Running Power to a 2GIG GC3 or GC3e

Hey there, DIYers Jarrett with Alarm Grid. Today we're going to be going over how you would wire power to the 2GIG GC3e system. Now, there's a couple of methods as to how you can run power to the GC3e. The first method is using what's called the Honeywell LT cable. The LT cable is a fixed eight-foot power cable that you can use that has barrel connections on it, right? And it makes it very easy for you to go ahead and plug in or unplug power to the system in case you ever have to power cycle it or anything like that. It is one of the cables that we like using with a couple of different systems because it's just overall very easy to set up. Now, this is the LT cable right here. As you can see, you have the barrel connection side of i you have the male connection right here, and then you have the female connection. The female connection is actually going to wire into the back of the GC3e. And then you would have the male connector go ahead and plug into it. On the other end of it, you have the spade connectors right here. These are going to be wired into the transformer side. So this is obviously where you would go ahead and plug it into an outlet, and then this side would just plug in to the barrel connection. Now, the other method of using or wiring a power is using the 2GIG AC to transformer or power cable. It's actually very similar to this cable, actually, but instead of this little piece right here, you just have a male barrel connection end. And then the other side of it is-- it doesn't look like this at all, actually. It's already fixed or wired to the transformer. Just comes out from the back of it. You're not screwing anything into the back to the transformer like you would with this one. That is a fixed 10-foot cable. So if you have a small run for power, like if you have an outlet that's about eight feet, 10 feet, or so, then you can go ahead and use that instead of using a different type of cable. Now, the third method of setting up power would be using custom wire. Custom wire meaning 18 by 2 gauge cable I mean, 20 by 2 gauge cable, 22 by 2 gauge cable. Basically you can find this specific custom wire really anywhere. You go to Home Depot, Lowe's, maybe you could find it at Walmart, Ace Hardware. You can find this wire really anywhere, and you can use that simply to just run power to your system. So, you want to use two conductor cable. Essentially, this is what the custom wiring looks like. This is an 18 gauge cable right here. This is actually 18 by 4 gauge cable. You see you have the yellow and green wrapping around it. But if you got by 2 gauge cable, you're just going to have the positive and negative. Essentially, you're just kind of using the positive and negative to run power to the system. So the different gauge cables that we recommend that you can go and use is 18 by 2, 20 by 2, 22 by 2, or 16 by 2 can also be used as well. It's not always recommended for other types of systems, but for the 2GIG system, you can do that. Now, if you are using 18 gauge cable, furthest you can run power is about 170 feet from the panel to the transformer. If you are using 16 gauge cable, the furthest you can go is about 270 feet, actually, and if using 20 gauge cable, you can go about 120 feet. And 22 gauge cable, it's about 75 feet. And again, this is the length of wire between the system and the transformer that's being plugged into an outlet. Now, you do want to try to stay within these recommended specifications for the wire run so that you can make sure that your system is getting enough power. If the system's not getting enough power, you can have some issues here and there with that system. You just want to make sure you're staying within that range so you can make sure everything is working properly. So now, if you want to go ahead and set up power to the system or to the 2GIG GC3e, first, you have to basically open it up and take a look at the inside. So we have it mounted here in the wall. What you want to do-- or if you already have it mounted, you just pull it from the bottom, and then push up from the top. And then you can be able to take it off the back plate. But essentially, you just really need to remove that, and then you can see the inside of it here. Now, if you look in the inside of it, you have the battery backup. And you always want, before you're setting up power, you always want to make sure that the battery backup is unplugged. You never, ever want to have the battery backup plugged in when you're setting up power. It's just recommended not to do that, because it can cause some issues with the power to your battery backup. So to avoid that, you always want to make sure it's unplugged. So in this instance, we do have it unplugged. And if you look-- take a little further look here, you have the barrel connector right here. So if you're using the 2GIG AC 2 wire, you just plug it in there with that male connection. And then if you're using custom wire or if you're using the LT cable, then you're going to be looking at this terminal right here to be able to wire that cable into it. So, for instance, the two spots, or the two terminals, that you're going to be setting up your positive and negative cable to is the power positive and the power negative. It's these two terminals right here, right? Actually just underneath the battery backup, right? If you don't have this sticker, it's just the first two terminals right underneath the battery backup. Now, as you can see on the LT cable, you have a pretty small positive cable right there, and then you have a small negative cable. Essentially, you're just going to wire the positive and negative right in through there. And then you would plug it in via the barrel connection. Same thing in custom wire. You just don't have the barrel connection, but it's going to wire into the positive and negative. All right. So now we have the GC3e set up here on our table, and we have the custom wire actually fed through the hole. And I am going to be showing you how to set up the power. So essentially, as I said, you're going to be using the positive and then the negative wire. Now, if you look at the back of the panel, you have the terminal right here with all the screws and everything that you would set up different sirens or anything if you want to, but right now, we're really working on the power. So you're going to be taking your positive wire and you're going to wire it into the power plus, PWR plus, terminals. It's going to be the first one right underneath the battery backup, or even right underneath that barrel connection. So you're going to go ahead and just put that into the terminal at