Stitch two glass breaks together?

[Total nerd]

I have a kitchen with big casement Anderson's in two areas -- one on
the West wall and one on the North wall. I understand you need to
"point" a glass break acoustic sensor at the window, correct? That
means I need two, one pointing North and one pointing West. I also
have an English keypad with a 4-zone expander built into it next to the
kitchen door. Can I get two 2-wire acoustic sensors and daisy chain
them together like magnetic sensors, or does it not work like that?
And, can they be hooked into the zone expander in the napco keypad, or
do they need to be plugged into the panel?
On a related question -- how important is the acoustic sensor to be
poiting exactly at the window in question? I have another room with a
row of windows long enough to take up the whole 25' wall. If I point a
sensor directly at the wall, it will only really "point" to two of
them. If, however, I mount it on the same wall as the motion sensor,
it will "look down" the room, flanking all the windows. Will it still
work properly? Is it just a microphone and pointing it at a window is
not as impotant as it seems?
thanks

 

[Crash Gordon]

Depends on the acoustic glassbreak, some have to face the window, some
pickup in 360 degree pattern.

Yes you can series the relays (NOT the power) of glassbreaks, you won't know
which one tripped though unless they have a selectable latching jumper -
this is only important if you have falsing problems and need to know which
of the two is falsing.

I'm not that familiar with Napco panels but if the keypad power is the same
as the aux power terminals in the panel, you could run your glassbreaks off
of the keypad in the kitchen and the zone(s) off the keypad expansion loops
as well. (this should be verified with one of the Napco guys here first).

Two wire glassbreaks...usually piezo's or have small batteries in them and
have to attach to the glass...ie...they don't have the coverage that a
acoustic would.


|I have a kitchen with big casement Anderson's in two areas -- one on
| the West wall and one on the North wall. I understand you need to
| "point" a glass break acoustic sensor at the window, correct? That
| means I need two, one pointing North and one pointing West. I also
| have an English keypad with a 4-zone expander built into it next to the
| kitchen door. Can I get two 2-wire acoustic sensors and daisy chain
| them together like magnetic sensors, or does it not work like that?
| And, can they be hooked into the zone expander in the napco keypad, or
| do they need to be plugged into the panel?
| On a related question -- how important is the acoustic sensor to be
| poiting exactly at the window in question? I have another room with a
| row of windows long enough to take up the whole 25' wall. If I point a
| sensor directly at the wall, it will only really "point" to two of
| them. If, however, I mount it on the same wall as the motion sensor,
| it will "look down" the room, flanking all the windows. Will it still
| work properly? Is it just a microphone and pointing it at a window is
| not as impotant as it seems?
| thanks
|

 

[Jim]

I have a kitchen with big casement Anderson's in two areas -- one on
the West wall and one on the North wall. I understand you need to
"point" a glass break acoustic sensor at the window, correct? That
means I need two, one pointing North and one pointing West. I also
have an English keypad with a 4-zone expander built into it next to the
kitchen door. Can I get two 2-wire acoustic sensors and daisy chain
them together like magnetic sensors, or does it not work like that?
And, can they be hooked into the zone expander in the napco keypad, or
do they need to be plugged into the panel?
On a related question -- how important is the acoustic sensor to be
poiting exactly at the window in question? I have another room with a
row of windows long enough to take up the whole 25' wall. If I point a
sensor directly at the wall, it will only really "point" to two of
them. If, however, I mount it on the same wall as the motion sensor,
it will "look down" the room, flanking all the windows. Will it still
work properly? Is it just a microphone and pointing it at a window is
not as impotant as it seems?
thanks

There are audio glass break detectors that you can mount on the ceiling
that will cover an area of 60 feet in diameter or up to 30 feet if
mounted on a wall. See IEI's model 510.

As far as using the zones on the Napco keypad ..... no problem.
However, if you're going to use the power at the keypads for the Glass
break detector, it's not advised. The power for the keypads is not the
same as the Aux power output and if a short occurs, you'll disable the
keypads.
I guess, if you wanted to add an inline fuse holder off the keypad
voltage, it'd work, but you'd have to use a VERY small fuse, like
1/8amp, if there is such a thing. Also, keep in mind that each keypad
uses about a hundred mils when lit up, so you cant have a lot of
keypads. Each glass break detector uses about 30 mils. Putting two of
any kind of passive or active type sensor on one zone is not
recommended. Mainly because of the problems it causes when trying to
trouble shoot. If this is your own system, you may not care if it takes
you longer to find a problem. When you do this for a living, as we do,
finding the source of the problem, as quickly as possible is important.


If at all possible, run a new wire from the main panel for the glass
break detectors.

 

[Total nerd]

Thanks for the info. I have a few 2-wire Firewolf smokes strung
together and once one of them falsed on me. You're right, I didn't
know which one it was at the panel, it simply said Fire, but infact
these have a little red LED on the one that trips, so I saw it. I
think the problem is that I'm running out of zones at the panel. In
fact, I think I'm out now. So, that leaves me with the keypads. I
want to use them as much as possible... the nearby doors, windows, etc.
It would be great if they could also be used for the nearby
glassbreaks and motions too, but apparently you're saying that can't...
someone else responded to another post saying that the keypad's bus
power is the same as the aux power. Maybe I can run only power from
the panel and hookup the 2-wire zone contacts to the keypad only, just
like an un-powered door magnet. The keypad won't know the difference,
right?

 

[Jim]

Thanks for the info. I have a few 2-wire Firewolf smokes strung
together and once one of them falsed on me. You're right, I didn't
know which one it was at the panel, it simply said Fire, but infact
these have a little red LED on the one that trips, so I saw it. I
think the problem is that I'm running out of zones at the panel. In
fact, I think I'm out now. So, that leaves me with the keypads. I
want to use them as much as possible... the nearby doors, windows, etc.
It would be great if they could also be used for the nearby
glassbreaks and motions too, but apparently you're saying that can't...
someone else responded to another post saying that the keypad's bus
power is the same as the aux power. Maybe I can run only power from
the panel and hookup the 2-wire zone contacts to the keypad only, just
like an un-powered door magnet. The keypad won't know the difference,
right?

Running power from the keypad sounds good. Another suggestion that (I
think) Crash made in another thread is to purchase a small 12volt
power supply and standby battery and mount it in a closet near the
keypad. It may prove to be the "easier" solution compared to running
wires from the main panel.