Wired Recessed Door Sensors - How To Install

So I've scoured the boards and YouTube looking for a quick how-to install wired recessed door sensors but haven't seen anything noteworthy.  I'm going to purchase Tane pill's for the windows so I figured I'd just use the Tane door contacts.  BTW - these will be connected to an Elk M1 alarm panel.  Also, I believe all my doors are either wood or fiberglass.  Can someone please review and provide guidance:
 

• Run 22 gauge wire from alarm panel to each door location
• Drill 3/8" hole in both the door jamb and the door itself (lining up the holes).  What drill bit do you recommend when drilling through a fiberglass or wood door?
• Pull the wire through the jamb and connect the contact (or whatever it's called)...  this is where I get lost.  It looks as though the contacts have lead wires so do I just use electrical tape and wrap the contact leads to my 22/2 wire and then tuck the contact and wires back up through the door jamb?  What holds the contact inside the jamb?
• Insert a 3/8 magnetic (which I believe comes with the kit) in the door.

Do I connect the door contacts prior to the sheetrock going up?  If not what happens to the wire.
 
 
 
 

in short, as I am sure others will chime in.
1) yes on running the wire. you will need wire.
2) a forstener bit.
3) there are crimp connectors you should use. these are squeezed about both the leads from the sensor and the wire running back to your alarm control. some are filled with conductive jelly so as to be highly water resistant. NO on the tape idea. it will dry out.
3.1) pressure holds the contact inside the jamb. it should be a tight fit.
 
Wire it all up before the sheetrock. test after sheetrock goes up, as soon as possible, to see if the crazy sheetrock guys damaged your wires.

I recommend using sensors with screw terminals instead of cripm connectors or soldering or any type of splice. They are worth the little extra cost for the work that they will save you.
 
Mike.

Pull the wire through the jamb and connect the contact (or whatever it's called)...  this is where I get lost.  It looks as though the contacts have lead wires so do I just use electrical tape and wrap the contact leads to my 22/2 wire and then tuck the contact and wires back up through the door jamb?  What holds the contact inside the jamb?

Click to expand...

 
I have put them in the side, top and bottom of doors in my DIY stuff.  I had door frames that mostly glass and the floor was tile such the guru alarm cabling folks put the wires inside of the wood framing on the top.
 
I have soldered and used heat shrink tubing mostly on mine.  Typically you really never need to revisit it.  That said leave a tiny bit of slack in the 2/22 wire so you can revisit it should you need to sometime in the future.  The pigtails are a bit long anyways. 
 
There have been many discussions here relating to said endeavor and as mentioned you can do this 3 ways.
 
1 - soldering the connections
2 - crimping the wires
3 - using screw terminals
 
Here I made one mistake of some tight wiring and the door settled pulling the soldered cable apart very slowly and did cause me grief. 
 
Mike mentions screw terminals.  These are easier but over time you may need to check those little screws and once the switch has been put into place and settles it's a real PITA to remove. 
 
I have in place a few screw terminal switches in the garage and they have done OK so far over the last 12 years.  They are not really exposed to any sort of weather though.
 
In FL I had a few doors (also sliding glass doors) with metal frames going to cement.  The frames were hollow such that there was plenty of room for the slack in the cables.  Anything exposed to the salt air there has corroded over the last 15 years.  I replaced the neighbors alarm system and had to replace every switch in every door there which was more time consuming that the alarm panel installation.  Well also had to redo the micky mouse electric that was done.
 

BaduFamily said:

in short, as I am sure others will chime in.
1) yes on running the wire. you will need wire.
2) a forstener bit.
3) there are crimp connectors you should use. these are squeezed about both the leads from the sensor and the wire running back to your alarm control. some are filled with conductive jelly so as to be highly water resistant. NO on the tape idea. it will dry out.
3.1) pressure holds the contact inside the jamb. it should be a tight fit.
 
Wire it all up before the sheetrock. test after sheetrock goes up, as soon as possible, to see if the crazy sheetrock guys damaged your wires.

Click to expand...

 
Here's my $.02 after 20+ years.
 
