New Honeywell Ademco 6160rf keypad - Slower and No beep when pressing keys

[K W <nwboson@xxxxxxxxx>]

I just upgraded from an older 6160 keypad to a brand new 6160rf (so I could=
 add some wireless sensors).  And I noticed an irritating new feature to th=
e firmware: the new 6160rf keypad does not consistently beep when you press=
 a key.=20

The first thing we noticed about the new 6160rf keypad is that it is all-ar=
ound slower than my old 6150 and 6160 keypads.  When you arm or disarm, the=
re is now a noticeable delay (2-5 seconds) before the keypad starts to beep=
 on and off.  The old keypads ALWAYS provided immediate beep feedback when =
arming or disarming.  The delay is now so long that I can get completely ou=
t the door sometimes before I hear the keypad beeping.=20

I've noticed there are 2 scenarios when the keypad does not beep when press=
ing a key.  If you enter your armed home, the keypad starts to beep on and =
off to remind you to enter your code.  When you start pressing keys, the en=
try on-off beep quits beeping to give you beep feedback as you press each k=
ey.

1) On the old 6160 keypad, if you press a key while the keypad is beeping d=
ue to the entry, the keypad still beeped (again) whenever you pressed the f=
irst key (to provide feedback that the key had been pressed).  On the new 6=
160rf keypad, the panel does not beep when you press the first disarm code =
key (because it is already beeping).  So on the new keypad, it may or may n=
ot beep when you press the first key to disarm.  Therefore you get no feedb=
ack whether the first key was successfully seen.  This has already caused m=
e to set off the alarm twice (when the first key was not successfully seen =
by the control panel).

2) On both the old and new keypads, if you make a mistake entering your cod=
e, the keypad starts beeping on and off again after 15 seconds (to tell you=
 it is still armed).  On the new 6160rf, if you press keys after the 15 sec=
ond time out, it does not beep as you press any keys, so you get no key fee=
dback (it just keeps beeping on and off).  It kind of makes you freak out b=
ecause it seems the keypad is dead, however it is alive but not giving any =
key beep feedback.  My old 6150 acted like this and now the new 6160rf acts=
 like this, however my old 6160 always beeped when keys were pressed - even=
 after the first 15 second silent period expired.

All in all, its disappointing that the new firmware has 'bugs' and is so mu=
ch slower even though the keypad is many years newer. I guess saving a few =
cents on a slower processor is more important than the user experience.  Th=
anks, Honeywell...