Its a shame I often read magazine articles from overseas and see all kind of really unique products for sale you will never find for sale here in the USA.
The same with medicines and medical procedures . All because of Bull Shit Regulations and Politics, Red Tape Bureaucracy and Greed . Take Burglar and fire alarm systems .
They have some really fantastic combo fire and burglar panels they sell in Europe that are software driven we will never see here in the states. The reason because they have to meet stringent UL or other 3rd party listing which costs big bucks and makes it not worth bringing the product to this country. Go to Japan or China even Brazil and you will find all kind of unique electronic products not offered here, same with communication devices cell phones overseas are much more sophisticated than we will ever see here and they operate much faster as well because internet service overseas is 10 times faster and better and much cheaper because they are not throttling it back and otherwise limiting it like they do here in the states.
But as long as manufacturers and providers can use UL and government regulations to keep prices fixed and higher than any where else and keep competition out we will never see these products here. Talk to any sales representative for an overseas manufacturer who sells here in the USA and they will pull out and show you some amazing catalogs full of products not available here.
Because UL , FCC, CPSC or EPA, or some other agency says there not safe do not meet stringent codes etc etc etc. which is total bull shit . Yes some products should not be allowed to sell here but because it costs so much to get products certified to sell in USA and you have to carry so much liability insurance do to sue happy Americans we will never be able to benefit from products the rest of the world now enjoys.
Just peruse the internet and check out overseas manufacturers sites and look at all the neat products . Products you will never see here.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Smiley Face Killers do they Really Exist?
Once again a senseless tragedy a young vibrant male college student attends a off campus party and goes missing and is found drowned shortly there after in a pond or river . With plenty of questions how did he end up in the water.
Plenty of people go to party's get drunk and do not end up drowned. How could this happen
While it is easy to say alcohol had something to do with it and it is just a tragic accident what if it was not? What if in fact an organized group of individuals are responsible for it happening? Crazy sounding ? Well maybe not so crazy after you have read numerous articles and heard these 2 retired NY detectives on various radio shows talk about the Smiley Face Killers.
A case where when college students body's are found nearby a smiley face and similar markings are found painted on structures big rocks etc. as crazy as this sounds and I am not suggesting this is one of those cases there seems to be way too many young college men ending up drowned who never should have been where they where found. Read the evidence these detectives present at following links and decide for your self are there Smiley face Killers or is it all hog wash?
I know one thing for sure living in Pittsburgh a city with 3 rivers and working nearby the rivers first as a security guard and many years now in my business, which some times involves working on tow boats or docks . Workers warn you about being aware of snakes on the decks. and with good reason. When several times a month missing people are found in the 3 rivers be it by accidentally falling , suicide or foul play. There really could be something to this. Yes I have even seen smiley faces painted as well along our rivers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smiley_face_murder_theory
While it is easy to say alcohol had something to do with it and it is just a tragic accident what if it was not? What if in fact an organized group of individuals are responsible for it happening? Crazy sounding ? Well maybe not so crazy after you have read numerous articles and heard these 2 retired NY detectives on various radio shows talk about the Smiley Face Killers.
A case where when college students body's are found nearby a smiley face and similar markings are found painted on structures big rocks etc. as crazy as this sounds and I am not suggesting this is one of those cases there seems to be way too many young college men ending up drowned who never should have been where they where found. Read the evidence these detectives present at following links and decide for your self are there Smiley face Killers or is it all hog wash?
I know one thing for sure living in Pittsburgh a city with 3 rivers and working nearby the rivers first as a security guard and many years now in my business, which some times involves working on tow boats or docks . Workers warn you about being aware of snakes on the decks. and with good reason. When several times a month missing people are found in the 3 rivers be it by accidentally falling , suicide or foul play. There really could be something to this. Yes I have even seen smiley faces painted as well along our rivers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smiley_face_murder_theory
Sunday, September 16, 2012
New Product Press releases and Wet Dreams one and the same
It amazes me how many times a manufacturer releases a press release on new product line there coming out with and then never release it or by time they do release it the product either is obsolete by newer technology or does not even do what press release claimed.
