moving old Aritech keypad

merc3ps

Hi,

I am thinking about moving my 1999 Aritech alarm keypad from the front door location, to a back door location.

I have found a convenient location which will minimise the amount of holes I will have to place in walls etc.

What I want to do is....
- disconnect the alarm keypad at the front door
- disconnect the keypad wires at the alarm box
- fit the keypad in new location
- run new wires to the alarm box and reconnect

If I do this will I need to enter any special codes?

Thanks.

KoolKid

If you have the engineer code this would be helpful & prevent the alarm activating.
I would power down the panel by turning off the mains & then disconnecting the battery.
This will prevent the bell ringing inside . Have your new cable ran in first & this will minimise the time the system is powered down.(the external bell will ring when the system is powered down. The external bell will cut out after the power is restored or 20 minutes , whichever comes first)

merc3ps

So the process is:

- fit new wiring into place ready for hookup
- power off mains and remove battery
- alarm will sound outside for 20mins
- during this 20 mins, attach keypad and wires into alarm box
- power on mains, alarm will stop sounding

For the above I will not need any engineer codes, or any other settings to be changed?

Thanks for the clarfications... I don't want to make changes and cause hassle for myself/wife/neighbours!

KoolKid

That will work fine without engineer access.

altor

merc3ps wrote: »

Hi,

I am thinking about moving my 1999 Aritech alarm keypad from the front door location, to a back door location.

I have found a convenient location which will minimise the amount of holes I will have to place in walls etc.

What I want to do is....
- disconnect the alarm keypad at the front door
- disconnect the keypad wires at the alarm box
- fit the keypad in new location
- run new wires to the alarm box and reconnect

If I do this will I need to enter any special codes?

Thanks.

Is your back door set up as entry/exit. You will need engineer access to the panel to change the zone type or else without the engineer access you could find the cable used for this door and connect it on to the zone set up for entry/exit in the panel.

You should also check that your back door is not connected to any windows as these will also become entry/exit if you do change the zone type or connect it on to the entry/exit zone.

merc3ps

Good point, hadn't thought of that!

All the alarm cables in the house are white, except for my front door cable which is brown. I'm guessing purely because the door is wood.

If I find that the cable is brown all the way back to the box then is it as simple as finding the white cable coming from the the back door and attaching it to the same connectors as the brown cable? I haven't looked inside the alarm box... I'm assuming the cables are just held with screwed connectors of some kind.

In order to trace the white cable... would it be possible to just disconnect cables one by one in the box and then determine which one it is by opening the back door with the alarm set and not setting off the alarm?

Thanks!

altor

Your welcome,

If you open the back door and try set the alarm also it wont set and tell you what zone it is open. When you open the panel you will see a diagram on the inside of the lid. 6 zones so just connect it to the front door zone. If you need any more info let us know.

merc3ps

Hi,

I opened up my keypad and saw 4 cables.
I opened up my alarm box and can see RKP labelled and it goes into a Max 4 keypad setting, so I think I am OK there!

For the back door, I can see the cable (they are labelled and the zones written down).
The wires split up all over the place, it's a real rats nest. Basically they are all 6 wire but in most of them the blue and yellow seem to be dead ends.... or go into connector blocks and are wired up, sometimes blue and yellow mixing.

I am worried that if I take the back door cables it would be easy enough to just match it up to the existing colours, but do I run the risk of taking it out of a circuit or series? I mean, the cable has to go out the door, and then back again... what if I am only fixing one half of it?

Do you get what I mean?

Thanks.

merc3ps

Here's a bit more detail!

Block A)
Postion 1 Earth
Position 2-13 connectors

Expander Block)
Positions 1-8


Zone 1 Front Door
Into Block A Position 2 (Red), 3 (Black)
Into Expander Position 8 (Green)
White - deadend
Blue/Yellow into dead end? connector blocks

Zone 4 Back Downstairs (this probably cover 2 patio doors and 2 windows)
Into Block A 8 (red) 9 (Black)
White & Green missing from cable or cut short
Blue and Yellow into dead end? connector blocks
Red joins a black cable outside of the connectors
This black goes back into the wall on another cable marked Back Downstairs.

There are a few cables marked Bcak Downstairs.

I guess this is the circuit I am worried about.!

altor

Can you post a few picture of the sensor plus the inside wiring of the panel ?

merc3ps

It'll have to be another day. It's a rats nest anyway!
Thanks.

merc3ps

I don't think posting pictures is going to help. It really is a rats nest in there.

I think that there are 2 windows and 2 patio doors all in the zone "Back Downstairs". So obviously these 4 sets of cables need to join together before being connected into place.

Are there 4 components usually individually wired, or are they on a circuit?

I was thinking, that seeing as I am putting in new wires from the new keypad position on the back door... I could just put in a new wire from that back doro sensor too, and double it up with the front door wire, which is entry exit

2 questions arise:

1) If I disconnect the existing wire at the door sensor, but leave it all wired up at the box, will that cause problems?

2) Is the sensor for entry exit different, do I need to buy one, or is the wiring different in any way? Currently the front door has red/black being used, but it also has green being used. I guess the current back door sensor I have might have a 3rd setting I can hook green up to, and I can double up the green at the box, and this is the entry/exit reading?

Thanks, I appreciate all the advice. I would really like to be able to DIY this!

altor

If the back door sensor is on the same loop as the windows then running the cable if possible might be the easiest option if its a easy run. If there are 4 cables used in the sensors two are for alarm and two for tamper. Do you know if there are resistors used in the loop ?

merc3ps

The run is easy. I'm looking for the easiest option!

