Helpful Alarming Tips!

Here I have some tips for any of you newbies out there! Pretty much stuff you should avoid.

1.) NEVER strip wire with your teeth. I know it’s tempting when your tools are upstairs but it’s bad for your teeth and copper is not exactly good for you. Plus your dentist will ask, “Have you been biting your nails?” and you’ll reply “No, I’ve been stripping.” and he’ll probably never ask again.

2.) NEVER strip live wire. No explanation needed. Plus power running through your tongue feels weird. (Freaking 9v Batteries :roll: )

3.) 24v can still be DEADLY. Even if you’re using a 24v power supply from your old radio or Christmas lights, any voltage (15-infinity volts) can stop your heart if the amperage is over 100ma .

4.) When mounting on a junction or back-box, use the same screws (or screws of same thread and thickness) when mounting a device. Switching from different types of screws can damage the box’s “holes” and screws will no longer fit. This sucks especially if the box is in the wall.

5.) NOTIFICATION APPLIANCES SHOULD ALWAYS BE MOUNTED ON A TYPE OF BOX. This is a safety concern. Most NAC’s have a good enough amperage start a fire or kill someone. Make sure there is plenty of room for the wire to “a-squishy” in there with no excess wire passing through.

6.) Smoke, CO, and Heat detectors usually can be flush mounted no matter the manufacturer. BUT CHECK THE PRODUCT MANUALS FIRST.

7.) It is safe to use sync protocols across devices of different manufacturers for non-corresponding devices. (i.e. SpectrAlert Classic on Genesis Signal Master) Devices may not function as intended in this scenario, but damage should not take place. If you manage to break your alarm doing this, OH WELL.

8.) (Aww it looks like a face) NEVER STARE INTO A STROBE. It’s bad for your eyes.

9.) I don’t know why someone would, but NEVER PUT A HORN/CHIME/SPEAKER UP TO YOUR EAR. Your audiologist will ask “Have you been listening to heavy metal?” and you’ll reply “No, I’ve been horning” and he’ll mishear you and he’ll probably never ask again.

10.) "Fire 'larming is fun (for some people) but it can be super dangerous. ALWAYS TAKE CAUTION.

11.) Never preform maintenance on you panel WHILE it is powered. You can damage it and sparks could fly into your face. NOT FUN. (Unless you’re a self sadist…)

12.) Use the right wire. We don’t want wires burning up in your walls and attics. That would be ironic.

13.) NEVER NEVER NEVER PLUG IN A STROBE WITH THE ALARM COVER OFF. Those darn capacitors (The black things on the circuit board that looks like a battery) often hold 300-500v of spare electricity. Usually these contain little to no amperage so death isn’t often, BUT THE SHOCK HURTS LIKE A B****.
Especially Geneses.

14.) Have fun with your lil hobby!

Bye ya’ll and remember these tips. Print 'em out, write 'em down, tattoo 'em on your belly, make a refrigerator magnet, i don’t care. Just remember the important ones.

WHY would you think that stripping wire with your teeth is a good idea? I think that one is pretty self-explanatory that it shouldn’t be done and that it damages your teeth. Has anybody ACTUALLY done this before? Is this from personal experience?

Oh. its real, my dad does it, ive done it, in youtube videos.

[quote] 13.) NEVER NEVER NEVER PLUG IN A STROBE WITH THE ALARM COVER OFF. Those darn capacitors (The black things on the circuit board that looks like a battery) often hold 300-500v of spare electricity. Usually these contain little to no amperage so death isn't often, BUT THE SHOCK HURTS LIKE A B****. Especially Geneses. [/quote]

Capacitors come in all different colors. I will try not to bore anyone so I will stick to the electrolytic capacitors that are used for this purpose. Right now, I am looking at capacitors that are not only black, but orange, yellow, gray, silver, brown, and every shade of blue known to humankind. Don’t get me started with the little tiny ones that use color codes… :slight_smile:

Has anybody else done it besides you and your father?

Yes, in a pinch it’s useful, such as when you need to test a line of speaker wire you just pulled out from under a tree branch that fell on it two years ago and the speaker connected to it is dead, and your backup speaker isn’t stripped and you forgot your wire stripper. It didn’t work so well when I had to do it again so I grabbed a box cutter and went away at it for awhile.

And sadly the 70v line was dead possibly cut at the amp though, and the transformer and speaker might be too, this has been a multi month project which is on break until April, probably.

Slightly off topic but yes this did happen getting this one speaker to work that hasn’t for 5 years has been the bane of my existence of sound system work at my swim club FireAlarmTech9 on Instagram: "The speaker I’m working on fixing at my swim club (This post didn't go through 4 days ago)"

I actually thought that stripping wire with your teeth was just a JOKE. I can’t ever imagine doing it.

Correct me if I’m wrong; But I was taught that it’s the amperage that will kill you, not necessarily the voltage.

I have another tip though, never try to see if you can pull a pull station on your system and reset it without setting off the alarms. I tried this once on my EST 6601, and the end result? I now have an intermittent trouble and the panel stopped working. Luckily I bought another one and replaced the motherboard off the old one.

Yep towards the end of that quote i talk about the amperage.