Trying to upgrade PIRs to newer and Pet Friendly ones

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helixmob

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Hi Everyone,

Sorry for being my first post here, but I have recently purchased a new home and I am now trying to update the alarm PIR sensors, mainly to make more friendly towards pets and also to bring the system up to date. I have taken a few pictures of the current sensors for reference, but I am looking for a direct replacement, I am not that ofay with setting up sensors with resistors so almost an idiots recommendation of a sensor and how to install if it means resistors etc would be great.

Any advise and recommendations will be very welcome indeed :)

Many thanks in advance

Rob

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Most obvious point is do you really need a fully working alarm? Having a visible bell box is the major deterrent.

It's probably easier to replace all the components as a set, being a wired system that's pretty straight forward. That way you can buy a system with pet friendly pirs and you get new back up batteries in main panel and bell box, which are often neglected.
 
Resistors are sometimes used as a "cheat" where more than one sensor has been used on a cable. Nothing really wrong, it just means if a cable is damaged you will lose more than one sensor. It is also true that some panels you have no choice with regard to resistors, you have to have them, and some panels will accept either with or without resistors. (Some very old panels will not accept resistors)

You haven't got a menvier panel have you? (Like either of the pictures below)

As for changing the PIRs to pet friendly, save your money.
In order for a "pet" pir to have a chance of working it should be mounted roughly 1m from the floor, you would need to extend the cables as yours are mounted where they are normally, in the corner. The reason they should be mounted roughly 1m from the floor is unlike normal PIRs pet PIR's look "flat" so if it's high up anyone can walk under it and nothing will happen.

It is said that some pet PIR's will not activate unless they see something above X weight (Let's say 30Kg) Tell me how does a PIR know that THAT dog is 25Kg? does it jump off the wall, run over to the dog, pick it up and go, oh its ok, this dog is only 25Kg, then run back to where it was? of course it doesn't, it is just sales B.S.

The other thing to consider is that most 4 legged pets can and will jump, may be not when you are there, but they can and do jump, the favourite has to be coming down the stairs and jump through the banisters, oh dear, just where the pet PIR can now see it.

If you have 4 legged pets, and you have an alarm you have 2 choices.
1) keep the pet in a specific room/area when the alarm is set.
2) Change the sensors from movement to something else.
 

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I would reccomend the dualtech version of the above. They have built in selectable resistors you will need 2k2 tamp and 4k7 alarm. Unless youve got cats, then i wouldnt bother
 
Or save your money and just put tape over the bottom section of the lens inside the cover.

Takes a bit of trial and error to get right but cheaper than replacing sensors and rules out incompatibility issues.
 
Thank you everyone for the feedback, I will give those sensors a try and see if they work, if not I have not lost anything but a few quid and a hours work I guess :)
 
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