Endless loop notification for zones if to many open.

[R0okey]

I have an issue I'm hoping someone can help me with. All my zone notifications work properly and they always have as long as I have all my zones in a closed state. If I have one or two zones open at the same time I will get proper notification but the problem occurs the moment I open all the windows to let cool air into the home and essentially open all the zones at the same time on my panel envisalink 3 goes crazy and starts sending me an endless loop of notifications indicating that my impacted zones are opening and closing non-stop notifications..The reality is I just have those zones (Windows) open and I'm not closing them. I assuming that I can fix this at the panel but I have no idea what setting I have to change. Can anyone chime in and help me with this problem? I need to get this issued fixed because I have my home automation tied to this and I keep also having an endless scene loop based on false triggers. Thanks so much in advance for the help!!!

[diesel45mpg]

Hmmm, I'm seeing the same thing. I cut and paste each of these lists from the system status page, all contacts were open except the motion. You will notice in each example, a different zone is showing closed:



Zone : 2 - Front Door: - OPEN
Zone : 3 - Garage Entry Door: - OPEN
Zone : 4 - Garage Side Door: - OPEN
Zone : 5 - Rear Sliding Door: - OPEN
Zone : 6 - Family Room Window: - OPEN
Zone : 7 - Office Window: - OPEN
Zone : 8 - Front Window Left: - CLOSED : 85 Seconds Ago
Zone : 12 - OPEN
Zone : 13 - Chase's Window: - OPEN
Zone : 14 - Master Bedroom Left: - OPEN
Zone : 15 - Master Bedroom Right: - OPEN
Zone : 16 - Front Window Right: - OPEN
Zone : 17 - Garage Door Left: - OPEN
Zone : 18 - Garage Door Right: - OPEN
Zone : 19 - Living Room Motion: - CLOSED : 2 Minutes Ago


Zone : 2 - Front Door: - OPEN
Zone : 3 - Garage Entry Door: - OPEN
Zone : 4 - Garage Side Door: - OPEN
Zone : 5 - Rear Sliding Door: - OPEN
Zone : 7 - Office Window: - OPEN
Zone : 8 - Front Window Left: - OPEN
Zone : 12 - OPEN
Zone : 13 - Chase's Window: - OPEN
Zone : 14 - Master Bedroom Left: - OPEN
Zone : 15 - Master Bedroom Right: - OPEN
Zone : 16 - Front Window Right: - OPEN
Zone : 17 - Garage Door Left: - OPEN
Zone : 18 - Garage Door Right: - OPEN
Zone : 6 - Family Room Window: - CLOSED : 60 Seconds Ago
Zone : 19 - Living Room Motion: - CLOSED : 75 Seconds Ago


Zone : 2 - Front Door: - OPEN
Zone : 3 - Garage Entry Door: - OPEN
Zone : 4 - Garage Side Door: - OPEN
Zone : 5 - Rear Sliding Door: - OPEN
Zone : 6 - Family Room Window: - OPEN
Zone : 7 - Office Window: - OPEN
Zone : 8 - Front Window Left: - OPEN
Zone : 12 - OPEN
Zone : 13 - Chase's Window: - OPEN
Zone : 14 - Master Bedroom Left: - OPEN
Zone : 15 - Master Bedroom Right: - OPEN
Zone : 16 - Front Window Right: - OPEN
Zone : 17 - Garage Door Left: - OPEN
Zone : 18 - Garage Door Right: - OPEN
Zone : 19 - Living Room Motion: - CLOSED : 2 Minutes Ago


Zone : 2 - Front Door: - OPEN
Zone : 3 - Garage Entry Door: - OPEN
Zone : 4 - Garage Side Door: - OPEN
Zone : 5 - Rear Sliding Door: - OPEN
Zone : 6 - Family Room Window: - OPEN
Zone : 7 - Office Window: - OPEN
Zone : 8 - Front Window Left: - OPEN
Zone : 12 - OPEN
Zone : 13 - Chase's Window: - OPEN
Zone : 14 - Master Bedroom Left: - OPEN
Zone : 15 - Master Bedroom Right: - OPEN
Zone : 16 - Front Window Right: - OPEN
Zone : 17 - Garage Door Left: - OPEN
Zone : 18 - Garage Door Right: - CLOSED : 60 Seconds Ago
Zone : 19 - Living Room Motion: - CLOSED : 2 Minutes Agos

