Always Supervise Your Panic Zones – We’ve heard of an issue with a retail client whose staff repeatedly activated a panic button, yet an alarm event was not reported to the monitoring station – the terminations have been torn out of the button. The issue was never reported as a troubling event.
In this case, the panic button was installed in a drawer with a long loop of cable to allow it to be opened and closed without pulling the terminations out. This wiring has caught or tangled at some point, and the zone has been disabled. The alarm panel was an older model with a single 24-hour zone to which the siren had been connected.
When installing a hardwired hold-up button or maintenance on an older panel with a panic button, be sure the device is connected to a supervised 24-hour zone or add a supervised end-of-line resistor to the zone loop. This will significantly improve circuit integrity.
One of the weaknesses of an ordinarily open hold-up button that’s unsupervised is that there’s no guarantee it will work 10 years later when pressed in an emergency – implementing a supervised circuit will strengthen the panic zone loop’s integrity by reporting trouble if the terminations pull out, or the line is cut. Always Supervise Your Panic Zones.
This wiring has caught or tangled at some point, and the zone has been disabled.
