I have successfully enrolled all of my wireless sensors. Now to start installing them. Thank you to all! I am sure I will be back with more questions.

 

I have installed all of my sensors and everything seems to be functioning properly. I have a few more questions.

1)Regarding the entry/exit delay, I would like to set the exit delay on my front door to 45 seconds and the door to my garage at 60 seconds. For the entry delay I would like 15 seconds for the front door and 30 seconds for the garage. When I go into *35 and *36 I select 1 for the front door and then 45 for the exit delay. I then hit *. It seems to take this, but the manual is weird in saying 45-96=45-96 seconds for exit and 0-96=0-96 seconds. I am assuming I have done this properly and and able to input any number in this range?

2)For the A,B,C,D keys on the 6160v I would like to set them as panic keys for police audible, silent panic, fire and personal emergency. I see on 6-6 of the installer manual it has A as zone 95, B as zone 99 and C as zone 96. I have all of my report codes set as 1 1 1 1. It appears I can only set A,B and C. What is the D key for? How do I program these panic keys in?

3) Is there a way to have a code programmed in that will activate a silent alarm? I had this feature on a previous DSC alarm and think it is a great idea.

4) What is a good way to test my glassbreak sensor without having the device that does this. I have read somewhere that you can giggle keys in front of the sensor, but I have not figured out how to test it using this method.

Thanks!

 

In this case, they did choose an overly complicated explanation for how the exit delay works.

There is only one exit delay setting and it's used for all exit doors. The minimum exit delay is 45 seconds, you cannot set it shorter than that. Entering 45-96 gets you that many seconds, entering 97 jumps it to 120 seconds. Those are your only options.

Similarly, for the entry delays, the minimum you can set is 30 seconds. You can directly enter 30 to 96 seconds for the entry delay, entering 97 jumps it to 120 sec, 98 gets 180 sec, and 99 gets 240 sec.

Again those are the only options.

The default settings for the function keys set them as fire, panic, personal emergency, and single button paging (see *57 programming). The first three are just zones, and you can change the zone type. Basically, you cannot set all four keys as panics. What you can do is set one as a audible panic, one as silent panic, and the last as fire (remember in a 911 world, the fire key and a medical call will get basically the same response).

The system does have a "duress" code feature. It's something you do in the process of setting security codes, read over that section of your manual.

Read the instruction for your glass break. Some have a hand clap test feature. In any case, I have a large heavy ring of keys that will usually trip a glassbreak if I drop or shake them in close proximity to the mike.

 

Thanks MrRon. I tried to use a set of keys to test my glassbreak. I put the system in sniffer mode, but I was unable to get the glasssbreak to be detected. I was within 3 feet of the detector so I am suprised it did not detect it. The 5853 only mentions testing by means of a simulator so I'm not sure what else I can do. I have a few more questions:


1)I have set the function keys to the following:
A)00
B)00
C)00
D)05
How do I now program what the A-C keys will control as far as police,panic and fire?

2) I have programmed a duress code and since I have not finished setting the system up it is not monitored. Is there any way to test and verify that I programmed this feature properly?

3) I am trying to program the alarm to call my cell phone in addition to the alarm company. Is there a way to test the alarm calling my cell phone without setting off an audible alarm in the house?

 

Look at the section on *57 programming (page 5-13 in my copy). It lists what the defaults you set for keys correspond to. If you want to change what they actually trigger, you change that in zone programming for the first 3 by selecting the appropriate zone number. The 4th key you set as "night/stay" arming.

The duress acts as a silent panic, so if you have your "pager" programming for the panel to call your phone set, it will call you. You can test overall communication by using the communicator test function in the operation section of the manual.

Glass breaks, especially the newer models are pretty specifically tuned to the frequencies of breaking glass (to prevent false alarms, obviously). I often have to hold my keys within a foot or so. Obviously, the tone generator device is a better testing tool.

 

I followed the instructions for the dialer walk test to test my alarms communications. When I hit 1 for dial it dings twice and then immediately goes to the system status screen without displaying any other message. I have tried this several times and once when I did this the siren went off for a second and the keypad did display a phone okay message. I have tried it numerous times since and have not been able to get this message again. Also when I set the alarm and then disarm it using my duress code I received a call on my cell phone approximately 1 minute after I entered the duress code to disarm my alarm. I set pager delay in *172 to 0 for no delay so I'm not sure why it takes this long. I just switched my phone and ISP and now have DSL and I do not have a DSL filter on my alarm, just on my phones. I have read that a DSL filter is not always necessary and I'm not sure if this could be the problem.