Take back in early 80's I had a residential customer who wanted a wireless system and at time there was Linear and Capricorn available along with few other smaller players. Wireless back then really was bad stuff because you could not tell which sensor went off or which sensor had a low battery a real pain in the butt. But then Capricorn Electronics Maiden NC came out with a release for a new supervised wireless system with built in communicator. Looked great and that it would fit the bill. Great I go to supply house to order one. There not in production yet and will not be for some time well it was almost 3 years from time I saw first press release till unit was finally out and by then Ademco had come out with its bullet proof Alert II wireless and I never went back to the false alarm prone Capricorn CEI-8 unit or its newer supervised products since the Ademco Alert II worked so well. But thats the way things work out too many manufacturers put all there effort into a press release showing off this fancy unit instead of getting on the ball and rolling it out. Or they roll the product out too early and not beta test it and expect dealers to find the bugs in field and deal with it.
Neltech was a company with very innovative electronic alarm panels but there was one problem when they built them they where designed for the west coast where power was even and clean not the old power systems here on east coast so the panels constantly had tantrums . Then there was the 725 C Alarm panels put out by Moose products that disarmed all by themselves .
yes the 1980's was a trying period for alarms and electronics as we started going from relays to solid state electronics. While some manufacturers learned there lessons many did not and are no longer around. So knowing this you would think manufacturers would be more careful before releasing products especially in light of how bad the economy is you want a winner not a loser but its the same old thing. flashing press releases with all kind of new innovative technology taking forever to be released. Some manufacturers never learn and deserve to be burned. Guess will see who all is still around in 2013
Take back in early 80's I had a residential customer who wanted a wireless system and at time there was Linear and Capricorn available along with few other smaller players. Wireless back then really was bad stuff because you could not tell which sensor went off or which sensor had a low battery a real pain in the butt. But then Capricorn Electronics Maiden NC came out with a release for a new supervised wireless system with built in communicator. Looked great and that it would fit the bill. Great I go to supply house to order one. There not in production yet and will not be for some time well it was almost 3 years from time I saw first press release till unit was finally out and by then Ademco had come out with its bullet proof Alert II wireless and I never went back to the false alarm prone Capricorn CEI-8 unit or its newer supervised products since the Ademco Alert II worked so well. But thats the way things work out too many manufacturers put all there effort into a press release showing off this fancy unit instead of getting on the ball and rolling it out. Or they roll the product out too early and not beta test it and expect dealers to find the bugs in field and deal with it.
Neltech was a company with very innovative electronic alarm panels but there was one problem when they built them they where designed for the west coast where power was even and clean not the old power systems here on east coast so the panels constantly had tantrums . Then there was the 725 C Alarm panels put out by Moose products that disarmed all by themselves .
yes the 1980's was a trying period for alarms and electronics as we started going from relays to solid state electronics. While some manufacturers learned there lessons many did not and are no longer around. So knowing this you would think manufacturers would be more careful before releasing products especially in light of how bad the economy is you want a winner not a loser but its the same old thing. flashing press releases with all kind of new innovative technology taking forever to be released. Some manufacturers never learn and deserve to be burned. Guess will see who all is still around in 2013
Can your Wireless Alarm system with stand a Sledge Hammer Attack introducing Honeywell APL technology
Many of the Home Alarm systems being sold today are of the wireless variety . A wire for power and phone line if cellular communicator is not being used and hang it any where a fast easy install and no mess all the doors etc protected by battery powered transmitters.That's all fine and well till it comes time to actually protect a home especially one with high ticket items in it. The problem with most of these systems if an intruder enters the home or business thru a delayed door they walk up to the control and either slam it with a sledge hammer or otherwise disable it and no signal gets out. While there are a couple systems which allow for a separate communicator from the control to help stop these types of attacks because both pieces have to be disabled the vast majority are all in one piece. While this type of attack is not common it does happen where burglars try and take out the system and with an all in one system its a tragedy waiting to happen. Luckily Honeywell Security has come up with an answer to this problem with APL Advanced Protection Logic when a Lynx touch 5100 panel is connected to an Alarmnet Account which has APL turned on. When an intruder enters and does not disarm the system with in 60 seconds and send a disarm signal the Alarmnet servers take note the disarm has not happened from the control and then notify s central station of a break in. I helped beta test the technology and it works extremely well. This is a fantastic feature when you use wireless alarms in Kiosks and other small business booths to give them true security against attack. It could very well save a life . Other than the one split wireless system I have seen designed to prevent attack the new Honeywell APL technology is only systems I know utilizing attack prevention technology on the market. While I have heard it time and again well these types of attacks rarely happen and you can not take out a system with a single blow my testing of products has proved else wise.
Once again another fantastic feature Honeywell has developed.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
X-10 An automation technology I am glad to see go away
Before the new technology of Z- wave and Zigbee which utilize a radio wave thru the air in early days of Home Automation a new technology known as X-10 was the wiz bang way to go to make lights turn on remotely etc. all with out having to rewire a home.
