Alarming Antiquity

Hey Guys,

Just for a little extra humor, as if we haven't had any recently.

In the next few weeks I will be starting a project that involves working on a Dictograph G-1800 security panel. Don't know for sure but I believe it was installed in the mid 1950's. It has a Ademco 694EN for communication.

Is set up with Key Switches for arming and disarming and has Ultrasonic Motion Detectors as well as Floor Mats under carpet.

Zone 1 has about 15 Windows and maybe 3 doors. Zone 5 has 18 Smokes and 11 Heat Detectors.

New owners what to upgrade.

The amazing thing is the system is monitored and fully operational!!

Thought I would throw this to the "Old Pharts" here just to get some memory juices flowing again. LOL

This is going to keep me awake at night........................

So anyone here ever worked on a Dictograph G-1800 in the past?? Or maybe have a install manual laying around collecting dust. I search Google & Ebay and nothing.

Thanks for holding back........ No, never mind....... Let'er rip!!

Les

Reply to
ABLE1
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ademco 1000, plus a bare cassette deck with an endless loop answering machine tape for the dialer.. three pull strings on the old brass ball contacts as sensors.. system was always on with standard light switches bypassing areas for entry.. And this farm supply co is still using it.. ;-) no body can remember when it was installed..

RTS

Reply to
RTS

That Dictograph has got to be the winner.

The best I can come up with is an Ademco 5600 wireless system with the "tun eable" door and window transmitters. It has a couple of smoke detectors wit h the little sliding battery drawer and there weren't any transmitter PIR's back then so you had to purchase the Visonic 2000 series motion detectors with a special back box. Then you had to take a transmitter out of it's cas e and put it in the back box with it's own 9 volt battery and attach wires from the contacts on the motion detector through a hole in the back of the PIR to the input terminals of the transmitter. And the PIR had it's own 9 v olt batter in the front. All this had to be "stuffed" into the two boxes an d it was hell for the end user to change the batteries because they had to be double sided taped in order to stay put while you closed everything up.

This is the system with the ambush code that only require that the last num ber of the regular code be one digit higher. CONSTANT false alarms. It's go t a Napco 1465 (?) communicator and a remote panic button bigger than a pac k of cigarettes'

There was a "setup device" that you would hook up to the system that requir ed an FM radio tuned to a certain frequency that would allow you to hear a certain number of beeps on the radio to determine signal strength. If you w eren't getting a good enough signal from a transmitter you could "tune" the m with an adjustable capacitor on the PC board. I had a transmitter cover w ith a hole in it so I could stick the screwdriver through the cover to adju st the capacitor. I installed the system so long ago I've forgotten just ab out everything about it. And my Ademco chip programmer crapped out years ag o.

Every time I get a call (which isn't often) for service the hair on my arms stands up. But I've been able to keep it going all these years. There's no standby battery anymore. It was a 6 volt ni-cad battery shaped like a stic k of dynamite which I haven't been able to find anymore.

Reply to
Jim Davis
  1. You can at least get the user manuals for a G990 & Series 6000 here for a start-
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  1. Keypad for sale, maybe they have a manual Dictograph Series 7000 Alarm Keypad
    formatting link

  2. Last but not least, you can buy an old-time sign giving instructions in case of fire, just change the wording for a break-in.

AFTER GIVING ALARM, REMAIN BY ALARM BOX! UNTIL FIRE APPARATUS ARRIVES. THEN, DIRECT FIREFIGHTERS TO SCENE OF FIRE. ...You'd think that they would be able to spot the fire by then.

Reply to
E D

E D,

Thanks for the links. The "Panel Guides" only has User Guides not Install Manuals. If it wasn't for all the "Black" pages in the copies I might just print one out for fun.

My current plan is to replace the Ademco Dialer with a DSC Panel to just be a communicator. Then sometime in the future move the DSC into replace the Dictograph.

That may not be until the current crisis is over......... Don't know, to early to tell.

Les

Reply to
ABLE1

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