Alarm Wiring Questions

[Warez]

I've been considering running wiring to each interior door. With the house being under construction though, the interior door frames don't get finished until after the drywall is done. I'm just not sure how to leave the wire so that whoever is installing the doorframes will know that he's supposed to put a hole in the frame and pull the wire through.


Another question...
Wiring for the alarm keypad... I saw it mentioned above to use 4-conductor wire. Elsewhere, I've read to use CAT5. Which is it? Is one better than the other for this purpose?

Thanks,
-Gabriel

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Warez:

The best thing to do is to run your wiring and put a "loop" at the stud where the hole entrance is to be placed. Refer to the attached picture below. You will see where the white wire is "looped", the hole drilled through the studs, and the wiring just poked through the hole.

You are correct that whoever mounts the window and door frames needs to "finish" drilling through this hole. They make some plugs that the wiring can then loop through and then installed in this hole until you are ready to mount your sensors.

If you can check your wiring and mount your sensors before the drywall is in place it will be a lot easier. Especially if your builder will be spraying that foam insulation around the window frames (very hard to pull the wiring out and then push the wiring back into the hole with the sensor while trying to manage the wiring's slack). If not its not the end of the world, just hope your drywall patching skills are up to the task.

As far as the keypad wiring goes, four conductor wiring is standard for motion sensors, glass break sensors, keypads, and smoke alarms. Running Cat5e would be a waste as you only need four conductors (two for 12 volt power, and two for the contact closure type signal from the sensor). I guess you could use the other four spare cables from the cat5e for something else but what are the chances that you could use this spare application from your security cable landing area?

If you think you need the extra wiring just run another Cat5e to those locations instead.

Regards,

BSR

 

[jlehnert]

WARNING! For many window manufacturers, drilling holes for the sensors will void the window warrenty. Check before you drill! The more sensible manufacturers will tell you the correct location to install the sensor and magnet.

RE: How to leave the wires. Best approach is to install the contacts now (if possible). Solves all the "hook, pull, and insert" problems.

Warning#2 If you are going to be using the burglar alarm as a fire alarm also (IOW you are hooking smoke detectors to the system), you need to use Firewire between the critical components. Fire wire is a red, 4 wire cable, type FPL or FPLR, that is more fire resistant than the normal in-wall cables It should be used on all the smoke detector runs, the wire to the siren/horn, and from the panel to the keypads.

 

[electron]

that's some great info jlehnert!

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

I also know of someone else who is writting a HomeSeer M1 plug-in.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

I also know of someone else who is writting a HomeSeer M1 plug-in.

And that would be ...??