Garage security

I've just got round to playing with our burglar alarm[1], only 8 months
after moving in :-| I had assumed that the wireless PIR in the garage
and the wireless key fob were for the house alarm, but in fact it seems
that the previous owners left us the key fob and wireless PIR and for
some reason took the main alarm part with them. There are even 4 rawl
plugs in the garage wall the approximate shape of an alarm unit.

Anyway.. wireless garage alarms seem cheap as chips - are they any good?
I'm also looking at Almax chains and a ground anchor but I'm not sure
2.5m of chain is enough to go through two bikes and an anchor, it's also
a LOT more than the alarm, but I'd like not to be using my cheapo chain.

Suggestions for a detached double garage with a single up and over door?


[1] Had to fit a new PIR in one room for it all to work.

 

Can you just wire a pir in the garage, run it to the main alarm as a
separate zone?

 

Not easily, as the garage is detached I'd have to go under a path, and
also the alarm was fitted when the house was built, so all the wiring is
in plastered channels. Also, the alarm unit in the house has all the
available zones in use.

 

You can get seperate 'add on' wireless alarm systems that can easily
be interfaced with existing units or better still buy a new unit ,
they are not that expensive these days and are really easy to install.

 

The add-on might be worth a look but my google mojo has deserted me, if
it needs a spare zone then it's no use anyway, and I don't want to
connect to an existing one as I'd like the alarm on all the time I'm not
in the garage.

I don't fancy a new unit, it's a 6 core system and after posting a pic
to an alarm forum they were a bit concerned that it wasn't wired
properly, and also not using the correct colours, so I'll be leaving
that alone while it's working. 6 core system with 6 PIRs and one door
sensor gives me 42 wires to **** up at the unit and that's probably 40
too many for me to DIY.

 

Can't help on the alarm, but for the garage door, how about one of
these bollards that can be raised and locked in position and drop
flush with the floor for access? Mounted sufficiently close, they will
do the job.

2 placed towards the corners would be better, unless you have a door
that has 4 locking points, as a favourite way in is to "peel back" a
corner.

 

When I was fitting and servicing alarms I was taught that there was no
such thing as 'correct colours' as it added to the security to keep
changing them.

Pah, kid's stuff; wait till you get a big FO B&Q to wire up with the
thick end of 40 PIRs and all the door contacts, 24 hour fire doors and
stuff. A 60 zone panel might just about cope.

 

You must have been out of the loop sometime , nobody installs alarm
systems in that manner anymore .

Even systems as big as BQ might have installed often only have a
dozen wires comming into the boards , often less .

The wonders of modern technology , mean the trigger points (pirs
contactors , smoke alarms ) will send a data signal as apposed to the
conventional methods of putting the system into alarm state

 

I know, I ripped a fair few of them out over the years.

 

I've been 'out of the loop' for over 8 years now (since I decided to
drive trains for a living) but even before I went, multiplexed systems
were the way to go and I've dealt with a few good sized ones of those.
I didn't say that I might install the system described above today
though.

The first decent sized system I installed (must be 20 or more years ago
now) was of the old fashioned type and had around 60 circuits all wired
back direct to the panel via 10 and 15 pair cables.

My system here is a 60 zone multiplexed system with about 9 live
circuits on it (well, you have to take what you can get!) and is as
distributed as they come.

 

Spagetti city , seen many of them in some of the older shopping
complexes , the alarm engineers used to love the call outs on them

 

Oh yes, they weren't that much fun to install either.

I loved it when multiplexed systems came along. Odd now that the
Scantronic 9500 seemed such a high tech thing at the time too.

 

All we need now is a revolution in data cables and life will become
simple again , or possibly data engineers that realise that there is
no need to run individual cables for each unit