the bottom, going to need to screw, and then you're going to need either a flat-head screwdriver or a Phillips head screwdriver. But essentially, you are just going to screw that in until it's nice and snug. And then now, you're going to take your negative wire and you're going to wire it right next to it. It's going to go into the power negative terminal, so PWR negative. It's going to be the one right underneath the positive. So you just going to go ahead and take that, put that into the terminal at the bottom as well, just screw that in-- I want to make sure that none of these wires-- whenever you're using or powering anything to the system, you want to make sure that it is not loose, by any means. You want to make sure that the system is getting a good solid connection. If it's loose, you're going to have power issues. Now, it is extremely important here that your cables or your power cables are not loose at all. If they're loose or anything, it's a possibility that the system could have some power issues. You want just to avoid all of that. You want to make sure that your power cables are always tightened. You don't want to ever run into any issues like that. So now the next step here is to set up power to your transformer, or wire your custom wire to the transformer. So it's the same exact concept. You have the positive and negative wire here. And then on the transformer, you have positive terminal, a screw terminal, right here on the left side-- or the right side, depending on how you're looking at it. And then, you have the negative screw terminal here on the other side. So you can be taking your positive wire and you're going to be setting it up or putting it underneath that screw so you can go in and screw it down tightly. All right, so as you can see, I have the positive and negative cable right here, and the reason why they're hooked is because-- basically if you try to stick it underneath the screw terminal while it's straight, sometimes you can when you're screwing it down, it could push that cable out instead of making good contact with it. So if you do a little hook, it's going to have a better chance of it making a good contact with that screw. So if you just go on from the top, just hook it down, and then just screw it down-- And there you go. Nice solid connection with it. So we're going to do the same exact thing with the negative cable. I'm just going to go ahead and go in from the top, whichever way is easiest for you to be able to try to get in there. If you do want to go ahead and try the hook method, you can. If you have a different method, by all means, go ahead and give it a try. But what I found to be a little bit better for the connection is by doing a little hook. It is a little bit easier as well, because it keeps the cable on place while you're trying to screw it down. So I'm just going to go ahead and screw that in here. And now you have a good connection with your transformer. So you want to tug on the bottom of that. Make sure that your wires are not loose at all. Basically, I'm pulling pretty good here, and they're not loose by any means. So as I said a little bit earlier, you want to make sure that your cables are not loose when you're setting up power. So now, the next step here is essentially to power it up. You want to plug in your battery backup on the GC3 or the GC3e. So you have your little battery. Connect it right here, just plug that in. It's going to be located right behind the male connection or the male barrel connection. So just going to go ahead and push that in there, and then if you already have the back plate on the wall, you want to go ahead and mount it. Try not to mount it upside down like I just did, but there you go. You want to make sure it's nice and connected. And then your transformer side, you plug it into an outlet. You can go ahead and power up your system. Now you have power to the GC3e. So now I'm going to be showing you real quick how to set up power by using the Honeywell LT cable. So here we are, and am going to show you how to plug it in now. You have your positive and negative, just like the other cable, and you're going to be basically matching it up with the same exact terminals. You're going to put the positive in power PWR plus, and then you can put the negative in PWR negative. So we're going to be taking the positive, just wire into the positive side, and then screw that down. Again, the PWR plus terminal is directly underneath the battery backup of the GC3e. And then you'll be taking your negative and wiring it into the negative terminal. Now, it might be a little bit difficult here because the LT cable gives you fairly small wire to play with here to be able to set it up, but once you get that in there, screw that in. Not every single LT cable is going to have a very small end like that. They are going to be a little bit different here and there. But I am tugging on it to make sure nothing is loose. And that's essentially it. All right, so now we're going to be setting up the transformer on the LT cable. So I already have the LT cable pulled through here, through our little hole. I'm trying not to pull that through. But basically at the end for the transformer, same exact thing-- positive and negative. So you're going to be lining up the positive, the red positive wire with the positive screw terminal in the transformer. And this had spade lugs here. So it's going to be very easy to just screw it down. You don't have to hook it or anything like that. So just pop that underneath the screw, screw it in. It just fits right underneath it. It's perfect. So screw that in there. Do the same thing with the negative. Negative cable just goes underneath the little negative terminal, and screw that in as well. Tug to make sure nothing is loose, and there you go. You have a positive and negative setup. So once you've confirmed that you have everything wired up correctly, then all you have to do here in the GC3e is take your battery backup, you're going to plug that in, and you're going to go ahead and pop that into the terminal here. And then you have the female connection of the barrel connector for that LT cable. You're going to go ahead and plug that in. Again, put it on its back plate. Make sure it is not upside down again. And that is how you wire power to the 2GIG GC3e. If you have any further questions about the 2GIG GC3e or alarm systems in general, please reach us at support@alarmgrid.com or go to our website-- alarmgrid.com. If you found this video helpful, please like and subscribe. If you'd like notification of future videos, please click the bell icon. This is Jarrett from Alarm Grid. Have a wonderful day.