Brinks to Honeywell Vista 20P - General Alarm DIY Questions


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Old 02-16-17, 02:42 PM
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Brinks to Honeywell Vista 20P - General Alarm DIY Questions

Hi Everyone,

First off, I'm new to this, but have read as much as I can before asking these questions... I'm just trying to piece all this information together.

Background
Replacing an old Brinks/ADP alarm with 4 designated zones (1 front door, 1 back door, 1 garage, 1 motion sensor) with a Honeywell Vista 20p (10.23 firmware). Using a 6162RF panel.

Questions/Issues
1. How do I know if Brinks had resistors in place? Based on my testing with a Multi-Meter, I see 0 ohms when my front door is open and ~1.10k when it's closed. Same for by back door. They are recessed Honeywell contact sensors (see Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet).
- How do I know how many ohms these sensors should output, can't find any info online?

2. Every time I connect my front door to zone 2 (or any zone), whether I put in the 2k resistor provided at the panel or not, I get a "Fault 02."
- It feels like the Vista 20p is expecting more than the 1k ohms being put out by my door contact?
- When I put all the 2k resistors in place on the Vista 20P with no sensors connected, the panel looks good and ready (see Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet).
- With a 2k resistor attached at the negative wire of the door sensor at the panel, the ohms is .64k when closed, I think (I have to double check today)
- If I add the 2k resistor at the End of the Line (near the contact point of the door), I'm assuming the .64k (or whatever it is) reading would be the same?

3. Physically, it's hard to see the whole run of the sensor wire, so I can't visually see if there are any resistors at any point in the lines. Pulling out the door contact doesn't show any.
- If my zones are each independent, do EOL resistors "in series" apply?
- Or are EOL resistors needed at all?

- Ideally I would like to have Zone 1 as my starting point, but that is designated for fire alarms, it seems? Can I designate another Zone as fire alarms instead?


Thank you for the help!
 

Last edited by elefantown; 02-16-17 at 03:15 PM.
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Old 02-16-17, 03:15 PM
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It sounds like the brinks installation has either a resistor, or a contact with a built-in resistor on each zone. It will be fairly obvious if the motion has a resistor installed, so that's an easy check.

The simple check with any of the remaining contacts is to disconnect the contact and simply twist the wires together (pulling it apart may expose the resistor, if they used an external one). If your zone closes with a 2k resistor installed with the wires twisted together, then you just replace the contacts with standard ones.

This is one area where swapping from a Brinks to a standard system can be a bit of a pain. That they put the supervision resistors on the loops is a good thing, but it's a hassle to retrofit.

If you don't want to use 2 wire smokes, you can program zone 1 as a standard intrusion zone.
 
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Old 02-16-17, 05:00 PM
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MrRonFL, thanks for the response!

I'll check the motion detector as soon as I can... seems like I need a ladder to get to it.
 
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Old 02-17-17, 11:14 AM
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I opened up my motion sensor and didn't see a resistor inside. So would you say it's safe to assume all other contacts do not have a resister on the line?
 
 

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