown routing etc was replaced when we had all the boards up hence discovering later poor workmanship as well.

 

The house was owned by same couple from the 1950s to mid 2000s so could have been a 1980s install as you say.

[goncall]

possibly an old pressure mat hence the joints when system was upgraded ,cable seems in good condition considering the age not rough at all was normal in those days 

[james.wilson]

agreed it was, I assume the white wires are going to something. they were soldered then

[norman]

Had an aquisition in my old patch that did loads of this, tbf they often spotted a 20mm hole in the boards and tucked it down there, every older system had loads of internal doors and mats usually on the 3rd step and near the lounge windows. Looked after loads of 20-25 year old (then) systems. 

[goncall]

Solder joints and sheath it's got a group 4 look about it

[james.wilson]

tube and wire was best but who would have it now?

[goncall]

3 minutes ago, james.wilson said:

tube and wire was best but who would have it now?

Snap wire over viper on fx? I'd say snap wire is fa free

[Spherehopper]

1 hour ago, james.wilson said:

I assume the white wires are going to something. they were soldered then

 

Yes, to magnetic door switches that were mounted about 2" off the ground on almost all internal doors. The doors with magnets in them long gone before I bought the house (and that's another story since they had ripped out old what must have been inch and 5/8ths thick doors (close to 44mm) and replaced them with nasty cheap 35mm pine doors that never fitted the frames properly. I have since replaced them with 35mm oak veneered doors and, not wanting to use fire doors everywhere, fitted a 9mm square section inside every frame so the doors meet up properly when closed.

 

Anyhow, back to alarms ...