Saturday, March 5, 2011

The Scramble at the End

My time working on the security crew at my job will soon come to an end - as soon as we finish the security system. The last week will be taken up with work on every single kind of loose end imaginable. It's not that we've been irresponsible about getting aspects of the system completed. Security work is almost COMPLETELY reliant on other trades to have their work done on time and correctly. You can't install a door contact on a door that isn't there. You can't wire the handset of a lock when the door that was ordered is incorrect, lacking a raceway from the electric hinge to the handset. But these problems all work themselves out eventually. They're stressful, but the last few weeks of a security install are the best.

Security work begins with endless days of pulling teeny-tiny wire from every secure door to the security panel. Different doors would get different combinations of cable. Sometimes two 18/2s, a 22/4, and a 12/2. Sometimes just one 18/2, a 22/8, a 22/4, and a 12/2. Keeping everything organized and strapped down neatly in the cable tray is tedious and slow-moving work. Not at all exciting and when I first found myself on the security crew I was something less than thrilled about it.

After all the cables were pulled, however, life on the security crew improved dramatically. Installing RRE panels (the computers that controlled each door's security) and card readers, keypads and door contacts was rewarding. Wiring each of these pieces of equipment and setting up the panels and server racks back in the security closet was a lot of fun. 'Normal' electrical work is pretty straight forward. Voltage, phase, hot, neutral and ground. But in the security world it's low-voltage DC power and circuit boards that make up functional system. Having dip switches set appropriately and ensuring that the correct wires are landed in the correct location on a terminal strip depending on the configuration of a door was anything but mindless drudgery.

As I mentioned above, it's when the system is substantially complete and mostly up and running that the real fun begins. Trying to trouble shoot the doors that won't come on-line requires a systematic approach and an understanding of how the system works, both in the computer controlling the system and electrically over the length of the circuit.

I've been very lucky to land in security work. I've gotten to install some pretty high-tech pieces of equipment. I've installed, wired, brought on-line, aimed and addressed video cameras that cost more than my car. I've built and installed a server system with 44 terabytes of memory. I've wired transformers and rectifiers. I've dealt with fiber optics. I'll miss it when the project wraps up at the end of next week and I'm off to another job.