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Hit 500 installed panels and finally get why old timers talk about loops
Last Tuesday I finished my 500th install, a small office in Reno, and something clicked. I always rushed zone wiring to get more jobs done, but a customer's cat tripped a motion sensor twice and I had to come back. Now I take the extra 15 minutes to run the resistors at the device end, saves me a callback every month.
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ruby_sanchez451mo ago
Man, that cat story is perfect. My buddy Dave had a similar thing with a barn install out in Fernley. He skipped the resistors at the devices to save time, and a mouse chewed through a wire a week later. The system kept tripping false alarms until he tore the whole zone apart. He spent a whole Sunday redoing it, and now he's the biggest stickler for doing it right the first time. Funny how one bad job can teach you more than a hundred good ones.
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nina1801mo ago
Wait, Dave skipped ALL the end-of-line resistors on a whole zone? That's like leaving the safety off on every single device, one chewed wire and the whole system goes haywire instead of just that one sensor.
I've seen guys do that to save twenty bucks and an hour of work, but a single mouse can turn it into a full weekend of troubleshooting with a meter and a lot of swearing.
Good on Dave for learning the hard way, but I bet that barn install cost him more in beer and patience than doing it right the first time ever would have.
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