Hello everyone i just wanted to know if anyone has had a problem with the FC error message on the display. The alarm works well but i cant get rid of this Error message. I know that it is a communication failure but i do not see any problems with the system. Any help will be appreciated.

 

It means that the panel is trying to call a central station and not connecting. It's either lacking a phone line/dialtone, trying to call a number that no longer works, or has a incorrectly programmed phone number. The solution depends on whether its _supposed_ to be monitored.

 

Thanks for the help and the system is not supposed to dial out because it is not monitored by a central station. I guess i should check check the programming. Thanks again..

 

Hi I am having the same issue I cancelled my service over a year ago. I do not know why it took so long to start giving me the error but it now beeps every 15min and is driving me nuts! So anyone now how I can fix this?

Thanks
JT

 

Enter your installer code and remove the phone numbers that call the central office.

 

There is the problem I do not have an installer code.

 

Disconnect the battery & AC, then do the following:

POWER UP (plug in the AC), then depress [*] and [#] both at once, within 50 seconds of powering up.

You will now be in the installer mode with 20 in the display.

Either press [#] 20 which will display the current installer code or press [*] 20 and enter in your new installer code followed by a [*].

When you exit, press[*] 99

Rehook up the battery and your good to go. To get back in to the installer mode, enter the following:

Installer code plus 8 + 0 + 0

 

I do have a monitoring service, and I'm getting a Comm Failure.

I also have an installer, and this is about the 20th Ademco he's installed, and the only one that's giving him this sort of problems. The system seems to work fine, and then a few hours later it gets a Comm Failure, and doesn't clear until you completely power it down, including the battery. No other reset works. And then it works fine for a while.

We've both spent many hours on the phone with their corporate tech support, plus our local phone company. The phone line checks out perfect, and they've now replaced the entire alarm. Same thing.

There are two differences between this setup and his others is that I have a single phone line out, not multiple (don't need multiple in the age of cell phones), and also I have call waiting and Qwest voice mail. I have a feeling it may be the latter that's causing problems, but we don't know what to do. We've tried putting in call waiting into *40 and *91. We've added delays to the outgoing dialing to see if the voice mail fast beep code is screwing up the dialing. None of this helps. It will go to Comm Failure when there is no alarm, hours or days after we test the crap out of it, and it seems to work.

The other difference is that I have DSL on this one line. The DSL filter block is right in the exterior connection to the house, where it splits into a line into my office and the normal house lines, which are on this master filter. Since the DSL is always on, and since this effectively makes it be separate lines, I don't think that this is the issue, since the alarm is on the filtered line.

Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.

 

You did need the delays, that voice mail beep does screw things up.

Sadly, this is one of those situations where the only thing that will catch it is being able to listen in with a buttset when the failure occurs.

This is, I suspect, a telephone service issue, and not an alarm issue.

If they have this system set typically, it's doing an auto-test either once a week or once a month, which is why this seems so random.

The one other possibility is that if this is a fairly small monitoring center is that once in awhile, the panel gets a busy signal.

The problem with this is that you no longer get a busy signal beep, these days; instead you get "this line is busy, if you would like us to continue trying to dial this number press xx".

An alarm panel knows how to handle the busy signal, but it gets stuck with the voice message.

The only way to clear a comm failure without a power down is to call the monitoring center, put the account "on test" and send an alarm or trouble.

 

You may be right about
It seems that when I call a local line and it's busy I get a voice mail message that states "The line is busy. For 75 cents we will continue to try and call you back when......."

The service is a smaller service, but it does have multiple incoming lines. But with no clear busy, it's possible that the panel is getting confused.

As a clarification, is failure to get a recognized response from the monitoring service the only way you can get a "Comm Failure"? "Comm Failure" does not seem to be documented very well in the Installation, Programming or User manuals I have for it. The support staff says it's because it didn't get the correct response from the monitoring station, but that's kind of a nebulous answer, and as I've said we've tried this repeatedly during testing, with no problems. So you are probably right about it being an atypical event.

Also, when someone gets the Comm Failure message, does this mean that the system is totally dead, or only won't communicate, or will function and communicate but it's just letting us know that the last time there was a Comm Failure?

 

"Communication Failure" for an alarm system means that it dialed a call, but never received the final confirmation signal (Kiss Off) that tells it that the data transmission was successful.

This means anything from a new-style busy signal, to the call being interrupted.

It only means that the last attempt at a communication was not successful.

 

After looking at a few forum trying to reset the code has been a mess. I'm just wondering if anyone can tell me what I can do. I did a few of the things yesterday and after reading some of the stuff I did see a 20 but I think I locked down my panel because now I can see anything no number no letter or error codes it is just blank all I hear is beeping every time I press any of the key in the panel is there anything I can do do reset it from scratch.
I've tried powering up and down and still nothing. By the way I do have the manual and the installer code is 6321 plus 8 0 0

This alarm was here when we bought the house so we do not what the code was before.

Thank you

 

_What_ did you do? Step by step. It's very hard to figure out what went wrong, if we don't know what keystrokes you entered.

There are actually codes you can enter that will, in fact, shut down the system interface.

 

Well I powered it up and hit *and #
then I know I saw a 20 but since where I in one of the forum didn't mention anything about a 20 I just proceeded with the 6-3-2-1 and 8-0-1 and my code then nothing came out so I did it again but then I found the manual from the previous owner and saw it was 8-0-0 instead. You know I really don't know what to do it might of just shut down like you said is there anything that could be done at this point or that's it I'm done.

PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!

And thank you so much for your respond.

 

I think that you may have misread the posts and/or the installer manual (you _do_ have the installer manual?). You are trying to do the wrong commands in the wrong sequence. You don't change the master code from installer programming. That is a normal run mode sequence.

Since you never pressed the * key at any point, then you haven't likely changed any actual programming settings. The system was just still in program mode waiting for a command.

Power down again and do the * + #.
When it displays 20, enter #20. This will read back the installer code 1 digit at a time (which should be 6321 as you previously stated, but we want to make sure you didn't accidentally change it)

Exit programming with *99

To change the master code, enter [installer code] + 8 + 02 +[new code]

 

I did what you told me.
I powered it up (except the battery)
First time after powering up I waited 50 sec and did the steps.
It didn't work!
Second time I held the * + # while powering it up.
It didn't work!
Third time I just powered and didn't wait the 50 sec I just did it.
And I still didn't do anything!
I also did *39 to power up without unplug it.

I have 2 different panel and I try both in different occasion will that make a difference (although not yesterday)

So do you thinkI might of locked it or is there still hope?

Thanks again!!!!!

 

Actually, you didn't do what was written. You did it pretty close to backwards, initially. "Within 50 seconds" means to press the keys in 50 seconds or less.

At this point, I cannot glean enough information from your memory of your steps to figure out what you actually did. It sounds like your keypads are not accepting input at all. Could you have possibly changed the keypad address, or dislodged the keypad wireing while you were in the system enclosure?

What shows on the keypad display when nothing has been done for awhile?

 

It displays nothing. I looks like it's shutoff but is not because the keypad is lit.


Thanks

 

Try this: Power down wait a minute then power up.

1. Apply power to the keypad.
2. Within 60 seconds of applying power to the keypad, press
and hold down the [1] key and [3] key at the same time
for 3 seconds. The current keypad address will be
displayed.

What address is displayed?

I have a strong suspicion that you may have changed your keypad address while you were bumbling around.

 

The only thing I didn't understand was step 1 applying power to the keypad. Sorry!!!!
If I power it (plug in ac and battery) doesn't the keypad get power too.

Thanks!!!!

 

Never mind I did it and I did get a reading. Gosh you are so good anyway the number was 17 but the number one was blinking. So I hope that can help some.

Thanks

 

You can power down a keypad individually by simply disconnecting the black wire on the back or unplugging the connector on the back (depending on which model keypad you have)

If you check the other keypad, it should be 16. Are _both_ keypads blank, or is it just the one with the address of 17?

Look, clearly you are having trouble following the technical instructions. Do yourself a favor and call in a pro. It is impossible to determine what has been done to this system based on your second-hand information.

 

So I need to power down the keypads, So maybe thats why I got the number 17 and not something else. Because I didn't do that and Yes both pad are blank. I didn't check to see if the other one said 16 I just saw the one I was working with. But right now they are both blank it just gave me that number 17 with the number one blinking and went back to being blank.

So I went from a functional one to now having to call a pro. That's what I was trying to avoid. The alarm was just there for 2 yrs and we just had it off since we didn't the code. Is there anything else that you can thinks of that I can perhaps do. If I need to powr them down then how do I open the keypads you can't really see any screws or anything.

Thanks

 

Thanks to Mr Ron FL just reading your advise to others helped me to clear up the comm fault? glass break problem with my Ademco system. It seems bugs had deposited eggs in the control box shorting out the contacts. that was pretty obvious , however not untiI I read your advise to power the system down , was I able to clear the fault.

Thanks again
Dan

 

I also want to thank MrRonFL. I was able to get my installer code. I bought a new house with Ademco Vista 20p system but I don't have any of the codes.

...there is a small mistake in this thread regarding changing master code:

"To change the master code, enter [installer code] + 8 + 01 +[new code]"

It's actually....enter [installer code] + 8 + 02 + [new master code]

I found MrRonFL's reply on another thread and read section 12 of the Installation Guide (which was not obvious until I saw MrRonFL's reply). I will give that a try tomorrow to get my master code.

 

Thanks for the catch. It's an oldish thread, but I must have had a "fat finger" typing day. It's fixed, now.

 

First, I want to say, thank you for all your help MrRonFL.
Yealrs later your advice is still valid.
I'm also getting an FC alert all of a sudden when my house has not been monitored for over two years.

"It means that the panel is trying to call a central station and not connecting. It's either lacking a phone line/dialtone, trying to call a number that no longer works, or has a incorrectly programmed phone number.
The solution depends on whether its _supposed_ to be monitored."

It's not supposed to be monitored.

"Enter your installer code and remove the phone numbers that call the central office."

Ok, I got my installer code...how do I find and remove the phone numbers?

Thank you.

 

In programming *41* *42*, then exit programming with *99.

Read over the sticky titled "Alarm Forum FAQ (Please read before posting)" there are other details that may prove helpful.

 

Works like a charm, I'm sorry I didn't read FAQs first..the information was all there...
FC alert cleared with no problem.
Thank you very much.

 

I Have a vista 20-p alarm system had a low battery message powered down for a few days till I got a new battery and now I have a comm failure mesage any ideas?

 

If this is an existing system that was once monitored, but now has no landline connected, then you have the same problem as the original poster of this thread.

In short, you have to turn off the dialer.