All my zones are wired except 17, 18 and 19. All wired zones use zone doubling except 2 and 3.
Vista 20p / Envisalink 4

This was captured on a 2nd test, notice how many are reporting closed when they were all open:
Zone : 2 - Front Door: - OPEN
Zone : 3 - Garage Entry Door: - OPEN
Zone : 4 - Garage Side Door: - OPEN
Zone : 5 - Rear Sliding Door: - OPEN
Zone : 19 - Living Room Motion: - OPEN
Zone : 18 - Garage Door Right: - CLOSED : 30 Seconds Ago
Zone : 17 - Garage Door Left: - CLOSED : 35 Seconds Ago
Zone : 12 - Master Bath Window: - CLOSED : 35 Seconds Ago
Zone : 8 - Front Window Left: - CLOSED : 40 Seconds Ago
Zone : 7 - Office Window: - CLOSED : 45 Seconds Ago
Zone : 6 - Family Room Window: - CLOSED : 45 Seconds Ago
Zone : 16 - Front Window Right: - CLOSED : 85 Seconds Ago
Zone : 15 - Master Bedroom Right: - CLOSED : 90 Seconds Ago
Zone : 14 - Master Bedroom Left: - CLOSED : 90 Seconds Ago
Zone : 13 - Chase's Window: - CLOSED : 95 Seconds Ago

[GrandWizard]

I think what is going on is that your panel is taking too long to announce zone states so the Envisalink is deeming them closed due to timeouts.

You have to understand that Honeywell panels are very rudamentary compared to DSC systems. Honeywell panels don't inform it's peripherals of most things including when zones close. Because of this the Envisalink, and every other communicator, has to infer the state of the zone from what is displayed on the keypad. If the Envisalink doesn't see a zone displayed as open within a certain amount of time it is deemed as closed.

I will see if an engineer can confirm this but based on what you're seeing I think this is the case.

How long does it take between your keypad saying Zone 2 Open with that many zones open?

[R0okey]

In my case the reporting of the new zones that are being opened are almost instantly notified as expected. Again if I keep open just a few Windows (no more then 4) everything works as expected I get an open notification instantly and a closed delayed notification as expected a little after its closed. The problem only arises when start opening up more then 4 Windows + and I don't believe that it's specific to any single window if I open to many windows throughout the house I get the same problem regardless of which ones they are.

I thought I would share a non public YouTube video I created to help me demonstrate the problem.

Link:
http://youtu.be/I-Ka7vG--MU

[GrandWizard]

In my case the reporting of the new zones that are being opened are almost instantly notified as expected. Again if I keep open just a few Windows (no more then 4) everything works as expected I get an open notification instantly and a closed delayed notification as expected a little after its closed. The problem only arises when start opening up more then 4 Windows + and I don't believe that it's specific to any single window if I open to many windows throughout the house I get the same problem regardless of which ones they are.

I thought I would share a non public YouTube video I created to help me demonstrate the problem.

Link:
http://youtu.be/I-Ka7vG--MU

Submit a tech support ticket as I think you have a unique problem and we will need more information.

[R0okey]

Per your advice I contacted support. Thanks.

[GrandWizard]

So my theory was correct. There is a 60 second timer, per zone, in the Envisalink used to determine if the zone is closed on Honeywell systems. If a partition keypad does not indicate that the zone is still open ("Fault Zone 3" message) within that 60 seconds the system will assume it is closed and the TPI will be updated accordingly.

This behaviour is only a problem on larger panels like the 128 but can also be the case on normal systems where a large number of zones are open at once.

Looking at my Vista20P it takes roughly 5 seconds per zone to display on the keypad. So if you had more than ~10 zones open that would probably cause the behaviour you are seeing.