For the most part it worked but it had many bugs and quirks when you had a very large home .
It worked by sending a radio wave signal thru your home wiring . Similar to wireless intercom systems you may have seen . You either plugged in or wired in a receiving module set a code for it A-Z and 1-10 and then plugged in a transmitter to send the command like a X-10 clock radio or button box pretty slick for its time. They even had a module you tied to an alarm system to flash lights and warn you if there was an intrusion. Even some Honeywell/ Ademco panels had built in programs to operate modules such as the Lynx and vista 10-20SE thru use of a specail transformer.
But the system had its problems. Because it used the electrical wiring in the home and power is supplied by 3 wires 2 hot and 1 neutral if you plugged a module into phase A hot wire but then plugged a module into phase B hot the signal would not always travel thru if the home did not have any 220 volt appliances to allow the phases to talk to each other so you had to either move the circuit to phase A breaker box or you had to install a phase coupler so modules would talk to each other. There was also a problem if you had a garage separate from the house while the X-10 would often work out there it would not if the garage or building next door you wanted to control things in was not being served from the same power transformer. I even used X-10 between a father and sons home so they knew when each other came home turning on lights and I had modules and relays set up if you tried to cut phone lines to defeat alarm at fathers home it would send a signal out on sons phone line and vise verse . But in some cases you did not want signals traveling out of or into a property as well which could trigger false lights and appliance on and offs so then you had to install a blocking filter to stop it. All these modules and filters etc became a real problem some times with cost and installation time involved. while X-10 did work as more and more electronics came into the home it was the death blow to X-10 the amount of electrical noise in many cases could not be filtered out and the X-10 systems would go nuts all by the selves and in many cases would not work at all. It was fun while it lasted but I am glad to see a much better alternative now on the market. It is my understanding no more X-10 modules are going to be made and protocol has been put to bed.
For more information on X-10 follow this Wikipedia link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X10_%28industry_standard%29
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
The Lost Art of Burglar Alarm Window Foiling
Ride thru an area with an older business district full of main street shoppes and you may come across a shop with windows which have silver or gold trim around them While some places do fancy designs on glass windows these silver and gold stripes where for protection from burglars. The tape was made from lead and other materials and wear wired into a burglar alarms circuit. When installed on tempered commercial glass windows such as you see at left if an intruder attempted to break the glass or cut a circle in it the tempered glass would shatter and split breaking the metal tape and breaking the alarm protective circuit setting off the alarm system.
While this was the common way to protect windows when I started in the industry by 1980's it started falling out of favor for sensors placed on glass or audio detectors which heard sound or vibration detectors which felt break in attempts. The last set of windows I foiled are at left I did in late 80's for a shop owner who wanted the old fashioned look with diamond corners for his recently remodeled store front made to look like it was from 1930's .
While it was fun to make the designs it was not easy t do so. Foil was applied by first putting down a layer of clear adhesive with a brush then when it got tacky you applied tape then put a layer of lacquer over it. If it was a warm summer night no problem when windows where cold forget it . They also towards the end of foiling days had self adhering foil so you did not have to put on a first layer of adhesive but it worked no better if cold either.
To do the multiple panes of glass plus door took me 2 days to complete and while this foil has been carefully preserved by the owner it was a pain in the butt because of lazy window washers breaking it or shop owner or his employee placing tape over and breaking it when they would remove a sales sign or customers would deliberately damage it on doors or burglars would do it acting like a customer casing a joint because it would disable alarm and some shop owners would not wait for repairman to arrive and leave . Which gave time for burglars to break in later in the evening. While foil could not be beat it was labor and maintenance intensive.
Which is why it has all but disappeared. I still have a couple customers who have it and when those windows get broken or otherwise replaced the foil will not be replaced. It very hard to even find the supply's for it any more.
To meet UL burglar alarm requirements it had to be placed at least 3 inches from frame and had to be on at least 3 sides of the glass. If the glass was wired mesh glass like you use to find in gym doors etc. or not tempered the tape had to be run back and forth every 3 inches. Which many owners objected to but if you did not do this a circle could be cut in glass and jumper put across contacts in an attempt to defeat the foil. Today its rare to see glass it self being protected by a sensor on glass usually its only high ticket jewelery stores that still do it or merchants that have high value items in there windows .
Since audio detectors and shock /vibration detectors have become so much better at detecting break in's and have become less false alarm resistant on glass protection is slowly fading away as well.
