Vista 21ip Can't Get Bell To Activate Relay


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Old 07-28-15, 08:02 PM
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Vista 21ip Can't Get Bell To Activate Relay

I just replaced my 12 yr old Brinks alarm panel with a new Vista 21ip based system. The conversion was relatively painless and I have everything working except the siren. The Brinks system used 2 small speakers and because of the placement of those (vaulted ceiling which is hard to get to and would require painting/touch up if replaced with something of a different shape) I decided to keep them and use a Moose MPI-11 siren driver. I do not know the specifications of those speakers - they were connected in series to the Brinks panel "siren" terminal.

After hooking up the MPI-11 I tested it against the AUX (terminal 5) port and the siren sounded fine. Connected to the bell output, however, produced nothing during an alarm condition. I assumed the bell output did not have enough power to drive the audio board - so I installed an Altronix RB1224 relay set in 12VDC mode. Here are my connections:
Bell (terminal 3) -> Relay board pos+
GND (terminal 4) -> Relay board neg-
AUX (terminal 5) -> Relay board Common 1
GND (terminal 4) -> MPI-11 ground
Relay board NO 1 -> MPI-11 steady+
If I disconnect the wire from the bell and touch it to AUX (terminal 5) the siren goes off great. However, when connected to bell, the siren still does nothing when it should be sounding. Putting a meter across bell (3) and GND (4) shows 13.5VDC steady when the alarm is sounding and .5VDC when the alarm is off.

Am I doing something wrong? Any ideas on what might be the issue or how to troubleshoot further? I don't have any compatible sirens to try but I guess I could buy one to verify the Vista board alarm actually works at all. Also the entire system is brand new, including the 12V 7AH battery (which tests at >13VDC with a meter for what it's worth).

Thanks in advance for any help. I called Honeywell tech support but apparently they don't like DIYers as they refused to talk to me as an end user. Good times
 
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Old 07-28-15, 08:21 PM
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Welcome to the forums.

That MPI-11 should be able to be powered off terminals 3 and 4 as long as you connect the two speakers to the board in series. The alarm has a 2A max output. In parallel the board draws to much power.

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You cannot tap power off of terminal 5. It is limited to 500ma (1/2A).
Let me know if you want a diagram to wire the relay.
 
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Old 07-29-15, 07:42 AM
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Thanks for the info. I do have the speakers wired in series (basically figured it would be best to stay as Brinks had it).

If I'm understanding you correctly, I need to move the positive draw for the MPI-11 to something besides terminal 5. I had previously had it connected to terminal 3 (no relay) without success so perhaps the current draw still exceeds 2A...? I'll try connecting it direct to the battery red terminal and see if that fixes the issues.

I'll report back either way. Again thanks for your help.
 
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Old 07-29-15, 12:34 PM
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Using terminals 4/5 did end up being the problem. Thanks PJ for pointing that out. I had to move the MPI-11 driver board power direct to the battery (both +, through the relay, and -) and then everything worked fine. Apparently even the Bell output is not enough for the audio driver board and the 4/5 terminals were getting tripped by the over-current draw (maybe even in series the speakers are 4ohm = 2.5A??).

Again thanks for helping - I now have a fully functional alarm system.

Regards.

For anyone else this may help, here is my final wiring list for the siren:

Vista-Bell (T3) -> Relay coil +
Vista-GND (T4) -> Relay coil -
Relay C -> Battery (+)
Relay NO -> MPI-11 +STDY
Battery (-) -> MPI-11 -NEG
MPI-11 Speaker -> speaker wires
 
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Old 07-29-15, 05:32 PM
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Glad I could help and that you got it working.

One further bit of advice. Install a 5A fuse and fuseholder in the battery + line to the module. Right now if you have a speaker short or board failure you could end up with a fire.
 
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Old 08-05-15, 05:48 PM
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Good idea - I don't want any fires I'll get a fuse&holder from RadioShack tomorrow and install. Thanks again!!
 
 

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