Tech / Special Interest → Electronics > Contact closure Tripplite Envirosense

Contact closure Tripplite Envirosense

I'd like to configure my Tripplite Envirosense card to monitor when my house burglar alarm is activated but I'm not familiar with the Envirosense inputs. The documentation states that there are four contact closures and one common. Without knowing exactly what the Envirosense card input specifications are, can somebody explain to me what this means?

quote:

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The EnviroSense sensor supports up to four contact closure connections (Figure 3). Pin 1 is the Common connection. The other four connections are labeled Smoke, Fire, Water and Security for convenience, but each of them can connect with any type of contact closure device.

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It means when the alarm goes off it should energize a relay. The common and one of the inputs (probably Security in this case) on the Tripplite are wired to the NO contacts of said relay.

/M

Mackey has the right explanation, basically your environment card needs to be hooked up to a set of dry contacts (contacts without power or any other connections except the environment card.) The card senses if it is floating (not connected to common) or grounded (connected to common) using it's own internal circuity. From within the software you may be able to select which contact state is normal (either open or closed).

APC stuff is similar, though they generally don't use a common ground (each input is a pair).

Your alarm might provide a dry set of contacts for use with auxiliary devices, or you might have to build a relay setup to drive the monitor.
Either way, just don't put power on those inputs as this will likely damage it.

Got it. Thanks guys.
A friend of mine works for Honeywell and has a boatload of extra relays for this specific purpose. He is going to hook me up with a few. I'll build a little enclosure for em and start monitoring my burglar alarm, HVAC, etc.