Re: Vista 20P not allowing program re-entry

[Bob La Londe <none@none.com99>]

On 4/1/2021 4:25 PM, ABLE1 wrote:
> On 4/1/2021 3:15 PM, RTS wrote:
>> On 4/1/2021 10:40 AM, ABLE1 wrote:
>>> On 4/1/2021 10:52 AM, RTS wrote:
>>>> Les,  tech support isn't what it use to be back in the day....
>>>>
>>>> Last time I had to call them,  I went through their whole
>>>> stable of reps, and not 1 could figure out what was happening..
>>>> Just luck I guess, after a nights sleep  I saw immediately
>>>> what was  wrong...
>>>>
>>>> RTS
>>>
>>> LOL Yes, it ain't, and it ain't gonna get better any time soon.
>>>
>>> I love it when the guy I am talking to puts me on hold to ask
>>> a higher tech the question which then gets pushed up to another.
>>>
>>> It has happened that I was called back by an "engineer" to discuss
>>> the problem, to find out that I AM NOT ALONE!!  That one involved
>>> me working for them by trying different resistors on the board
>>> so the panel could "maybe" communicate on DTMF.  Turns out that
>>> the local CO Phone Switch and another 4 or 5 in the country would
>>> not work on DTMF with this panel.
>>>
>>> Had to switch to Pulse to get it to communicate.
>>>
>>> They actually stopped the production line and sales until this problem
>>> could be fixed. They ended up sending me some board variations that had
>>> a bunch of various add on resistors and caps to get them to the problem
>>> resolved.  I took to the local site and tested them. Some were better
>>> and some were not. After about 2 months the engineer called
>>> and we set a day and time to meet locally.  He showed up to try their
>>> latest revision on the board. It worked quite well.
>>>
>>> After he bought me lunch and before returning to his office he thanked
>>> me for all the assistance and asked what panels and keypads that I
>>> used the most.  I told him my desires and a week later I had a shipment
>>> directly off the assembly line of free stock that lasted for about a
>>> years worth of installs.
>>>
>>> That was a one time deal that will never be repeated!!
>>>
>>> Now you are saying; "Les!!  What manufacture would do that??"  :-)
>>>
>>> It was Sentrol after they bought out Moose. The panel was the ZX400.
>>>
>>> Now you know a rest of the story!!
>>>
>>> Les
>>>
>>   I got one of those in the storage shed  that was never put in..
>> Also got a Rokonet 8 zone control and keypad.  Ever see one of those?
>>
>> Had an Israel company I use to use (you probability know the one)
>> They came out with a new and improved 8 zone unit,  But like you were
>> saying, communicator would fail after about a week to a month..
>> they didn't have a clue, so they sent me the engineering specs to  see
>> if I notice anything odd.  First thing I found was they were using
>> soldered on glass fuses on the in/out phone lines..
>> And they were rated fast blow 90 volts  .250 amp...
>> Well anyone who's ever worked on telephones will tell you that ain't
>> gonna cut it..
>> Ringer ckt alone will do 90-100 vac...
>>
>> Take a wild guess what the fix was.....
>> (solder a jumper across the fuse...)Â Â Â  ;-)
>>
>> Got a love engineers  ...
>> RTS
>
> ROFLOLÂ  I have had my share of "engineer" moments as well.
> The question that comes to mind is; Did you get a Thank You or
> something in return??
>
>
> I may have typed this here in the past but one more time won't hurt.
>
> There once was a Doctor, Lawyer, and a Engineer that were found doing
> dastardly deeds in the Kingdom.  They were brought before the King
> and the King said we can't have this happen again, Off with their
> Heads!!
>
> So, they were taken off to the Guillotine!!
>
> The first up was the Doctor.  The Executioner said; Do you want a
> blindfold? The Doctor said; Yes.  The Executioner said; Do you want
> heads up or heads down?? The Doctor said, Heads down.
> So they put on the blind fold and placed him heads down.  The
> Executioner pulled the rope and shhhhhhhch the blade stopped an
> inch from his neck.  Because of the law of the land he had to be
> set free because you can't try and execute them twice.
>
> The next up was the Lawyer.  The Executioner said; Do you want a
> blindfold? The Lawyer said; Yes.  The Executioner said; Do you want
> heads up or heads down?? The Lawyer said, Heads down.
> So they put on the blind fold and placed him heads down.  The
> Executioner pulled the rope and shhhhhhhch the blade stopped an
> inch from his neck.  Because of the law of the land he had to be
> set free because you can't try and execute them twice.
>
> The last up was the Engineer.  The Executioner said; Do you want a
> blindfold? The Engineer said; No.  The Executioner said; Do you want
> heads up or heads down?? The Engineer said, Heads up.  So they laid him
> down and he is looking up.  The Executioner reaches for the rope.
> The Engineer Shouts Out.   HOLD IT, I SEE THE PROBLEM!!!
>
> End of the story and one  E|ngineer
>
> Les
>

I installed the very first commercial installation for Dish Network (in
an Applebee's restaurant).  I was a sub for a Muzak dealer at the time.
  I had plenty of mini dish experience and I kept tell them they need an
LNB for each receiver.  I'd installed plenty of other system, and I even
wrote my own installation manual for Primestar for my guys.  They swore
up and down that the receivers were setup so that I didn't.  Finally I
got a call from a tech who called Dish Network who got through to an
engineer who swore the receivers were setup with a Zillman switch and we
could just daisy chain them.  The story I heard is the engineer walked
out in the warehouse and grabbed a receiver off the shelf to discover
for the first time that they didn't build them the way he designed them.

You would think that when I installed an LNB for each receiver and all
the receivers showed good signal strength that would have been the end
of it.  Great signal strength but no programming.  Turns out management
and accounting had made deals for commercial programming, and setup a
sales structure, but nobody in the software department had written a
module to activate commercial accounts.

I went over there 2-5 times a day for over two weeks checking to see if
it was activated yet.  I billed them for how ever long it took me to get
there, walk in, and call them back to say, "Nope."  When they got my
final bill they threw a temper tantrum and tried to get me to write all
off as part of the original install.  I reminded them that I did
everything perfectly the first time, and all the problems were at their
end and mostly because they wouldn't hear what I was saying.  That was
the last job I did for them.

Its not always the engineer's fault.  Both technical problems on this
one were caused by the bean counters.



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