Can I do this, will it help my friend

From a friend who runs a ministorage, I got a bunch of old burglar alarm hardware, and I want to put in a burglar alarm for my home and also save a little money for another friend, who has a burglar alarm company.

As a general rule, will I usually be able to use any 4-wire keypad with any control panel that has a 4-wire keypad input?

If not most combinations, what about a Moose Z1100 keypad with a Moose Z900 control panel. The stuff I got includes new ones of these, at least they are perfectly clean and still in the box, complete with installation and operator's manuals.**

Although my burglar alarm friend said he could install it in an hour, I didn't want him to come in to my incredibly messy home, so he gave me the standard panel he uses, new in the box, for me to install, because he knows I can do it if I take enough time, and maybe because he plans to give me at least 5 dollars a month off on the monitoring, maybe more, and figures it's ok if I do some of the work.

He generally uses the same panel for all his customers so he only has to use one brand of software at his end to make changes, but I"m never going to ask him to make changes***. He and his family do favors for me all the time, and I try to find things to do for them, but afaic, they're still way ahead. He's overloaded at work (remember my previous thread about his having a hard time finding employees.) so my question is, even though the best panel I have now is the Moose Z900, and the panels he installs are from DSC since he's not going anything online, will they cause him any MORE work?

Since I won't be using one of the panels he buys, will that save him any money, or are they so cheap it doesn't matter?

If you offerred to put a burglar alarm in your friend's home, and were going to charge him less than others for monitoring, would you be annoyed if he didn't want to use your panel, because he found another "in the trash"? I get a kick, a lot of satisfaction, out of using things I've found in the trash or at yard sales, etc.

Thanks a lot.

***I've had an alarm for years, but the combo keypad/control panel burned out (smoke actually came from it when I was pushing the buttons on the way out one day.)

**(My first friend runs a ministorage and these were left behind. I think the guy retired and then died, and his daughters cleaned out the rented storage room. They're supposed to remove everything, but I guess they left it there for the last sibling to come and take what he wanted, and since their father had rented the space for years, my friend didn't mind that she had to pay to clean it out (after I took what I wanted). (Hmmm, I see that the older of the two is ADC. It looks almost identical, but the manual says it uses a proprietary format in communicating with the central station. But it's the older one anyhow)

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Reply to
mm
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No. Not at all.

Nope. It won't.

I hate doing work for friends. I usually try to encourgae them to do the work themselves and give them the equipment much cheaper than I would normally sell it over the counter. If they are poor I'll give them a used panel AND keypad.

DSC is ok stuff. Should have no issues. If it was me though I w2ould be more comfortable with it if my friend had me program his panel after he got it installed. In fact I would insist on stopping and taking a quick look at it so I can point out anything that could be done a little better. Sorry about your messy house. Can't be much worse than my office. LOL.

Cheap is relative, but they are not real expensive. Since it sounds like you don't have matching equipment you may want to offer to do some work for him or just buy a basic panel from him if you can afford it. Friends help out friends, btu then friends don't take advantage of friends either.

Only because it might be more work to deal with than just using a good new panel. I hate trashing. Guys think they will save a hundred bucks and then spend 8 - 10 hours or moer mucking around with junk. They could have just worked for that time and bought a new one instead.

I get a kick, a lot of satisfaction, out of using

Yeah, I know. A lot of guys are like that. In this case its really not wroth the headaches. A z900 has some design flaws, and while the Z1100 is a better panel it still won't be as clean and wonderful as a new crisp out of the box panel.

Yer welcome.

Sounds like you could have some other problems. I would definitely ask my friend the alarm guy to atleast look at it.

People save all kinds of junk.

Might even be proprietary then, but I doubt it being that old a panel.

Oops. I guess it is proprietary. LOL.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

Nope. You can only use the keypads designed for the particular system. There aren't (to my knowledge) any universal keypads out there unless you want to go for an IEI type keypad and program your system for keyswitch arming. You'll lose all the benefits of having the system keypad though (trouble, alarm, and miscellaneous functions like bypassing, etc.)

Moose was an excellent panel in its day. I'd suggest upgrading to something a little newer (particularly if you want the panel to page you for specific events or if you want to have it monitored over the internet).

Sounds good. Is your home pre-wired?? If your installer friend can install a whole system in a home in about an hour, I definitely want to talk to him. :-)

Use the DSC stuff. He'll be more comfortable dealing with it (even if he has to program it from the keypad if you don't opt to have it connected to your telephone line.

A favor's a favor. Don't ask "how much it costs" if you're getting something for "free". Most friends would consider that an insult.

No. If the panel works and you have all the manuals, there shouldn't be a problem. I think if you were to compare them "side by side" though, the DSC stuff will blow the doors off the Moose.

Reply to
Frank Olson

Put all the Moose stuff on Ebay. There are still a lot of them out there = and spare parts for them are hard to come by. then take any money you make = off it, give part to your mini-storage buddy as a thanks for letting me = rummage gift, and swallow your pride and pay your installer friend to = install a new panel for you. Since he is a friend and giving you a system = at reduced cost, you can help him out by playing go-fer and keeping the = beer cold.

Reply to
Tommy

The only way those two parts will work together is as a boat anchor although the Z900 board and can don't weigh much and might cause your boat to drift if you aren't careful

Reply to
Mark Leuck

Geeez.....Mark, did Wade Moose run over your dog or something?

Reply to
Bob Worthy

Funny you should mention that, I once had a dog once that I named "Moose" and he was run over by someone with a license plate number of Z1100R.

And he was towing a boat

Reply to
Mark Leuck

Now he is reincarnated as an "Elk". Can't keep a good dog down. :o]

Reply to
Bob Worthy

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