Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - Replacing Brinks with GE ITI Concord Express 80-518

Doityourself.com community forum was created to provide answers to all questions related to home improvement and home repair. Doityourself community can help you find information about how-to topics on small fixes to large remodeling projects. With comprehensive how-to content and expertly moderated community forums DoItYourself.com makes it easy to tackle even the most complex home improvement projects.

PDA

View Full Version : Replacing Brinks with GE ITI Concord Express 80-518

dwestall

10-26-08, 08:17 PM

I just moved into a house that has a Brinks BHS-1200B panel (6 wired zones) with two Brinks DCU500 keypads and hardwire sensors on all the doors and windows.

I don't want to use Brinks monitoring service, so I plan to replace the system with a GE ITI Concord Express 80-518 kit. I have a few questions:

1) Can I use my existing door and window sensors?
2) Will the Concord Express panel support two keypads? I'm thinking about going with the GE 60-820 Fixed Display keypad for the second one.
3) Will the existing Brinks siren work with new Concord system?

Thanks,
dw

GEGUY

10-26-08, 10:59 PM

dwestall

10-27-08, 09:24 AM

Thanks for the quick reply.

The siren currently connected to the Brinks is a little box speaker mounted on a wall and has the following on it:

Premier PTS 15 BHSW
8 Ohm 15W

Up in the attick I found another siren (and transformer) that weren't connected to anything. I'm guessing the Brinks may have replaced a previous alarm system and the installer just left them up there. This siren looks more like a megaphone and says:

ATW DS50
Dual Tone Siren
6-12VDC 115db

Thanks again for you help.
dw

MrRonFL

10-27-08, 11:00 AM

The Brinks system had a built in siren driver, and simply used a speaker. This older siren you found requires a 12vdc output from the system.

Either one will work, but to try to use both would require a little hardware wrangling (you would have to have a siren driver card for the speaker) and set your system to output 12vdc on alarm to use both devices. (although, with a concord family panel you may have the option of two different outputs...)

dwestall

11-21-08, 09:02 AM

The Brinks Alarm has a backup battery with the following on it:

UB1245
Sealed Lead-Acid Battery
1245 12V 4.5Ah

Can I use this battery with the Concord Express? Since this battery is still good (not sure how old), does it make sense to use it first and save the battery that came with my new Concord kit?

Thanks for you help,
dw

MrRonFL

11-21-08, 01:53 PM

A 12v battery is a 12v battery. Compare the Ah rating. You want to use the larger capacity (the new one is probably a 5Ah). If you were feeling really froggy, you could parallel them and add the capacities.

painfinity

01-24-09, 11:31 AM

Thanks guys for your post, they were very helpful. To get away from monthly fees I replaced my Brinks system. It was failrly easy as I had 8 HW zones and concord 4 was a good fit. I did have to use eol resistors on all zones or I had a tamper error. Also the Concord will call my Iphone using the pager feature in an alarm condition. I live in the sticks and it takes the cops at least an hour to show so they are not much help. Programming is not bad but it dos take some study. I was able to use the old siren even though my ebay 79.95 Concord came with one. GE support is no support so you are on your own, They gave me a service Cos. number, so much for that. Again thanks for your posts.

jiggysmb

09-15-09, 06:36 AM

This is exactly what I am working on in my new house. Can someone explain how to set the paging feature to work with the iphone? I understand how to program the number but how do I see the report/codes?

Also, the CPU board was removed until we activate service. I dont want the service but do want the paging feature, can anyone recommend a place to get a used CPU cheap?

Thanks in advance.

GEGUY

09-15-09, 06:09 PM