Qolsys Panel wiring for power

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1

I’m looking at my old ADT panel and it has 24 gauge wires (telephone) back to the project box.

Can I safely power the Qolsys panel over the same wiring?

Looking at the power brick it’s 12v 2A…which is unfortunately more than the 12V 500mA aux power that the Hardwire 16 can provide.

So I’d connect that wiring to the provided transformer but 24 awg is pretty thin…and I’m guessing the run is a good 20 feet or so.

At 30ft the voltage drop for .5A is .77V so probably not terrible but if the panel draws 2A then the voltage drop is 3V and only 8.9V at the panel.

2

24AWG is fairly common to power older hardwired panel keypads. There should be at least four conductors running to the keypad location.

You can of course re-use the cable for the new plug-in transformer, but in this case you would want to double up on the conductors. If four are available, use two for positive, two for negative. This increases the effective size of the cable.

Earlier model Qolsys panels had a notably low tolerance for voltage drop, but IIRC this was addressed in newer panels.

Always use the included plug in transformer to power the panel.

3

Thanks! I’ll look at doubling up.

Kind of a bummer, I was hoping to use two for routing the siren output back to the old siren. :slight_smile: