Ademco Vista10-SE installing new 5808 problems?

[Thomas Hellmer <thellmer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey guys. Bought my house a few months ago that had an old Vista 10-SE
system installed that works fine on the security side, but always gave
device troubles on both 5808 smoke/fire detectors (there were 2). Those 5808
units self-test buttons worked fine, and they seemed to actually work as
stand alone smoke detectors, but the system would never recognize them in
test mode and every 24 hours or so would register the "check" device errors
on the panels throughout the house. I tried repeatedly to enroll and
re-enroll them but they never would send their serial number upon tripping,
and entering them manually didn't seem to help either. I figured the
wireless transmitters had gone out or something, so I deleted both of them
from the supervised RF mode, and just let them hang as stand alone units.
Then this week I bought a brand new 5808 in the box thinking I would
reinstall just one so I would have at least one in the panel system with the
big loud horns and strobes. Well, yesterday I went in and totally deleted
the two old  5808's from the system, and re-enrolled just the new one.
Everything seemed to go smoothly, tripped the test button and it filled in
the SN, assigned alpha, etc. Then after I exited, it tested ok and displayed
in the code+5 test mode.  So I mounted it, thinking everything was fine.
Then today when I came home from lunch, the panel was giving the old "check"
device# error, and on the alpha pad had the Fire trouble code.  I tried the
test button, batteries in and out, etc - even rebooted the whole Vista panel
with backup battery out. Nothing. So I went back into the programming mode,
and everything seemed fine, but just in case I deleted the serial number and
tried to trip it to let it insert it again and it never would - batteries
out for several minutes, in and out of the tamper mounting ring, etc.
Nothing.  So I deleted the whole device entry, and just for a whim, dragged
out one of the old ones that would never respond before, and amazingly it
fired right up,and even sent its serial number into the enrollment
automatically. It wouldn't ever test though when the panel was put into test
mode. The new one simply will not send its number or respond in test (code
+5) mode at all now (it does still do its own test when the recessed button
is pressed) - maybe the battery has to be out for over 24 hours? Anyway, I
was just wondering if there was some special trick with the 5808 units and
the Vista 10SE panels - some particular loop, zone, etc??  I enrolled it
like the old ones - Zone Type 09, RF, Loop 1, I left the report codes as 11,
and 00 - although it is not a monitored system so I wouldn't think that
would matter. I had it as Zone number 17, and put in another as Zone 18
(those were how they were setup when I bought the house), but neither are
working with the actual system. There are enough empty zones. Everything in
the house - all wireless devices are all on Loop 1. Anyone have ideas?  I
used to be an electronics and computer repairman as well as a computer
programmer, so none of this seems difficult to me, just not having worked
with them before and having such limited written technical resources has me
stumped on this problem. I have the install guide, operations guide, and
manuals that come with the new 5808. Any help is appreciated! Thanks!
Thomas