Re: Blank PROM's for old Napco Magnum panels

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

On 5/20/2023 3:06 PM, Jim Davis wrote:
> On Wednesday, May 17, 2023 at 10:00:11â?¯AM UTC-4, Bob La Londe wrote:
>> On 5/16/2023 8:12 PM, Jim Davis wrote:
>>> Yep, I still have a few of those old Napco Magnum panels out there.
>>> Old customer moved out, New business moved in. The Napco 850 is still working. Installed it in 1988. It's a new start up woman owned company and doesn't want spend to upgrade the panel if it's still working. I want to update communication path to cellular but I need to program a new account number in the PROM.
>>> I've got the 410 programmer that still works but shy on PROM's.
>>> I had one Blank chip which I programmed but I'm not sure I did it right and I won't know till I plug it in tomorrow or next day.
>>> Just in case, I started looking for some chips and they price range on line anywhere from ( Get this now) $58.00 each down to $3.00. And some say they'll send you a few free samples. But I figure I'd probably have to make them believe that I'm going to use thousands of them in my newly developed product, etc, etc. But, I don't want to go down that rabbit hole unless I have to.
>>>
>>> SOOOOOoooo Does anyone out there have a few of these blank PROM's stashed someplace they'd be willing to part with?
>> If its a hard wired panel the upgrade shouldn't be all that expensive.
>> If you can't program it then the upgrade is justified.
>>
>> The Napco Starlink communicators used to be able to be used in "takeover
>> mode" if the format is compatible. I never did it so I can't give
>> personalized help, but it was somebody at Napco who pointed it out to
>> me. Might have been Dave before he got booted upstairs.
>>
>> Is the Magnum the same as Magnum Alert? I had a couple small Magnum
>> Alert panels installed before I switched to Gemini, and while they
>> almost made me choose not use Napco, they were keypad programmable.
>>
>> --
>> Bob La Londe
>
> Kinda all moot now. I was able to program my last PROM chip with the new cellular account number. So panel is setup and (STILL ! ) working at this point. Gave her the obvious warning that there was no guarantee how long it would last. But I'd like to have a few chips just in case I run into another problem with these old panels.

I think this is where Rojas would have been able to help back in the
day.  He might have been able to burn/copy everything onto an empty
PROM.  If you like I'll try to see if I can to drop him a line and ask
if he will weigh in here. I'm sure he no longer has anything though.
The FBI pretty much took everything.

> .
> I didn't use the Starlink although I could have as you suggested.
> Don't know if you are interested or not but anyway - - - -  the reason I didn't is, that when I'm upgrading to cellular communicators I try to only install the Starlink "Connect" which allows for remote use with cell phone and text alerts of all events ... but that requires a Gemini series panel. The combination of central station and Napco server charge brings my cost up.

My CS had cell and pager notifications built in for a pretty small fee
long before Napco could do it.  Heck, long before Napco had cellular.
Had my own toll free lines so OC log only plus notifications was pretty
reasonable.  I think they might have been the first or one of the first
because they wrote their own automation software.  They claimed they
switched from UL to FM because UL wanted their source code.  They
implied somebody at UL wanted to give/sell it to other central stations.
  I'm pretty sure my CS was cheaper than Napco, so I would just set the
Napco Starlink account to the highest signal count level and send all
the codes to the CS just like I would with a POTS line.

> There is a less expensive "M2" radio with only  just straight communication capabilities to central with half the monitoring cost of the Starlink. it's just a simple cellular radio with no frills. And they work fantastically well. From what I understand, unlike the Starlink they have the capability of searching for and connecting to either Verison, ATT or T-Mobile all in one unit. Where with the Starlink you only have two choices and they are different radios that you have to try if one doesn't work on an install. I've never had an M2 NOT connect to a service provider unlike the Starlink. One install had to install a $150.00 remote antenna just to get one tower. And on one install I couldn't get any  Starlink to connect to anything even with a remote directional antenna but the M2 got right through with a high signal strength reading. Go Figure.
> .
> For your interest >             https://m2mservices.com/#product-carousel

I'm not much on staying up in the alarm biz.  I'm more of a work around
DIY guy in that field these days.  Its not worth my time to even do an
occasional service call, because I have to shut the shop down to do one.



--
Bob La Londe
Proffessional Hack, Hobbyist, Wannabe, Shade Tree, Button Pushing, Not a
real machinist


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