Any way to temporarily disable smoke detectors on DSC PC1832?

[lewinr]

Hi, we have a 3-story home with a DSC security system with a PC1832 panel and PK5501 keypad, externally monitored and with a siren.

We’re planning a big Halloween party and I bought a fog machine for the first floor to use during the party.

I’ve read that these fog machines can set off the fire alarm and I think that’s likely because occasionally when we’re cooking the fire alarm can go off.

Is there any way to disable the smoke detectors for the time we are having the party?

Ideally I would like to disable just the one on the first (and maybe second) floor and then re-enable it when the party is finished.

I called the monitoring company to ask them how to do it and they said there is no way, I could only tell them that we are doing maintenance so that they will not call us if it goes off.

But this means the alarm will still trigger and the siren will sound, which is not ideal for our party.

I had an idea than I can just inform the monitoring company to ignore the fire alarm and disconnect the siren during the party (I’m good with electrical and electronics) but I wanted to check here first if there is a better solution….

Thanks

Ron

 

[amos]

can you bypass the zones using the keypad?

 

[Sandpiper]

You could disconnect the zone wiring (just the + terminal). That will cause a "trouble". Just acknowledge it and your good for probably 12 or 24 hours before another "trouble" activates. You might want to put your system on "test" when you do that.

 

[lewinr]

I'll try both, thanks for your advice! Now I just need to understand which zones the smoke alarms are connected to...

 

[RAL]

I don't recommend disabling the smokes, but an easy solution would be to encase them in a plastic bag. Do it at your own risk.

 

[Sandpiper]

I like the plastic bag idea, but isn't that still disabling it?

Another idea. Just unplug it at the detector end. Or if there is no connector, disconnect the red power wire. Again this will cause the "trouble" alarm. Placing the system on test while connecting and disconnecting is a good idea.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Isn't there some type of EOL resistor installed with these smoke detectors? Couldn't one just put the system in maintenance mode with the monitoring service, then disconnect one wire from the smoke detector's zone and place an equivalent resistor between that zone and ground, then place the system back in monitoring status? I guess you would also have to figure out if you had two or four wire devices.

Again, I'm not familiar with these Omni systems/smoke detector configurations, but this would possibly eliminate any trouble indications and prevent the alarms from going off.