Hi guys, when i commission an intruder alarm i always take a closed loop cable resistance for every detector, but have been "advised"!!!?

By another engineer that he has spoken to inspectors who have told him that its fine to just record the zone, tamper res from the zone,ie whats shown on the keypad, i feel somones being a little idle, 

Would love to see your views on this,and if anyone else feels this is also ok,?

you installing double pole circuit ?

We twist the spare pair and take readings off that, never been pulled for it.

26 minutes ago, MrHappy said:

you installing double pole circuit ?

No, Eol, 

Was talking twisting spare pair, for closed loop

claim to take cable readings from the device, along with voltage,

 

& continue to fill them out on the drive home.....

The whole idea of meter readings is to check the the circuit is what its expected to be, so I would use a meter on the circuit. If its wired wrong or the wrong resistor has been used or there is short on the cable. You could meter a spare pair of wires but it wont pick up if you havent done the screws up on a door contact

50 minutes ago, MrHappy said:

claim to take cable readings from the device, along with voltage,

 

& continue to fill them out on the drive home.....

That's what subbies do to get paid for first fix

Technically you need to record the resistance of the circuit wiring. If eol that means without resistors etc and definitely not from the uncalibrated panel. 

Just as you need to do 70 on the motorway 

Resistance readings are pointless if your not testing only the pair without resistors. Double pole you would check through the sensor too but the values mean nothing if your measuring through EOL's.

What would be the point of having you meter calibrated if your taking reading from the panel. Who says the panel is accurate or will be accurate in the future.

9 hours ago, james.wilson said:

Technically you need to record the resistance of the circuit wiring. If eol that means without resistors etc

I heard that but, the whole point of meter readings is to spot if there is anything wrong with the installation, not just the cable. Testing with the resistors in-line will tell you there is something wrong in the same way that testing the cable will. Only it will also tell you; if you have a bad resistor, or if you have the resistors around the wrong way, or if a terminal is not done up tight enough. On top of that if you have a staple through the cable on the pair you have twisted together to meter you get a false reading. At the end of the day its about the working system imo, you trying to prevent having to come back the day after it was installed because its been going off all night.