I should also be noted that foil was also used to protect walls from being broken thru as well before motion detectors where perfected and was placed every 3 inches . It was a wider foil which was put on thin plywood or similar wood then a thin cover of wood was placed over it to protect it and an intruder trying to cut thru a wall behind a safe etc would trip the alarm .
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Ferrorresonance a Bizarre Electrical Condition I hope you never come across it.
Many years ago while helping some other electricians to change out a 208 volt 400 amp 3 phase 4 wire partial underground electrical service we hit a bizarre situation.
The power company Troubleshooter had come out and turned off the transformers to the electrical service with a special fiberglass rod which opened internal switches in the transformers .We measured with testers and had no voltage . But when we undid the first neutral wire all of a sudden there was a sustainable voltage of 400 volts on the wires which shocked us.
Puzzled we called the power company back up who sent a trouble shooter out and who also measured the voltage and then put a set of grounding jumpers on the transformers to get rid of the stray voltage as he called it from the 28 ,000 volt down to 208 volt transformers which he called Ferrorresonance .
The power company Troubleshooter had come out and turned off the transformers to the electrical service with a special fiberglass rod which opened internal switches in the transformers .We measured with testers and had no voltage . But when we undid the first neutral wire all of a sudden there was a sustainable voltage of 400 volts on the wires which shocked us.
Puzzled we called the power company back up who sent a trouble shooter out and who also measured the voltage and then put a set of grounding jumpers on the transformers to get rid of the stray voltage as he called it from the 28 ,000 volt down to 208 volt transformers which he called Ferrorresonance .
The problem is when you run electrical wires thru metal piping and then run high amounts of current thru them the piping becomes energized just like a transformer works.
This is one of the reasons metal piping and surfaces must be grounded to reduce these effects and drain it off as well as insure the operating of overcurent devices as well.
Now that I know to look for this and be careful of it and put on grounding jumpers it has not been a problem but this again is one of those things they do not teach you at electrical school and you may never run into it your entire life as an electrician but I did and it has taught a valuable lesson to always be on your guard when working on electrical services, which have not been completely detached from power company's service lines and just switched off at the transformer.
In our case it was determined the jumpers should have been in place before we started the job and the first trouble shooter was written up.
With many new regulations in NEC 70E Electrical safety practices for workers which came on line a few years back it is mandatory to now use them on many jobs.
to prevent exactly what happened to me and electricians I was working with.
While the use of jumpers has always been taught as a practice to prevent an accidental electrocution should a service line be turned on by mistake while it is being worked on and the jumpers will cause the over-current protection to trip out .As more and more complex power systems come on line jumpers there ability to eliminate stray and transformed voltages has become much more recognized. But as with any safety equipment jumpers must be properly and carefully placed to operate properly or you can cause serious injury's or death.
In our case it was determined the jumpers should have been in place before we started the job and the first trouble shooter was written up.
With many new regulations in NEC 70E Electrical safety practices for workers which came on line a few years back it is mandatory to now use them on many jobs.
to prevent exactly what happened to me and electricians I was working with.
While the use of jumpers has always been taught as a practice to prevent an accidental electrocution should a service line be turned on by mistake while it is being worked on and the jumpers will cause the over-current protection to trip out .As more and more complex power systems come on line jumpers there ability to eliminate stray and transformed voltages has become much more recognized. But as with any safety equipment jumpers must be properly and carefully placed to operate properly or you can cause serious injury's or death.
 |
| Example of jumpers set being installed on overhead lines to protect workers down stream in case the overhead lines would become energized |
Commercail Radio Band Re-Farming all the things we warned about are coming true.
15 years ago the FCC proposed Re-Farming or narrowing of the VHF/UHF radio bands used in this country by all types of businesses and emergency services. In essence they where putting 2 channels in the band width spacing formally used by one channel. At the time I was a member of REACT an emergency radio monitoring team who used 2 way UHF radios on the GMRS radio service .
One of our biggest concerns was 1st the cost of buying all new radios which operate on narrow band but 2nd how well these radios would work at half the width they currently had.
Seeing all the problems they where having with other advanced radio systems .
While 2 way radio systems work well in many areas of the country when you start getting into hilly and mountainous areas you start hitting all kinds of problems where a signal will not get thru.
At one time they pushed putting in 800-900 MHz trunked systems everywhere and yes the technology does work but as the State of Pa. and City of Pittsburgh, Municipality of Penn Hills and other a Government agency's found out only if you design in enough radio repeater towers. Like the commercial radio services do who lease radios and towers to business
In some cases you needed 10 to 1 or higher ratio to use these systems properly in hilly areas.