I don't know about resistors. I can see 2 connectors for Tamper Loop. And all the blues and yellows seem to be hooked into it in via connector blocks with crossed wires.

The door and frame have magnets. The magnet wire goes into a little box and then off into the wall.

There are 10 zones with the extended.
I can make sense of all of them.
And I can see 3 cables marked back downstairs and one unmarked, which might be the forth one (2 patio, 2 window).

Is this the final solution >>>>?
I guess I could unhook these 4 cables one by one and see which is the door I want. Then leave it unhooked at both ends... Then attach a new wire to the sensor and wire it up the same way as the front door it wired?

One thing I don't understand is why the front door current has blue/red going into Zone 1 and then a green going into half of zone 10. The other half of zone 10 is going to the panic button in the master bedroom.

Any clearer?

I feel I am very close and should perhaps just try something with cable lying on the floor and making sure I make note of what I disconnect as I go!!!

altor

That would be the best thing to do.
It sound like the cable for the front door also has a panic on the same cable. thats why it is going to another zone.

If the back door is linked to the window it is only a matter of joining the cable from the sensor together to continue the loop on to the windows. Run in the new cable for the back door and take one leg out of the zone in the panel, connect to one leg off the sensor, connect the other leg into the zone. The sensor should be already tampered so leave the other two cables connected in the sensor.

merc3ps

Haven't done anything yet.... but noticed that all the sensors have 2 wires going into the wall. I'm not sure what this is for unless there is a loop of some kind? There isn't a double up coming back into the alarm box. There is one cable with no identification... could it be just one cable running around all of them?

I need to sit down and draw a proper diagram of all the wires....

altor

merc3ps wrote: »

Haven't done anything yet.... but noticed that all the sensors have 2 wires going into the wall. I'm not sure what this is for unless there is a loop of some kind? There isn't a double up coming back into the alarm box. There is one cable with no identification... could it be just one cable running around all of them?

I need to sit down and draw a proper diagram of all the wires....

Thats correct, the windows are looped together. In a loop, you will have one end of the cable at the panel two parts at the windows or doors in the loop and the last window on the loop will have one cable also. This is the end of the cable.

altor

Do you know how many cores is in the cable on the loop ?

merc3ps

No I haven't looked but so far all the cables seems to be 6 core with 2 unused if necessary. I might take some time this weekend to draw it and open things up a bit. Most important step is to identify the specific cable for the back door.

Thanks!

altor

If you can trace the two unused cores back to the panel you could connect these to the sensor and connect it to the entry/exit zone in the panel. Another thing you could do is run in the new cable and connect it to the sensor and close off the original cable to the sensor at the back door.

merc3ps

Finally getting around to this.

First job was to map all the wires that were there and make up a nice spreadsheet for reference.

Next, I tried to isolate the specific back door, which was easy enough. In fact there are 2 sliding door at the back that can be used as back doors, and they were joined together into 1 zone.

So, I switched the back zone (4) with front door zone (1).. and lo and behold I now have entry/exit on the back doors, yippee!

My front door is now a non-entry zone. So, I took it out of zone 4 and put it back to zone 1, along with the back door.

This gave me an "open zone" error when setting the alarm... mentioning both the front and back zones as being open.

Is there an easy way around this?
Do I need to put something into Zone 4 so it is not blank? If so, what can I put in there? There are loads of green/white cables that are dead ends.

Or, do I have to move all the zones from 5-10 back to 4-9 and leave 10 blank? (or obviously just move zone 10 to 4?)

Thanks!

KoolKid

So is there nothing connected to zone 4? If thats the case wire a 4k7 resistor across that zone and/or program it unused in the engineer menu.
Is this a 10 zone CS450?
Either way any zone can be omitted. They don't have to be used in any sequence if thats what your asking.

merc3ps

Hi,

Yes it's a 10 zone CS450.

I don't have access to the engineer stuff. I guess I could pick up a resistor somewhere but TBH having the front door as non-entry/exit is OK with me.

I picked up my wire today to reroute the keypad, hopefully that will go ok!

Thanks!

altor

merc3ps wrote: »

Hi,

Yes it's a 10 zone CS450.

I don't have access to the engineer stuff. I guess I could pick up a resistor somewhere but TBH having the front door as non-entry/exit is OK with me.

I picked up my wire today to reroute the keypad, hopefully that will go ok!

Thanks!

You wont need the engineer code but will need to close off the zone if not used with a resistor. The same if you do join the zones together you will need to take a resistor out as the system will be reading double the value.

KoolKid

Actually, yes. You should now have a spare resistor(s).
Unless ofcourse 1 was programmed non-EOL.

merc3ps

Well I have decided to just swap Zone 1 and 4 so all is OK.

Good news! I have just moved the keypad to the back door, and wired it up and it all works! Yippee. Mission accomplished.

All that remains is to put up some coving in the room, which will also hide some of the newly routed wire.

Thanks for all your help.

KoolKid

Good stuff.
The coving is the bit I'd struggle with.:D

altor

merc3ps wrote: »

Well I have decided to just swap Zone 1 and 4 so all is OK.

Good news! I have just moved the keypad to the back door, and wired it up and it all works! Yippee. Mission accomplished.

All that remains is to put up some coving in the room, which will also hide some of the newly routed wire.

Thanks for all your help.

Good to see you have it all working now. All easy when you know how