Hello from the free state of New Hampshire

[ramcewan]

Hi,
 
Just joined today.  I bought a new home recently that has multiple rooms with ceiling speakers and am researching how to control this setup as the prior owners left none of the controlling equipment. I've got an older HTPC (acer small form factor) that I can throw into the mix if it makes sense.  
 
I'm also interested in something to takeover the existing ADT home security system in the house.
 
My background is in IT and specifically data analytics for the last 20 years, from COBOL to Pig and Hadoop I've been playing with computers professionally since before right before Y2k. 
 
Flip side of this background is that the last thing I want to do when I get home is program... lol 
 
 

 

[pete_c]

Welcome to Cocoontech ramcewan!!!
 
I do not think you will have an issue checking out all of the wire runs.

Typical ADT will do maybe 3-4 zones looped (if old). I had contractor sub contract an alarm company for a new home build. They wired for everything ...all windows, PIRs, doors, Lanai, consoles....labeled all wires. The contractor also gave me a couple of days to prewire cat5e, speaker et al cabling. Everything went to a common closet in the middle of the house buried inside of the Laundry room.

I connected an OmniPro 2 panel to all of the prewires. Easy peasy stuff.
 
Take your time.  Read the forum.  There is a DIY guide for wiring your home.
 
Here utilize Russound distributed wired audio.  Oldie but goodie.  (16/4 and 16/2 plus catXX to each location - catxx utilized for local control - transitioned over from using a Leviton Digital Chopin system way long time ago). 
 
Conversion of your ADT system to a DIY system is easy.  Personally here prefer cabling up one zone or one sensor per set of wires and do not really utilize loops here for my Omni Pro 2 combo security automation panel.