Alarm Grid LYNX-EXT: Using Wired External Sirens w/ a LYNX Security System

Hi, DIY-ers. Sterling from Alarm Grid here, and today we're going to show you how to hook up an External Sounder or Strobe to a Honeywell LYNX Touch Security System. While the LYNX Touch has an internal built-in siren that, when the alarm goes off, will make a loud noise inside the house emanating from the panel, we frequently are asked how people can add additional sirens so that, when the alarm goes off, every area of the house or outside the house would alert someone to the break-in. Now the 5800 Wave is a wireless siren that can be added. That one is very easy. It matches to the House ID Code of the panel. You plug it into the wall. You set your Dip switches to match the House ID that's programed in your LYNX Touch. And when it's plugged into the wall outlet, it works great.

The problem with the 5800 Wave is that it only works about 50 feet from the panel or, with a repeater, up to 100 feet from the panel. It also is only an indoor siren, so you've got some limitations. It's also not quite as loud as the LYNX Touch. If you want a really loud siren or you want an outdoor siren or you want a siren that's going to be further than 50 or 100 feet from the panel, then your only option is to use a relay module with an auxiliary power supply and do some setup there with some wiring and all these parts that we have. And then you can add any wired siren to the system. You get a lot more flexibility with your siren options. It's a little bit more of a setup, much different than just plugging something into an outlet. But we're going to show you how easy it can be when you have the right items.

The tools you'll need. We have a little Phillips head screwdriver. We have a hammer and a bigger screwdriver and that's just for some knockouts on the panel. You don't really need these but it makes it a little bit easier. We have some wire strippers and we have four conductor, 22 gauge stranded wire. You can use 18 gauge. It should be a little thicker wire. Depends on how far you're going to do your siren run, but typically 18 or 22 gauge, four conductor alarm or speaker wire. You can get this at your local hardware store or Home Depot or Loews and they normally come in preset links or you can just have them cut how long you'll need.

When you do your connections, there's a few items you need. You need a relay module. We have the 5800RL, which is a little wireless relay module. The advantage of this is that wherever you're going to do your siren installation can be separate from the control panel. You do not need to run a wire from your siren location all the way back to your LYNX Touch. Gives you the flexibility to mount your siren up in your eaves, in your attic or somewhere like that and then just go wireless back to the control panel so that when the panel goes into alarm, it kicks in the siren. If you're going to go wireless, do the 5800RL relay module.

If you are converting from an old wired system or it's preconstruction or you have access to wire from your siren location back to the control panel, a less expensive option is to use Altronix RBSNTTL. It's an ultra sensitive relay and the LYNX Touch panel has an ultra sensitive trigger output that works great with this relay. You'll save a little bit of money by going this route but you do need to make your wire connection all the way from your siren back to your control panel.

These two items, the 5800RL or the RBSNTTL, these are going to be the relays. This is what the panel is going to tell to kick on which will activate the siren. Now because both of these units need power, you're also going to need an auxiliary power supply. An auxiliary power supply is a circuit board that takes AC power from a transformer plugged into the wall, converts it to DC power, which will power the siren and the relay module. We have here a Honeywell AD12612. This is a six or 12 volt power supply with 1.2 amp output. The sirens that you're going to be hooking up are going to draw down from this unit so you want to make sure that you're not exceeding the output that this device requires or drives rather. Whenever you're deciding which sirens to use, you have to make sure you understand the current draw of the siren and make sure that you're not going to exceed the output of your power supply. If you need a higher-powered power supply, the Altronix SMP3 is a 2.5 amp power supply so about double the power of this little unit.

We're going to show this one so, again, AC power from a wall. Because of that, you also need a transformer. This transformer is the Honeywell 1361 and this is the transformer that you should use with this power supply. This is a 16.5 VAC 40 VA transformer. This gets plugged into the wall, gets connected to the AC terminals on the power supply so that this is feeding power to the power supply which, in turn, feeds power to the relay modules and the siren. This has a charging circuit coming off of it for a backup battery. We suggest the UltraTech 1240. This is a 12 volt, four and a half amp hour battery so that, if you lose power to your outlet, the siren setup will still work because your system always has a battery backup. We always recommend that when you're doing this External Sounder setup, that you use the backup battery. So we have our backup battery.

Finally, we have this nice little can here which allows you to mount your battery, your power supply and your relay in this nice little can so that you have a nice little enclosure, keep everything neat. You'd have your wiring coming out the side going to your transformer and going to your siren which is going to be mounted separately. This allows you to mount it to the wall, keep everything nice and neat. So we have our can.

We have a part number on our website is the LYNX, L-Y-N-X dash E-X-T and what that includes is this can, the wireless relay module, the 1.2 amp power supply, AD12612, the 1361 Transformer and the battery. We give you everything you would need to add a wired siren wirelessly back to your LYNX Touch. You can also build your own separate kit if you wanted to do the hardwired relay.