 

1 minute is not unusual. It takes 15-30 seconds for the system to dial out. I don't know how much lag is in your cell service, but when I call my own cell from a landline, there is often another 30 seconds or so delay before my cell rings.

If you had a phone test set, you could listen in and see if the system is having trouble dialing out.

 

Happy 4th to all!

I looked in the install manual for the phone test you mentioned and was unable to find any reference other than the dial test that I have tried numerous times and consistently has no result. Could you please explain the procedure for this test and/or in what documentation it is contained?

 

He is talking about a test set that service men use. The system has a dialer test function. You have to make sure the system is ready to arm and then enter your 4 digit code then the 5 key and either a 0 for local or a 1 for dialer test.

 

Page 13-3 of the PDF installer manual talks about the Dialer Communication Test that you speak of. I have performed this test several times and it does not generate the messages that the manual says it should if it succeeds or fails, it just goes to the system status -ready to arm screen. When I arm the alarm and deactivate it using my duress code I do seem to consistently receive a call on my cell phone via the paging feature, so I'm not sure why I am having this problem with the Communication Test.

 

What do you have in fields 41 and 42? Thes fields control the dialer, you would need to put your cell phone number in these fields. This tells the panel to call these numbers in alarm/trouble/test conditions. That is why you are not being called, if these are blank.

 

Do you have a report code set in *64. It defaults to 00. It needs at least a 1 0 entered to activate the action. _Anything_ that you want the system to transmit has to have something entered for Contact ID to generate even a "pager" dial out.

 

Okay, now I'm getting really confused! I set the report code under *64 and also I went into *41 and programmed in my cell phone number. For *42 I put in my wife's cell number. For some reason the alarm will only dial the second number that is under *41 and will not dial the *41 number. I then changed both *41 and *42 to my cell phone number and the alarm then called my cell, so I know it is not an issue with my cell phones. Also, when the alarm calls my cell I have tried not picking up and picking up the phone. If I answer the call the call lasts about 15 seconds and then disconnects. During this time I can hear the alarm rapidly dialing a number multiple times. For some strange reason the alarm will call my cell phone again a few minutes after the first call. I am now however receiving a Phone Okay message after the dial test.

 

I forgot to add and couldn't edit it in time, I tried calling my home phone from my cell to make sure the line was released after the alarm calls and the alarm seems to answer my phone after a half ring without me picking up.

 

Look in your manual. It will tell you how to set the ring pickup. If you have voicemail that picks up on the 4th ring, set the panel to 5 rings. I think it's in field *95

 

Are referring to my home phone and not my cell phone when you refer to the voice mail picking up. My answering machine on my home phone picks up after the 4th ring (there is no 5th ring). I do see that in the installer manual *95 is the ring count for downloading. Is this why the alarm was answering my phone? It only does this after it has seized the line for the dialer test. I was able to receive phone calls as normal on my home phone hours later. I am confused by your instructions to set this to 4 in your example. The instructions in the manual sat that if you do not have a phone module and answering machine is yes and downloading is no this should be set to 0. Do you have any idea why the alarm refuses to call the primary number under *41 and automatically goes to the secondary number. I have my cell as the primary number in *41 and it bypasses my number and immediately calls the secondary number. This is strange because when I test the duress signal the alarm calls my cell phone with no problem. Also, why is the alarm calling my cell phone more than once?

 

The alarm is made to communicate with a receiver that translates the signal it sends in to a monitoring station. During a call the receiver sends a handshake tone to the panel and then the panel sends the alarm information. after the information is sent the receiver gives the panel a kissoff signal that tells it it received the info. Your cell phone does not give these tones so the panel continously dials out because of the failure to communicate. It will do this 8 times per phone number and you will finally get an FC or Comm. Fail on your keypad.

 

Thanks SameBIG CHIEF,

So the alarm won't do this ( call multiple times, answer my phone after line seizure, etc.) when I have it connected and set to dial the central station number? This morning at around 6:00 AM my alarm again for no reason called my cell phone. The alarm was not set, there was no alarm, no trouble, etc. It then called again a few minutes later. Why is it doing this? I thought I had everything set correctly. I now went into *41 and *42 and removed my cell phone number hoping to prevent the alarm from calling me again for no reason. I am concerned that I will have these problems when connected to the central station monitoring and am waiting to connect with them until I can work out the kinks.

 

No once the panel reaches the Central Station it will only place the one call unless another alarm occurs. Any indications on the keypad? Such as low battery, no ac? This is the only bad thing about not being able to see the data it is trying to send to the central station. Could be a system test or something mis-programmed.

