Mount castle silent door bell GOD WHAT A DAY!!!!!

[KevinS]

Had a job today to remove a mountcastle silent door bell (for deaf people) today from one property and refit in another.
sounded simple enough till I found the plasterers had cut some of the cables, so I couldn't identify where things went
what complicated things slightly were, they also had a fire alarm (separate system but connected to the mountcastle)
basically there is the unit, a connector for the phone line, a bell push, 2 x smokes, 2 x strobe units, and the fire alarm unit c/w vibrating pad to go under pillow
must remember at this point I've no instructions, no wiring diagram, nothing.
gets everything wired up, the doorbell, phone, strobes are working perfectly. But every time I turn the fire alarm on it gives me a fault.
Tried everything, checked cables, tried different combinations of wiring, everything - but still getting a fault on the panel
No disrespect here to deaf people, but have u ever tried working in a deaf family's house, the noise is INCREDIBLE. the dog barked continuously, the kids were upstairs fighting, (parents oblivious), the tv was at max volume (with subtitles), they were stomping about the house, not aware how much noise this was making!
and there was me trying to concentrate!
dunno why but I thought maybe it was because the battery wasn't fitted. Problem solved. 2 1/2 hrs of hair pulling for that.
Rant over!

 

[bigbaddave]

Tad old thread I know, However I had a call out yesterday to which they had no lights anywhere in the house.. They had a 6a breaker stuffed with 6 cables.. Well cut a long story short I followed one cable to an alarm which still had power and then the second was to this Mount castle unit under the stirs.. When i asked the customer what it was they said it was a unit to make the lights flash when the doorbell is sounded. MMMMMMMMM OK ALARM BELLS...

Anyway a quick push at the doorbell the lights came on.. Now at 11 last night I wasnt interested in what or why it worked. But now thinking about it.. Never dealt with one before but how is it wired and how does the unit work ?

 

[Oduxler001]

Hi, I never work in this condition but you have patience. you done your work late but its good. But how you find the problem could you tell me.

Bell Locksmith

 

[ringer]

Pushing a doorbell will make a contact within the doorbell switch. Take your finger off the pushbutton and that contact is broken. I suspect that the Mountcastle detects this and then makes the lights flicker on and off. If the pushbutton sticks on then the contact is not broken when you take your finger off it. By pushing the button again bigbaddave probably just did enough to make the button work properly again.

 

[KevinS]

Basically the tenant leaves the lights in the on position during the day, but a contacter in mountcastle ( mc) keeps them off, when the bell is pressed the contacter flickers them on and off
at evening time when you would have the lights on, the tenant puts the mc into night mode, this allows the lights to stay on, again the mc flickers the lights if the bell is pushed

that is the basic system, you just add smokes, phone, etc to the system.
quite a primitive thing, but works well.

 

[KevinS]

It is wired by taking you light feed from the db to the mountcastle then back into the db and away to your lighting circuits. Most mc's that I have used only have the 1 contacter, so both up n down lights end up on the same circuit