Hi all, i am moving my internal alarm speaker in the upstairs landing, one thing that just occurred to me is that the speaker is driven by low voltage ac, what i would like to know is if the small ac voltage to drive the speaker is enough to interfere with other alarm cables on the system? I plan to run alarm cable from the panel to the new speaker location in the landing following the same route the rest of the alarm cables, my concern is one of the alarm cables upstairs supplies a keypad. The cable lengths from the alarm panel up to  the attic are 20-30m long. Am i worrying over nothing? Is this ac voltage enough to interfere with other devices or is it only mains voltage ac that is capable to cause problems if it is run too close to alarm cables? 

3 minutes ago, CR Alarms said:

Hi all, i am moving my internal alarm speaker in the upstairs landing, one thing that just occurred to me is that the speaker is driven by low voltage ac, what i would like to know is if the small ac voltage to drive the speaker is enough to interfere with other alarm cables on the system? I plan to run alarm cable from the panel to the new speaker location in the landing following the same route the rest of the alarm cables, my concern is one of the alarm cables upstairs supplies a keypad. The cable lengths from the alarm panel up to  the attic are 20-30m long. Am i worrying over nothing? Is this ac voltage enough to interfere with other devices or is it only mains voltage ac that is capable to cause problems if it is run too close to alarm cables? 

Just run the cable and go for it 

2 minutes ago, al-yeti said:

Just run the cable and go for it 

Thanks, i guess it's only mains voltage that you need to avoid near alarm cables which i definitely avoid.

11 minutes ago, Logan said:

Its usally pulsed DC not AC

 

Its reccomend to keep AC mains away from your alarm circuits

Listen man have fun trying to them away lol

Indeed. I know you shouldn't do it but the number of takeovers / upgrades* where I've had to run speaker connections within existing RKP or PIR lines = Many

Number of genuine real world issues I've ever had = None

 

*actually thinking about it, the most common scenario is builders pre-wires, where they don't put in a sounder line, needing it to be shared if the location of the CCU isn't all that,

not only that but it's often crappy CCA cable too, still no issues.

 

Edited February 9, 20206 yr by datadiffusion

It's not dc a speaker needs ac. I wouldn't by choice run speakers with anything else. Speakers and drivers can be very electrically noisy. 

You will probably get away with it but still

all speakers are ac ?

5 hours ago, MrHappy said:

all speakers are ac ?

Audio is ac , speakers AC 

 

 

7 hours ago, Logan said:

Its dc thats why theres a diode on the speaker output on panels on the PCB

Mr Logan how many diodes ?

This all depends on the panel circuit. Where a panel circuit is dedicated to a speaker connection, the design may be AC driven. Where it's a regular transistor based open collector output, with the option of being configured for regular or speaker output (like in the Galaxy G2 or Flex), the output is pulsed DC when in speaker mode. Pulsed DC isn't AC.

4 minutes ago, GalaxyGuy said:

This all depends on the panel circuit. Where a panel circuit is dedicated to a speaker connection, the design may be AC driven. Where it's a regular transistor based open collector output, with the option of being configured for regular or speaker output (like in the Galaxy G2 or Flex), the output is pulsed DC when in speaker mode. Pulsed DC isn't AC.

But audio is still ac