2. Forstner bit would only be recommended for vinyl and still would require a lot of patience/practice. They'll tend to "burn" the wood and a finished sidewall/diameter or flat bottom is generally not needed and unnecessary. Actually, in the case of a press fit contact, it'll be worse if the sides are smooth.
3. The gel in the crimps is not conductive. Furthest from it. More of a no-ox gel that surrounds the splice. The connectors were intended to function as IDC connections and nothing else. The alarm industry adopted them to insulate a physical (twisted) connection. If you crimp them too hard/flat, the gel isn't going to make a difference in protecting the splice.
Tape can be used BUT you can't use the cheap stuff. Either super 33+ or 88. It shouldn't be used as the sole physical means of holding a junction together, only insulating.
3.1 (4) Too tight is a bad thing. There is a difference between the trade size and a numerical drill size. Trade size is what is needed. Too tight of a hole and as the lumber moves around with humidity changes, it'll crush the contact. That's a fun troubleshooting exercise to find and difficult to truly remedy after the fact.

I did my home with a 3/8 flex bit. What I did was use a small 3/8 spade bit to make a starter hole and then use my flex bit to finish all the way. One I would use (assuming you are drilling up into your attic) is to measure the tip of the drill bit touching the ceiling to the base of the drill bit where the hole was intiially drilled. On the base of the bit where where you measured put a piece of tape on it that way once the tape meets the hole you've drilled far enough. Also see if you can get some glow rods and tie your wiring off and push them up the hole.

Drilling up is reasonably easy, the art form is going from a side jamb down, especially using 3/8" contacts. If you're a novice and unsure, 3/4" recessed contacts in the jamb of the door can cover a multitude of sins. I wouldn't go up with 3/4" if you can help it.

Take a look at this photo:
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:882]
 
The problem I'm having is drilling a 3/8" through the top of the door jamb because if you notice in the photo there a huge gap between the jamb and studs (probably to accommodate sheetrock).  The studs are probably 1.5" - 2" further back then the front edge of the door jamb.  In other words if I center the door magnet in the middle of the door and run my sensor through the middle of my jamb the wire would be sticking out in front of the studs.

Can't see the picture so I can't offer anything more.

DELInstallations said:

Can't see the picture so I can't offer anything more.

Click to expand...

 
I put it on dropbox - hope this works:  https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/45585119/door.JPG

ccmichaelson said:

Take a look at this photo:
 
 
The problem I'm having is drilling a 3/8" through the top of the door jamb because if you notice in the photo there a huge gap between the jamb and studs (probably to accommodate sheetrock).  The studs are probably 1.5" - 2" further back then the front edge of the door jamb.  In other words if I center the door magnet in the middle of the door and run my sensor through the middle of my jamb the wire would be sticking out in front of the studs.

Click to expand...

 
The gap between the casing and the studs is purposely done - it's called the rough opening (for doors and windows). The manufacturer's specify a rough opening for doors and windows for builders. This allows the builders to use shims to level/plumb them. Do a Google search for "rough opening" and you'll get more than enough information...
 
Here are 3 images I put together to illustrate how I pulled 22/2 to a window sensor, and how it looked through the construction phases:

 
Here's a 3/8" hole in the top of a door casing, wired, where I mounted flush mount sensors:

Thx drvnbysound.  I've already pre-drilled all my windows (they were easy) but if I pre-drill my door through the center of my door jamb like your photo, my drill bit wouldn't even hit the stud pack above it because the door jamb sticks out about 2" in front of the stud pack. Take a close look at my photo link on dropbox.  https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/45585119/door.JPG

TWO INCHES proud of the studs?  How is the drywall expected to meet that jamb framing?
 
Most important thing to keep in mind is avoiding setting up wires that the other trades will wreck.  Drywallers are notorious for wrecking wiring.  Damned rotozips or hand saws jabbed into boxes.  Make sure your wires won't suffer from their laziness.

The answer here based on the picture is to drill the framing as normal (centered), then get the wire to the contact location. The wire only needs to get to the door contact location from the rough framing, it doesn't need to be a straight line.
 
I doubt the door is proud of the wall by 2". Maybe 1/2 or 3/4". If it was recessed, I would say they're going to wrap into the recess with either sheetrock or extension jambs.

Did you try to put it in the side?