Penn hills switched its Police to 800 MHz as the city of Pittsburgh tried doing it for there Fire Dept and both shut the systems down after a year or so because they just did not work properly and where putting lives at risk because not enough repeaters where put in. . Its same problem state of Pa. is having with its state wide Ma-com system still after 10 years not 100% fully functioning and state police went out and bought new narrow band radios so they could stay in touch where state system does not work.
So knowing all these things where happening you can understand our skepticism that going to narrow band radios was not a good idea.
So off we went trying to tell other radio users the problems to come and we got a Luke warm reaction .
Whats big deal by then things will be worked out by then we will need new radios any ways after wearing out our current radios.
Well come 2010 and all of a sudden all the Volunteer fire depts and small business and others who use 2 way radios are in a panic where are we going to get the money to buy these new radios.Etc.
and now that narrow band radios are in use there finding areas regular radios worked the narrow band do not before with wider band signals thou not perfect signals got thru with a little scratch now nothing.
Fireman are complaining there pagers are not working as well either again the receivers are using a much narrower band and not picking up in buildings.
The problem can best be described this way if you remember old black and white and older color TV sets on over the air antennas they had a tuner knob which you could play with and help bring a picture in. Well TV's went to auto tuners and now TV stations you could get before with maybe little snow you now no longer see. same theory goes with radios.
As with Cellular phones since the switch over to digital from analog people are complaining about the same thing the signals there or its not. There is no more in between . So yes once again as we go forward with technology thou we have more services we are actually going backwards as far as quality. So all the problems we talked about 15 years ago and manufacturers told us was not going to be a problem they will have the technology in place to handle it have been lies and wet dreams again as usual.
Of course most of the narrow band problems would now be avoided by fire depts across the country had they taken seriously the Cyren call proposal for a public private partnership where they would have had the best of both worlds with radio gear .But as usual the Fire Service proves every day they are there own worst enemy.
One of our biggest concerns was 1st the cost of buying all new radios which operate on narrow band but 2nd how well these radios would work at half the width they currently had.
Seeing all the problems they where having with other advanced radio systems .
While 2 way radio systems work well in many areas of the country when you start getting into hilly and mountainous areas you start hitting all kinds of problems where a signal will not get thru.
At one time they pushed putting in 800-900 MHz trunked systems everywhere and yes the technology does work but as the State of Pa. and City of Pittsburgh, Municipality of Penn Hills and other a Government agency's found out only if you design in enough radio repeater towers. Like the commercial radio services do who lease radios and towers to business
In some cases you needed 10 to 1 or higher ratio to use these systems properly in hilly areas.
Penn hills switched its Police to 800 MHz as the city of Pittsburgh tried doing it for there Fire Dept and both shut the systems down after a year or so because they just did not work properly and where putting lives at risk because not enough repeaters where put in. . Its same problem state of Pa. is having with its state wide Ma-com system still after 10 years not 100% fully functioning and state police went out and bought new narrow band radios so they could stay in touch where state system does not work.
So knowing all these things where happening you can understand our skepticism that going to narrow band radios was not a good idea.
Whats big deal by then things will be worked out by then we will need new radios any ways after wearing out our current radios.
Well come 2010 and all of a sudden all the Volunteer fire depts and small business and others who use 2 way radios are in a panic where are we going to get the money to buy these new radios.Etc.
and now that narrow band radios are in use there finding areas regular radios worked the narrow band do not before with wider band signals thou not perfect signals got thru with a little scratch now nothing.
Fireman are complaining there pagers are not working as well either again the receivers are using a much narrower band and not picking up in buildings.
The problem can best be described this way if you remember old black and white and older color TV sets on over the air antennas they had a tuner knob which you could play with and help bring a picture in. Well TV's went to auto tuners and now TV stations you could get before with maybe little snow you now no longer see. same theory goes with radios.
As with Cellular phones since the switch over to digital from analog people are complaining about the same thing the signals there or its not. There is no more in between . So yes once again as we go forward with technology thou we have more services we are actually going backwards as far as quality. So all the problems we talked about 15 years ago and manufacturers told us was not going to be a problem they will have the technology in place to handle it have been lies and wet dreams again as usual.
Of course most of the narrow band problems would now be avoided by fire depts across the country had they taken seriously the Cyren call proposal for a public private partnership where they would have had the best of both worlds with radio gear .But as usual the Fire Service proves every day they are there own worst enemy.
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