Hi folks, newbie here. No prior experience with residential alarms.

A rental property I bought recently (vacant) has a Vista 10SE. Last week the house was broken into, so I decided it's time to get the thing up and pumping. I'm not going to connect to a service; I just want to scare off the next punk that gets in (the system has a REAL loud siren alarm). From reading here, and the install and programming manuals, I'm 3/4ths there, but... of course, it has only two fixed alpha keypads. I know it's not recommended to try to fly blind with these, but all I have left to do is program the hardwire zones for local audible alarm, and I really would rather not have to go through the time and expense of a two-line pad. In addition to the manuals, I have the original installer's diagram with the zone number info for each sensor. So... I'm hoping some kind soul will help me with the specific keystroke sequence I need to do this.

Here's what I have so far...
*56 brings up zone 01. I enter the 2-digit code for zone type for zone 01. Now, if I'm reading everything correctly , the next thing it wants is the 4-keystroke hex alarm report code. I'm not connecting to a service-- this is for local audible alarm only-- so can I just enter four zeros for the report code for each zone? And once I've put in the four zeros (or whatever four digits you tell me I need to enter), what should come up next on screen, and what do I do to move on to the next zone? And once I'm done programming the six HW zones, do I just hit *00 to exit zone programming? I guess I'm asking a lot, but there seems to be several kind and helpful folks here, so just maybe... please?

One other question. The IR motion detectors are installed on zones that are factory-defaulted to zone type 03, perimeter burglary. I understand that this zone type is supposed to trip instantly (no entry/exit delay) when the system is armed, but... these are setting off the alarm when the system is *unarmed* (in "ready" mode). Do you think this indicates a system defect, or is it maybe just because the IR sensors are mis-matched to the wrong zone type, and should work properly-- only trip when the system's armed-- once they're zone-typed 04?

At any rate, many thanks in advance for any insight you can offer. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

John

 

You don't have to do all of that. All you need to do is erase the monitoring phone numbers. On a Vista panel, that is the difference between a local system and a monitored one (those are *41* and *42* to erase the dialer numbers)

If the zones are already configured correctly for the dwelling, that's all you need to do. It shouldn't be creating an alarm on a zone type 03 with the system disarmed (07 is the only one that's a 24hour audible).
The trick with trying to do zone programming blind is to write out the keystokes according to your manual, that's really all you can do. It sounds like you do need to reset the zone type of that one zone.

 

Thanks for the reply. The only reason I brought up the hex codes is that it seems like the system is waiting for that input for each zone that I try to program, after I put in the zone type-- like it needs to be a complete linear sequence from beginning to end for each zone, and each zone completely programmed, sequentially, from 1 to 6. If it's possible to just put in the zone type for each zone and then move on to the next zone without punching in the hex codes, I'd love to know how. I made the stupid mistake of starting to try to program the thing before I had any grasp of what I was doing, and in what order-- got it real screwed up and decided to go ahead and *97 to the factory defaults. That's why the IR's are programmed to the wrong zone type.

Even though I'm starting to get it now, without the labels it's pretty dicey, as you know. The manuals only describe how to program with the two-line keypad, of course. I'll be back over at the property tomorrow and have another go (after spending some more time with the manuals tonight).

Thanks again.

John

 

Yes, for zone programming, you have to step through all of the layers of each zone, which is why doing more than one or two zones without the 2-line keypad is such a bear. For the areas like report code, where the default is fine, simply press * as the enter key to accept that "screen". Basically, you are pretending that you see the prompt, and are entering the data blind.

Theres actually more than 6, so you could find yourself in pretty much an endless loop if you don't know when to stop.

 

Okay... so once I get my six HW zones done-- how *do* I stop?

Thanks,

John

 

When you get to the next step that would move you into another zone program you enter 00 which will take you out of zone programming mode (read over the section in the install manual on *56 zone programming, all of the steps and commands are there).

 

Thanks!

John

 

Well, after spending another hour on it today, going through the zone programming routine time after time, install book in one hand, programming book in the other (punching the keys with my nose) I finally found the "rhythm" of the process and got everything straightened out. It's working great.

Thanks again, Ron.