Recomendations for External sensors

Carbon Fibre

Hi,


I have a Europlex Signet which supports wireless (Europlex and Visonic) and also hard wired zones. I would like to ask advice on external sensors to pickup movement around the house during the day and mainly at night. Happy to look at both wireless and hard wired external sensors but assume hard wired would be the cheaper option to purchase. I'd like to have the sensors located under the barge boards / soffits of the house if the range of the sensor would allow this.

Am I right in thinking that any manufacture hard wire sensors would work and I wouldn't need to stick with Siemens/Europlex/Visonic if using hard wired external sensors.

Any advice on brands and models would be appreciated.

Kind regards

Carbon Fibre

KoolKid

Are you wanting these as alarm sensors or to switch something?
Any sensors would work. With Signet you could also use cause and effect with multiple sensors to reduce false alarms.

Carbon Fibre

Hi Koolkid,

Thanks for responding. I'm looking for external alarm sensors so that they would report an alarm and then interact with the Signet's cause and effect to say report the alarm and then switch on some lights via X10.

Kind regards

Carbon Fibre

KoolKid

I use these for external lights.
http://www.gjd.co.uk/products/wired-detectors/elite/
The Give a negative trigger controlled by a photocell as well.
You can use a relay to trigger mains directly or to input into a zone & use all the cause 7 effect options.

Carbon Fibre

Many thanks KoolKid I'll download the details and take a closer look. I'd like to be able to turn on lights / lamps inside the house via the cause and effect through X10 or similar.

With regards to cause and effect on the Siemens / Signet control panels you mentioned in a previous posting of mine

"One note re X10 . :
Siemens are developing their own protocol to replace X10 . At some future software upgrade this will replace X10 on the Siemens panels. This will be an announced & you will have the option to upgrade or not."

is this available yet or should I look into standard X10 kit for now? I believe Siemens are behind something called Lightwaverf which looks good can the Siemens SPC / Signet panels interact with these?

http://www.lightwaverf.co.uk/?gclid=CMfkj_aikbcCFWbKtAodnUoAHQ

Kind regards

Carbon Fibre

KoolKid

I'm not sure what Siemens Protocol is. I know its going to be similar to X10 in utilizing signaling via existing mains cables. I also believe its going to be 2 way.
Whether you go with X10 now or wait is up to you. There will be no duel system available. If you upgrade to the newer system X10 will no longer work. Its going to be one or the other. If you stick with X10 you will not be able to implement any future firmware upgrades for Siemens SPC panels.

Carbon Fibre

Thanks KoolKid I think in the short term I'll see if I can pickup a few X10 items to run stand alone lamps etc until the Siemens protocol is available and then switch over to that as I'd like to keep up with the latest firmware revisions as they come out.

Any idea on what X10 device I need to plug into the Signet 220 control panel on the X10 port to signa the X10 devices?

Kind regards

Carbon Fibre

KoolKid

This is the unit you need. http://www.uk-automation.co.uk/products/X10-Computer-Interface-Serial-CM11-or-CM12.html
Specify RJ45 lead and not serial.

Carbon Fibre

Many thanks Koolkid,

I've now got a few X10 items to connect in and experiment with the cause and effect, also picked up a GJD Elite to use outside.

Many thanks

Carbon Fibre