atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Security, Alarms and Paging RJ31X question

OK guys, this might be a dumb question...but anyway, I was working at a house that has 3 phone lines. 1 feeds directly to the alarm panel and 2 are voice lines. The RJ31X is just wired with 1 pair coming in and nothing going out. Since there are no phones on this line is this okay?

It is fine Jeff, The RJ31X is used for line seizure, If nothing is down stream you do not need it. Personally I would install one anyway just to give the customer a convenient way to disconnect the phone line from the panel if ever needed plus If they ever decide they want to use that line for something else it is ready to go.

That is what I thought. It's possible that down the road they will want to use the 3rd line for voice as well. Thanks!

In a house, it's fine. In a business, it's fine, too, but remember that to be a (commercial) UL-approved fire alarm system, the control panel needs to have two dial tones: one dedicated, ( no other connection) and the second one can be shared with other stuff, like voice, fax, etc.

So that leads me to ask, if the first line does not have anything on it for a return, does it have to be an RJ31X? Couldn't you just wire the phone line right to the red and green terminals of the panel? Or are you required to have a disconnect point...most alarm guys put the jacks inside the panel anyway.

Yes, you could wire the line to pins 4/5 on a standard 8P8C jack and be done with it nowadays. Due to the nature of the installation, you'd technically have to mark the jack as an RJ11C though.

Today's alarm systems have the ability to detect loss of dial tone and subsequently report it as a trouble. Older alarm systems lacked this intelligence.

This is why it was important to put the real RJ31X on the company's main number so that the customer would know to report the service outage.

Which line you install the alarm on is a matter of personal choice I suppose but as a general rule I never use the main number if there are other numbers available.

My first choice is always the fax line if there is one available for both fire and security systems.
As the secondary line for fire systems I use a line that's not in a rotary group if there is one, otherwise I use the last line in the rotary group.

Ed is correct that the customer will notice line 1 being dead a lot faster than say line 4 or 8 or even the fax line.
In the past when I was working with the older equipment that did not monitor the telephone line voltage I installed a line monitor relay connected to a zone on the panel and programmed the zone as a trouble only zone which would cause the keypad to beep if the line voltage was not present.
Nowdays we just pull those old systems out and install a new panel to bring the system up to current codes.

One reason I don't use the main line is that it's a lot easier for me to remote into the system on the fax line by using answering machine override if the system has that feature.
The way it works is: My computer dials the number to the panel and hangs up after 1 ring, then dials back in less than 30 seconds or so. The panel detects the short pause between calls and will answer on the first ring of the second call before the answering machine or fax answers the call. Very beneficial most of the time.
It can cause problems if you're using line 1.
Last week I gained a new customer because of this exact problem.
Over a year ago the customer's alarm company turned the feature on and the system was using line 1.
A call would ring in and the receptionist answers the call on the first ring if possible. Often it was a short call where a patient just wanted to confirm their appointment time and hang up. The next call would ring during the timed period and the panel answered the call immediately.
They called their "Phone man" out repeatedly to locate the problem. He tried everything he could think of including reporting the problem to the TELCO. The Doctor wasn't happy when he had to pay the TELCO for a service call and still had the problem.
After everything failed their "Phone man" told them they were just going to have to live with it.
The Doctor decided that was the wrong answer and called us.

Another reason not to use the main number is if there is a problem with the alarm,they sometimes seize the line without making it buzy so the customer is not getting incoming calls. This has happenned to me several times.

I prefer a fax line also. I don't like main lines because that is the one that a customer will try to use in an emergency to call 911 and it just adds to the panic when they pick the phone up and there is no dialtone.

Most systems will go into trouble if the phone line is disconnected, so putting it on line 1 is not really necessary just to make sure it is working.

-Hal

Hi...the RJ31x is just for line seizure...so...if you have a dedicated phone line then technically you don't need one; however, I recommend installing them regardless. If the alarm gets into a mode of "run-away"...that is...it's sending error signals to your monitoring center the customer can disco the alarm panel at the RJ31x...thereby...saving the monitoring center a lot of trouble and potentially you some $$ since some monitoring centers charge for run-away alarm signals.