 

When I received the call on my cell this morning there was no message on the keypad other than a system disarmed, ready to arm. I do have the test report under *64 set to every 24 hours. Is this maybe why it called my at 6:00 twice? Does this explain though why the alarm is answering my home phone after a line seizure without me picking up? This could be a serious problem if the central station tries to call to check the status and the alarm picks up immediately.

 

Yes that is more than likely why it called you. No you need to check field 95 and make sure that you enter #15 there. This tells the panel to bypass answering machines. You may have a 1 or 2 in this field and the panel will answer anytime this number of rings happens.

 

I tried entering 15 under *95 and it doesn't seem to want to accept a 2 digit number. As soon as I press the 1 key I hear the double ding confirmation sound and then the alarm moves on to the next * field. I checked the manual again and for *95 to be set to 15 with an answering machine I would need to have a phone module, which I do not have. Is this why it will only accept single digit inputs and if so is it correct that I set this field to 0 as the manual says for no phone module, an answering machine and no downloading?

 

That is not correct I have a 4286 and still have my panel set up for answering machine defeat. You need to go to field 95 and press # then 15, by pressing # first it allows you to enter the two digits. 15 is actually a hexadecimal number for F. You entering the 1 is causing the panel to pick up on the first ring.

 

Thank you so much SameBIG CHIEF. I sure wish the manual explained things as well as the explanations I have been given here.

 

I finally had my system connected with the monitoring company today. I put the system on test and activated a silent panic. I then called the monitoring company to check that the signal was received and while on the call I heard the panel dialing out .I had forgotten to disarm the alarm since the keypad did not show any indication of an alarm, only that the system was not ready to arm. The monitoring company said this was normal and that it would continue trying to call until the call went through. I did not hang up and the panel stopped calling. Later in the day I was on the phone and saw that the panel was not ready to arm so I entered my code to disarm the alarm, with the keypad showing "Alarm canceled". The panel then started to dial out again. I hung up the phone and called the person I was on the phone with back and the alarm did this again. Is this normal and shouldn't the panel have disconnected my call and seized the line to call the monitoring company?

 

The panel should have siezed the line. The panel jack needs to be at beginning of the phone line.

The phone line should come in from outside, pass through the panel jack, then go to your regular phone jacks.

 

Thanks HotinOKC,

It must be a problem with my OnQ panel where all my TV and Phone lines connect that has a built in RJ-31X jack. There is a dip switch there labeled security for the RJ-31X that says "turn of switch to interface security". I had the switch set to on which disables the jack because when I first installed the system there was some kind of problem with me not getting a dial tone unless the switch was on, leaving the jack disabled. I can't remember the exact issue, but I think this might have been the problem. I just switched it to off and I now have a dial tone so hopefully it works now. I guess I will have to put the system on test and then activate the alarm while I am on the phone to see if the line is seized. On a related note, I already did a walk test but I want to test that all my zones are being reported properly to the central station. Is there anyway to set off the alarm while on test, tripping all of the zones with the bell not going off and deafening my family? I know I can set off the silent panic to test the RJ-31x, but I also want to test all zones. Thanks for the invaluable help guys!

 

By default, if your keypad reports a fault, it will send the report to the monitoring company unless you specifically programmed it not too.

I asked myself that same question when I "accidentally" defaulted the whole panel and needed to start from scratch.

I just programmed my wireless devices as normal, and everything reported just fine.

I'm not really sure if you put the system in test (through company) and open up multiple zones, if it reports just the first zone, or all of them. Maybe Ron will would know this.

 

Temporarily disconnect the siren and put a resistor on the terminals (or a 12vdc lamp, like an automotive test light).

 

Thanks MrRon. My system came with two different kinds of resistors. Does it matter which one I use?

 

The ademco series panels do not require a resistor across the bell outputs. They are not supervised unless you specifically tell the panel to do so.

 

Thanks Chief,

Was bell supervision an option in the programming, I don't remember seeing that. I vaguely remember something with one of the wires that went to the panel that if it was cut or something then there was supervision. This may have been for the bell I think. How can I tell if I have the bell supervised and if it is which resistor do I need to sue to test the alarm without the bell on?

 

The resistor is just because I am a prudent electrician, and prefer that circuits that are expecting a load have a load. I use the test light, myself, because it lets me know when the thing's actually in alarm without having to listen to the siren.

 

Well if bell sup. is on then all you need to do is take a lead loose off of the bell output. Once you do this the keypad should beep rapidly and say check 70. I am willing to bet that you don't have this turned on. You would use the 2k ohm resistors. I can appreciate Ron's idea but there is no need to cross out the bell output on this panel.