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Alarm system is a couple of years old and installed with pet immune pirs. Since then, we've got a bigger dog, too big for the 24kg limit on the old pirs.
Is it just a case of swapping for a different pir? Am I right in thinking that they're basically a switch. The most complicated part might be if one is end of line, but then I just take the resistor from the old one, after all, that's defined by the panel.
Or, am I missing something?
If you've got a big 24kg+ dog then do you really need an alarm?
Clearly, you've not met her.
The wiring will be pretty trivial and would be a straight swap. Usually 12v + and - plus a detect wire. Some may have tamper wiring as well.
However, when i looked into how ‘pet safe’ PIRs worked, they appeared just to cut off the bottom of the sensor area - ie didn’t cover anything below 1m height. That seemed to have two issues. Firstly it explained why the cat could still set off the alarm (going up the stairs, climbing on the kitchen worktops) but also seemed likely that a burglar could simply crawl past the sensors.
If it’s a weight limit then it might be that they’re just massively turning down the sensitivity in which case the same applies - turn it down more and you make the thing useless.
A dogs much more effective than an alarm anyway. I stopped using ours and just tested it a couple of times a year. No alarm at the moment but thinking about a fake wall box.
be careful here. do you know how to put your alarm into 'admin' mode (or whatever it is called) some pirs will have tamper springs fitted. removing them even with the alarm disarmed sets it off. (well mine did till I ripped the lot out)
There is a tamper circuit and spring but in day mode, it only sounds indoors when the cover is lifted.
I realise pet sensitive pirs are less effective, but they're still better than no alarm.
If it’s an ADE based one engineer mode will be 9999 enter.
Most PIRs have a dip switch or jumper inside to switch between big pet / little pet,
Typical wiring is 6 wires.
+/- 12v, 2 for detecting, 2 for tamper loop.
If you can reset the system after triggering an internal alarm, changing a pir shouldnt be a problem. Some detectors have built in jumpers to select the EOL resistance others can have them added individually. Best bet is take the lid off and take a picture of the wiring code and/or resistors, then go about changing them. Can highly recommend the Bosch Blue line Gen2 Tritech detectors, they pick up nice and quick and can be used for animals up to 42kg.
Chris
Cheers Chris, I'd not heard of those. I was looking at the Texecom purely for the size of dog it could cope with.
Second the Bosch sensors.
Cheers, two recommendations is reassuring. Are you both in that industry then?
Not me, I just have them in my house. (no pets).
I’ll third the Bosch pirs.
My cat regularly performs some kind of feline gymnastics routine between 3 and 5am setting the alarm off. Since swapping from the standard blue lines to the pet friendly ones we’ve had no more false alarms.
I got mine here using the ‘make an offer’ thing https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bosch-ISC-BPR2-WP12-Blue-Line-Gen2-Pet-Friendly-Alarm-PIR-40ft-Motion-Detector/131397911672?_mwBanner=1
Sorry to hijack the thread...
We are showing a fault on one of our sensors, am I right in thinking I can just swap it out for a new one, or do they have to be coded to the main unit or anything fancy like that?
I'm sure if I was to ring the installers they would say it did and they could do it for several hundred ££!
Thanks