M1DBH best practices....

[Del91574]

Punchdowns are designed for single use, maybe 1-2 times at best. Part of the reason why there's patch bays and in the telcom world, cross connects. Keystone jacks are throwaway items.

If you repunch, then the terminals aren't making as tight of a connection as they could be, so I think it'd be worse and more likely to lead to intermittents.

 

[Photon]

Punchdowns are designed for single use, maybe 1-2 times at best. Part of the reason why there's patch bays and in the telcom world, cross connects. Keystone jacks are throwaway items.

If you repunch, then the terminals aren't making as tight of a connection as they could be, so I think it'd be worse and more likely to lead to intermittents.

66-blocks and 110-blocks have been used for cross-connects on business phone systems for decades. I worked in voice and data support for a Fortune 100 company which required regular moves, adds, and changes. Most of the offices used 110-blocks for the voice cross-connect field, while some of the older ones still used 66-blocks. If the correct punch down bit and the correct size wire is used, the terminals can be repunched many times and still maintain a "gas-tight" connection. The specs from Siemon and Lucent say so, although I don't remember the specified number of times a termination can be reused.

I agree that on a 110-block the C4 clip which secures the house pairs cannot be reused. The section of the 100-block is usually broken if the C-clip is removed. But I've only rarely had issues reusing the upper-level of the clips for the cross-connect wire pairs.

I used 66-blocks to terminate the house wiring for my Elk M1 system, and I have had to relocate just a few of the wires. No problems. A further advantage of the 66-blocks is that a bridge clip can be used to connect the house wiring side to the cross-connect side. The bridge clips can be removed and reinstalled for troubleshooting without having to disturb any of the wire terminations.

I agree with you, DEL, that there is no need to terminate the house wiring for the various zones in any kind of terminal strip or block; just run them to the M1 or the expander. I, however, am a hobbyist with an IT background. My installation was my learning experience with a lot of experimentation thrown in for good measure. There are a lot of features in my system that you, as an experienced security pro, would not consider using. However, I think my use of the 66-blocks does not compromise reliability.

 

[Del91574]

Photon, I can't say I agree or disagree with your methods on your particular install , based on what you stated. I can only state what I deal with in the trenches on a daily basis.

MAC's and telcom wiring on the surface seem similar to an alarm, however they are a completely different ballgame in my experience. Many telcom rooms, even well maintained systems, have ports and cabling that is simply abandoned because it doesn't work reliably. I can say I'm happy that I don't own or use a spudger.


I, personally, dread people using 66 or other blocks on alarms/panels, as I have had to work on way too many systems around here installed using them (old Westec specifically) and a few others that used 66 blocks to bring field wiring to and then tie every possible terminal the panel may have to them, with scant documentation of what is actually connected/used on both the field wiring ends and the same with the panel side. We also have a site that the orignal installers used Krone blocks on the access control system, and from my experience, these blocks add more complexity and honestly in our case, add up to be a huge failure point.

We've had a few of of our systems be looked at by Elk and featured by them in their training/application docs for features being used/integrated with, such as snowmelting for a driveway and one being used in a house with a guy that has Parkinson's.