Monday, March 12, 2012

Outside strobe Lights on Burglar Alarm Be careful to fuse them.


In the picture at left if you look carefully you will see a small Blue Strobe Light .
Its intended purpose is to notify police this is the garage the burglar alarm is going off at.
A good idea when you have a long row of garages and such. But a very bad Idea when you do not take precautions installing it so that an experienced burglar can use it as a means of defeating an alarm system .
All a burglar has to do is short the wires together on the strobe
so it creates a short which pops the fuse or overload on the panel disabling the alarm once it activates. Unless some of the following precautions have been taken.

1#- A separate fused power supply is feeding the strobe driven
by relay contact off the panel
which is the best way

2# -Using a low as possible rated fast blow fuse on a strobe output off a panel which allows that fuse to blow before the main fuse. Not as good but better than no protection.
How ever the possibility exists where burglar could attempt to send a surge down the wiring.
But doing nothing and thinking its high enough up no one can mess with it your just deluding your self Burglars are like rats and when its 3am and no one around they have all the time in the world to take care of anything in there way. Do not make there job easier for them

Note: while most new panels everything is isolated this is not always the case on low end products and by putting the short across the strobe first which disables all horns etc . when phone line is then cut you do not have to worry about phone line monitor activating sirens . or like James Caan said in the movie Thief as he looked at the safe " This baby Is mine. Another good case for separately powered cell or supervised internet connection.

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