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Honeywell / Ademco Vista21P Alarm Panel

Has anyone worked with the Vista 21iP alarm panel? It communicates via IP. I'm trying to find out if it works first of all and secondly, if the protocol is available.

thanks
e

Comments

  • John NagyJohn Nagy Posts: 1,734
    Ademco=Apex Destiny 6100

    "From what we have been told" the Honeywell/Ademco Vista line is command compatible with the venerable and discontinued APEX DESTINY 6100, a popular board for many years. It was our standard in our integration company branch and we put in literally hundreds of them. They are very easy to live with and have nice integration features.

    We are now testing the Ademco for use as a replacement. We just opened the box and have no experience yet but should in a few days. It looks like it will just work, although it has some new commands and doesn't do voice announce through the alarm speakers the same as the APEX, so it won't be just a swap... I'll post here when I know more.

    If your experience or information might help us, please post as well.
  • ericmedleyericmedley Posts: 4,177
    John Nagy wrote: »
    "From what we have been told" the Honeywell/Ademco Vista line is command compatible with the venerable and discontinued APEX DESTINY 6100, a popular board for many years. It was our standard in our integration company branch and we put in literally hundreds of them. They are very easy to live with and have nice integration features.

    We are now testing the Ademco for use as a replacement. We just opened the box and have no experience yet but should in a few days. It looks like it will just work, although it has some new commands and doesn't do voice announce through the alarm speakers the same as the APEX, so it won't be just a swap... I'll post here when I know more.

    If your experience or information might help us, please post as well.

    Yeah, we were dealing with the Apex 6100 and the Vista BP 128/250s for a while. We didn't like the Vistas for several reasons.

    The 21iP is IP Network based and looks promising if they didn't go to the 'dark side' and close off the comm protocol to outsiders. That seems to be a trend nowadays on some of the newer devices that have heretofor not played in the internet sandbox.

    I don't know if they got sick of dealing with AMX/Craptron programmers calling them for support and not knowing what the heck to do. Or perhaps the marketing toadies broke the lock on the door to the rest of the company. Who knows.

    I'm still hoping against all hope.

    The Destiny 6100 was a great panel and I wish they'd bring it back.
  • ericmedleyericmedley Posts: 4,177
    Update Bump

    Okay,
    I finally found someone with a pulse and some knowledge about this at honeywell support...

    The basic answer is 'No' control for YOU!!! This product is, in short, closed to outsiders.

    One of the techs in the Apex support team gave me lots of good info on it and how it works.

    Can anyone here recommend any IP based security panels / systems that allow 3rd party control via IP?

    Thanks,
    e
  • mpullinmpullin Posts: 949
    ericmedley wrote: »
    Can anyone here recommend any IP based security panels / systems that allow 3rd party control via IP?

    Thanks,
    e
    I am very satisfied with the Elk M1.
  • ericmedleyericmedley Posts: 4,177
    mpullin wrote: »
    I am very satisfied with the Elk M1.

    Thank you! I'll look it over.

    We're looking at this for both our AMX jobs and also in working with our Certified Cyber Solutions HCS residential network monitoring/security product we're developing. IP communications are pretty crucial.
  • glr-ftiglr-fti Posts: 286
    While pricey HAI supports IP and control interfaces.
  • John NagyJohn Nagy Posts: 1,734
    IP?

    Just add a $120 DIGI-ONE SP to any serial device you want to be on IP. We use them all the time, as long as you remember when setting them up to check the AUTOMATIC RECONNECT box, they don't fail.

    Available lots of places.
    http://www.provantage.com/digi-international-70001851~7DBTS00N.htm
  • jmastersjmasters Posts: 10
    You can make a vista panel talk, not the best but it will talk using a 61060V keypad. The best bet with integration is to get a ElkM1 panel I have put in quite a few and it runs circles around Hai and Ademco. The best part is being able to send custom strings to and from Amx.
  • roognationroognation Posts: 138
    John Nagy wrote: »
    Just add a $120 DIGI-ONE SP to any serial device you want to be on IP. We use them all the time, as long as you remember when setting them up to check the AUTOMATIC RECONNECT box, they don't fail.

    Available lots of places.
    http://www.provantage.com/digi-international-70001851~7DBTS00N.htm

    Thanks for the tip. Browsing a bit more reveals the ~$900 8-serial port device:
    http://store.digi.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=60

    32 ports goes for under $ 2000.00.

    Sweet.
  • John NagyJohn Nagy Posts: 1,734
    roognation wrote: »
    Thanks for the tip. Browsing a bit more reveals the ~$900 8-serial port device:
    http://store.digi.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=60

    32 ports goes for under $ 2000.00.

    Sweet.
    And strangely, 16 ports is under $1000. 16 for $75 more than the 8. Huh.
    http://store.digi.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=61
  • Control Ademco with relays!

    You can control any Ademco Vista series alarm panel using 1 relay, 2 I/O's, and some resistors. The limitations are that this will only work on a single partition and you have to dedicate a zone to it.

    You will need to have a zone configured for key switch control. Once this has been configured, you can arm and disarm the system using a relay connected to the designated zone. A pulse of less than 1/2 second will arm in Away mode, a pulse for 10 seconds will arm in Stay mode, and another short pulse will disarm the system.

    The 2 I/O's are used for tracking the system status. Connect them to the 8-pin trigger connector. I/O 1 will be used for Ready status and I/O 2 will be used for Arm status.

    I/O status indicators:
    1 (On), 2 (Off) = Disarmed & Ready
    1 (Off), 2 (Off) = Disarmed & Not Ready
    1 (Off), 2 (On Steady) = Armed Away
    1 (Off), 2 (Slow Flash) = Armed Stay

    Manual can be found here: http://www.alarmeengros.com/installation15P.pdf
    Schematic is on page 2-9

    I/O detail: http://www.canbroc.com/downloads/vista128_ig.pdf
    Chart is on page 3-16
  • Think you're missing the point. How many contact io's to see which zones are causing the not-ready? How many to see why the alarm is going off? Our job is to integrate systems into one central control, not emulate a keyswitch.

    Hell, 12 relays and a small IP cam and we can fully emulate a keypad. Solder the relays to the buttons and focus the cam on the LCD screen.

    Kevin D.
  • shr00m-dew wrote: »
    Think you're missing the point. How many contact io's to see which zones are causing the not-ready? How many to see why the alarm is going off? Our job is to integrate systems into one central control, not emulate a keyswitch.

    Hell, 12 relays and a small IP cam and we can fully emulate a keypad. Solder the relays to the buttons and focus the cam on the LCD screen.

    Kevin D.

    Right. But these lower end alarms are incapable of reporting any of that. Unless you want to go through the trouble of wiring in diodes and I/Os to every zone input to check which zones are faulted. My intention was to show how basic control can be accomplished without having to go through the trouble of replacing the entire alarm with one that is more automation friendly.

    It is always ideal to have as complete of integration as possible to gain all of the benefits of having your alarm system accessible from the touch panel. If it's not possible... sometimes you take what you can get. :)
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