I have always wondered what would happen if someone were to break in to my business and rip the keypad off the wall and short the wires together. Would,nt that disable the alarm system? I tried this one day and it seems to lock the system up.
The intelligence is at the controller for that reason - there are no smarts at the keypad. Once the alarm is tripped, the controller will take the responsibility of setting off the alarm as you have it configured.
Having that said, are there any particular wires at the keypad that, when shorted, could cause the controller to malfunction? I would certainly hope not, but that's more of a question for the team that develops your particular controller.
HTH, Ken
Shorting the keypad wire will certainly cause the "system" to malfunction. Mostly because you won't be able to disarm the system via the keypad. It would also most likely send all powered devices into alarm. It is not an effective way to defeat the alarm system.
It depends on the make of the alarm system. Napco has separate fuses for the keypads, sirens and auxiliary (motion detector power, etc.). Shorting the keypad wires will only make the keypads inoperable. The siren will still sound and the dialer will still send out the alarm.
Wouldn't the alarm go off by then?
In addition to what the others have said; some alarm systems have supervised keypads.
Shorting the wires together on the keypad will trip the circuit breaker or blow the fuse for the keybus or aux power supply. In a lot of systems (GE included) these two circuits are "common" to each other. With no power to the motions or glass break detectors, the switches integral to these units will "open" which will cause an alarm on those zones (if the system's armed). The communicator will activate to report the short on the power circuit which by the time the receiver at the CS answers will also transmit the alarms from all the zones with powered devices. There is NO WAY for a thief/burglar to defeat your alarm system by ripping the keypads off the wall UNLESS you have a system where the the common control is integrated with the keypad. In that instance, you are truly "SOL". If a thief is able to reach your keypad without tripping your system (either through a perimeter, interior, or delay zone), you have some serious "issues" to discuss with your alarm company (and more particularly the individual that "designed" the system).
Most of the responses you get here are from those who install systems with separate control boxes. As they have said, it's pretty hard to defeat the whole system from these types of controllers
There are also stand alone keypads (some of the posters here even sell them), that are a bit more vunerable to being taken off the wall and shorted or disabled. The alarm enable relays or door strike controls are built into the keypad. Usually they just control one door, but this is not necessarily true for all installations.
Most of these have some sort of tamper switch to minimize somebody trying to take them apart, but this is not necessarily true for all of them. The power supply wire, in particular, could be cut or shorted-out.
Most of the closed-circuit monitoring loops on the newer systems are protected againsts shorts (mostly) by end-of-line resistors.
Beachcomber
If you don't have an "all in one" alarm panel, then you could call the intruder, stupid for wasting his time trying to defeat the alarm system at the keypad, when he could have spent his time a lot more profitably by taking your stuff and running away before the cops got there.
Yup, the quick in and out is the way to go for those creeps. Those creeps are not always stupid and ignorant, by the way. They often know exactly what they are looking for and know how to get to it seconds ... yes, seconds! The high-end creeps research their prey. Luckily, for most of us, they spend their time with high-end victims.
Until alarm systems are equipped with fire direction controlled lasers, we ain't safe!
I still like a team of huge and nasty dogs!
We tried that on a First Alert 168CPS.
Keypads went dead but the dialer still did its job.
Mike wrote:
Come to think of it, a couple of years ago a beverage company had a break in where the kid smashed the keypad and figured since it shut up he was home free and took his time perusing the selection. (no siren)
The cop snagged him up as he crawled back out the window with his carton of cigs and six pack of beer.
Anyway... the keypad bus was dead until I disconnected the wires from the remnants of the circuit board.
(FA162)
Side note: 14 year old kid, three o'clock in the morning - summertime.
Until he got arrested, Mom thought he was spending the summer at Dad's house and Dad thought he was with Mom. For TWO F@#*ING MONTHS!!!!
JoeRais> We tried that on a First Alert 168CPS.
Sounds like a close knit family.
On the other hand, at 14 I was sneaking out of the house at night, walking down the street to my girl friends house, whose mother (divorced) worked all night. Up the fire escape 2 stories, to the bedroom window. Back home before my parents woke up.
I was "stealing" a little something too. Talk about bunny rabbits. Jeeeeze.
To this day ..... every time I see a fire escape, ........ I get a little "twinge"
I did my share of sneaking out also, until my dad (who thought I was safely tucked in) had to come pick me up at the police station (curfew violation) at 3 am. The rest of the story gets a little fuzzy...
A fire escape fetish... That's a new one...
I was simply aghast that neither this kid's mom nor dad talked to each other about their son's welfare for two months while he was crashing out at friends' houses or just hanging out all night.
I may have never been up for parent of the year but that sort of indifference really grates on me. Especially lately.
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