What if a burglar breaks in and short out the wire on my keypad

[Mike]

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.

 

[[email protected]]

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

 

[Robert L Bass]

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?

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.

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

=============================>
Bass Home Electronics
941-925-8650
4883 Fallcrest Circle
Sarasota · Florida · 34233
http://www.bassburglaralarms.com
=============================>

 

[Mike]

My system is a GE. Not to sure what model.

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.

 

[Crash Gordon]

Wouldn't the alarm go off by then?

In addition to what the others have said; some alarm systems have supervised
keypads.



|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.

 

[Mike]

Just a thought. What if somebody were to get into the door with the
delay ? Get to the keypad while there is about 30 seconds to enter the
code. Lets just say that the keypad is removed and the power wires
were twisted together. Now the system is not yet in alarm. Maybe the
person I was talking to has no idea of what he was talking about.He
was saying that the main board would be frozen in it's last state
which was waiting for a code to be entered. Right now my keypad is
close to the door. I am trying to decide if I should have it moved to
the hallway.

 

[Frank Olson]

Just a thought. What if somebody were to get into the door with the
delay ? Get to the keypad while there is about 30 seconds to enter the
code. Lets just say that the keypad is removed and the power wires
were twisted together. Now the system is not yet in alarm. Maybe the
person I was talking to has no idea of what he was talking about.He
was saying that the main board would be frozen in it's last state
which was waiting for a code to be entered. Right now my keypad is
close to the door. I am trying to decide if I should have it moved to
the hallway.

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).

 

[Beachcomber]

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

 

[Jim]

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.

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.

 

[Charles Schuler]

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!

 

[JoeRaisin]

We tried that on a First Alert 168CPS.

Keypads went dead but the dialer still did its job.

 

[JoeRaisin]

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!!!!

 

[Jim]

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!!!!

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"

 

[JoeRaisin]

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 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...

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"

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.