Cheat sheet for Ademco Vista 20-P installation

[hubercats <hubercats@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Fellow Do-it-yourself Home Security System Installers,
I purchased an Ademco Vista 20-P system a few months ago. After much
reading and web research I was able to program the panel to my liking.
In doing so I found that the Ademco installation manual, while
containing everything needed to set up the system, was lacking a high
level overview of alarm setup (i.e. a cheat sheet). Anyway, after
getting my system set up I decided to make a few notes so that next
time I need to change something I won't have to spend a lot of time
searching through the Ademco manual. Below is a version of the cheat
sheet that I created. Hopefully it will save other do-it-yourself
alarm installers  time in setting up a new Vista system. I apologize
in advance if there are errors or if my notes are not clear.

Cheers,

Jim




Ademco Vista 20P Programming Cheatsheet
Jim L.
17 February 2008

Primary reference: Ademco Vista-20P/PS Series Installation and Set-up
Guide

General notes/comments:
1. There are nearly 200 registers that affect the behavior of the
panel. I found it necessary to change just a few of these from their
default values. I.e. the defaults seem very well thought out.

2. Nearly all documentation needed for this and other Ademco products
is available online, and for free, at the following web site:
http://www.security.honeywell.com/hsce/products/control/bu/ad/14958.html#Product%20Literature

3. A number of excellent technical "how to" articles are available
online at the following web site:
http://library.ademconet.com/ademco_group_user/display.asp?p=VISTA-20P&o=268613422&a=f

4. A nice, high level overview of Vista 20P setup is available as
follows:
http://www.microtechsecurity.com/1Vista%2010%20Manual.htm

5. Unless you have one of the (very few) modems capable of
communicating with the panel, don't waste your time trying to use the
Compass downloader software. It's really not needed for a typical home
installation.  However, if you have a compatible modem and want to use
the Compass software it can be downloaded for free from the following
web site:
http://www.homesecuritystore.com/compass.htm

6. Useful internet groups dealing with home security systems include:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.security.alarms/topics
http://forum.doityourself.com/forumdisplay.php?f=87

7. Zone 1 MUST have an EOL (end of line) resistor installed. For other
zones the resistor is optional.  Hence, zone 1 is a natural one to use
for smoke alarms.

Keypads:
- Make sure to buy at least one alphanumeric keypad (for programming
the system)
- I recommend the 6160RF keypad as it is alphanumeric AND it provides
wireless capability without having to add wireless modules to the
panel.
- Keypads must have unique addresses (settable via keypad dip
switches)
- The first keypad of partition 1 must be assigned address 16
- Keypad attributes are defined via registers 190-196
- You can program the panel such that alarms are identified (on alpha
keypads) with alphanumeric names instead of numbers. See "Setting zone
attributes"

Register values (See "Mechanics of Programming on page 3-5"):
- Enter programming mode by keying in your installer code (default =
4112) plus 800 (e.g. 4112800)
- Use the pound (#) key to examine register values (e.g. #21)
- Use the asterisk (*) key to change register values (e.g. *21)
- In some cases you can clear register contents using
*Register_number*. For example, to clear register 21 enter *21*
- Exit programming mode by entering *99
- WARNING: Entering *97 will reset the entire panel to the default
state (i.e. you'll lose any programming you've done)!

Specifying user codes (Section 12 of manual):
   - User 01 is the Installer user. I suggest leaving this set to the
default value (4112).
     This is NOT a security problem in that this code can NOT be used
to disarm the panel
          provided a different user code was used to arm the panel.
   - User 02 is the Master user. This code should be different from
standard user codes.
   - User 03 is the Partition 1 Master code (I set = Master code for
my single partition setup)
   - User 33 is the Partition 2 Master code (I set = Master code for
my single partition setup)
   - Use codes 04, 05, ..., 32 for Partition 1 standard users
   Specific commands:
   - Add user code: Master code + 8 + 2-digit user number + user's
code
   - Delete user code: Master code + 8 + 2-digit user number + #0
   - Assign user attributes: Master code + 8 + 2-digit user number +
#[attribute number] + value
   User attributes:
   - For typical user numbers (e.g. 04, 05, 06, etc.) I set the
attributes as follows:
      Authority level = 0
      Access group = 0
      Active partition = 1
      RF Zone No. (see manual page 12-1)
      Open/Close Paging = 0

Setting zone attributes (Section 5 of manual)
   - Enter *56 to enter zone programming mode


Alpha Descriptor Programming (Section 9 of manual)
   - Alpha descriptors can be assigned so that zone faults show (on
alpha keypads) with
     English language descriptions instead of numeric codes. Below are
some examples:
      Smoke alarm = 176 + 002
      Inside front door = 101 + 085 + 057
      Outside front door = 140 + 085 + 057
      Basement door = 016 + 057
      Inside back door = 101 + 013 + 057
      Outside back door = 140 + 013 + 057

Wireless keyfobs (Pages 5-6 and 5-7 of manual):
   - Each keyfob takes up FOUR wireless zones
   - I disable two of the four zones, leaving only "alarm on" and
"alarm off" enabled (note
     that FOUR zones are still taken up with this approach, two of
which are not used.)

Telephone dialer:
   - I don't have a dialer (see next few comments)
   - If dialer not installed, make sure that a callback number is NOT
assigned otherwise
     the panel will attempt to call when an alarm occurs and the call
will fail causing
          the keypad to display a "Comm failure" message (alpha
keypad) or an "FC" message (numeric    keypad).
   - To prevent the "Comm failure" message make sure to clear
registers 41, 42, 94,
     and 92.  (See http://forum.doityourself.com/showthread.php?t=290389)

Clearing alarms:
- To turn off an alarm enter: User code + OFF (keypad "1")
- If an alarm occurs and is not cleared at the time it happens (i.e.
you are away from home when it happens) the keypad will display a
message indicating which zone it happened on, etc. To clear this
information enter: User code + OFF twice. The first entry disarms the
system. The second entry clears the message.