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  1. C

    Making a battery

    Yikes, you're right, duke. Tin, not zinc. Don't know what I was thinking. o_O Principle still applies to battery cells, though. Once the tin-not-zinc coating is breached, you have local action between the tin and steel that crashes the output of the battery. It does work well for a short time...
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    Making a battery

    First problem I see here is that the OP is posting from Serbia. I don't know how available or expensive a lot of this stuff is there. I think Eastern European countries don't have the throw-away culture we have here in North America, so all the soft drink bottles may be glass (deposit for the...
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    Run a submersible pump on battery ?

    Just had another thought: I didn't think about this earlier because I'm so used to using power supplies designed to connect to backup batteries that I didn't really think too much about using a battery trickle charger along with a backup battery--- How, exactly, would you hook it up to work...
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    Run a submersible pump on battery ?

    The alarm industry has used small 12VDC independent power supplies for a long time now. This model, the AD12612... http://www.shieldlab.com/forum/index.php?action=search2 is more than sufficient to handle your pump and comes with leads to attach to your 12V battery. Markets at this site for $20...
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    Need to turn on led for a few seconds than turn off and stay off

    An even simpler timer, for this type of application, is a large capacitor in parallel with a resistor. I have lots of capacitors lying about, so I just use trial-and-error, but if you don't have that kind of stock at hand, you may need to figure out the specs to see what size cap and resistor...
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    Hack Basement Watchdog Water Alarm

    Backporch, what's the manufacturer and model number of your home alarm control panel? The home alarm control panels I'm familiar with support environmental sensors like your water sensor without the need to hack them through a relay.
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    Need fundamental help understanding this circuit

    Some days I'm a little slower than other days. Just reviewed this thread and realized that I made an assumption I had reason to make: The simple zone loop circuit I described is standard in the USA, but in Europe (including the UK) and some other parts of the world, a "Double End-of-Line...
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    Honeywell Vista 20p Motion Sensors

    Good, glad I was able to help. It's a common question on DIY forums--that protocol has become a standard in the alarm industry now, and it's not intuitive for the new user. The Installation manuals don't stress things like that because Vista panels are professional-grade alarm equipment intended...
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    What to do with an old telephone ?

    Your question is a little ambiguous. Are you talking about what to do with the telephone(s?) instrument(s), or what to do with the landline cable running from your demarcation block (the "Demarc") to various points in your house? Or both?
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    Honeywell Vista 20p Motion Sensors

    Yes, the Vista-20P is what we in the alarm industry call the Control Panel. It operates a little differently from a Honeywell Vista-20SE, or a Vista-20. It's a lot different from a 4120, 4120XM, 4120XMPT and 4120XMPT-2; as well as the 4110, 4110DL, 4110XM, 4130 & 4130XM, 4140, 4140XM, 4140XMPT...
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    Honeywell Vista 20p Motion Sensors

    The 6160 or 6164 Custom Alpha keypad is the Keypad, not the control panel. The control panel lives in the metal cabinet. Whichever it is--I'd like to know out of curiosity--but all contemporary Honeywell/Ademco panels behave the same on this protocol: The usual cause for your symptom is that...
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    Need fundamental help understanding this circuit

    Hi, oodly, welcome to the forum. I just tonight stumbled across this thread by accident. I don't check the forum every day, but when I do, I look for questions pertaining to alarm systems in the thread titles. Which is to say that I don't usually look at the first post of every one of the dozens...
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    Rat Zapper Power Supply

    Just for anyone who would like to replace a 6VDC battery (such as 4 "D" cells) with a well regulated 6VDC plug-in power supply: I have a stash of old 6V DC power supply PCBs from the early 80's alarm industry--analog components, very reliable, that have been "mothballed" for ~30 years. Their...
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    DSC 1832 - self monitoring call out # causes communications trouble

    Pete, if you're still watching this thread, post back and let me know. I looked around and found a possible fix for your situation.
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    Can't Dial into my Vista 20p panel w_Compass

    It's been over 10 years since I worked with Compass to download panel programs, but you can probably find someone here to advise you: http://www.shieldlab.com/forum/ It's a DIY forum for alarm systems. Lots of expertise there. Post on the Honeywell / Ademco Tech Support section. I assume you...
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    Burglar alarm - Can it be done ?

    Gyrd, I wouldn't recommend it. Home alarm systems and car alarm systems are different animals, and not well-suited to each other's applications. One obvious difference is that home alarms need multiple zones not to be a nightmare to troubleshoot if/when a recurring false alarm develops. Home...
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    DSC 1832 - self monitoring call out # causes communications trouble

    Pete, if you're still monitoring this thread: (1) The DSC 1832 is a professional-grade alarm Control Panel, designed to communicate to a monitoring company (a.k.a., a "Central Station" or CS). It doesn't support options to send signals to cell phones. (2) When you program a number for the panel...
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    Burglar alarm - Can it be done ?

    "It's the basic one with the keypad for your password combination." That's kind of like saying your car is the one with a steering wheel, and foot pedals for accelerating and braking. There are a lot of different manufacturers, and alarm systems have evolved a lot over the years. A manufacturer...
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    honeywell 6000f security alarm

    Just found this old thread. that got bumped up earlier this month. I'm an experienced alarm tech that used to work with Honeywell Protective Services until the late 80s and worked with a lot of Ademco systems after that. At the time I worked for Honeywell, they had a series of proprietary...
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    Cross Zoning, not just two sensors...

    Critical question here: How long does the sensor relay stay activated when the sensor is tripped? Typical alarm industry motion sensor relays open/close for about 2 seconds. You may need additional circuitry to extend that time period so that a trip is caused by any two sensors within, e.g., 5...
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