EyezOn Forum

Hi there,

First time user here, trying to get things to work properly. I have a DSC 1864 control panel with an EnvisaLink 3 running firmware 1.11.128 (the latest, I believe). For the most part, things appear to be connecting and reporting status, but not everything is perfect. Here's a few things I noticed but I'm not sure if this is by design or if I missed anything:

• 1. No zone labels. I was under the impression that the EnvisaLink was supposed to get that from the panel. I tried broadcasting the labels 3 times now (*8[install code]*998*) with no effect. It just lists zones by numbers.

• 2. The EnvisaLink doesn't seem to know how many zones I actually have. When I access its internal web site, it always lists all 64 zones.

• • 2.1 My account at eyez-on.com connected to the same EnvisaLink device seem to list just the first 8 zones, but that's still too much (I only have 5 active zones in a single partition currently (I disabled the others via *8[install code]202 through 209).

• 3. The eyez-on.com web site doesn't seem support Daylight savings correctly. I'm in DST right now and configuring my time zone (PST, UTC-8) results in 1h-early reported time. If I enable "Auto-time updates" on my account, my keypads will then report the wrong time as well. I noticed you list a specific time zone for DST when in the UTC-8 time zone, but that's not ideal as that will force me to come and change my time zone every time we go in and out of DST.

• 4. Almost every interaction I have with the eyez-on.com web site results in a popup saying that "Scanstyles does nothing in Webkit/Firefox/Opera". I'm using IE11 on Windows 8.1.

I'm mostly interested in the first issue (no zone labels), so if you have any tips, please let me know. The other issues are just listed here as feedback to the team, in case they want to do something about it.

Thanks,
Bruno.

Hi, I'm glad you like the product.

1. The panel does not inform the Envisalink of keypad zone labels. You need to enter them, all 5 in your case, in your portal account. See your Envisalink primer

2. You are correct. Only the panel knows how many zones there are. Nothing to be done here

3. PDT is a real time zone. You are currently in PDT UTC-7, not PST UTC-08. Enter PDT and when there is a DST change-over it will be automatically corrected.

4. The new IE doesn't handle Ajax well which is the underlying technology on the portal. We receommend using chrome or firefox instead. They are much more secure browsers anyhow.

Enjoy your Envisalink!

Hey GrandWizard,

Thank you for taking the time to reply to all my questions.

GrandWizard wrote:1. The panel does not inform the Envisalink of keypad zone labels. You need to enter them, all 5 in your case, in your portal account. See your Envisalink primer

That's too bad. I don't know why I was expecting that to work. I guess I assumed the Envisalink was acting like a keypad and it would get the zone labels through the keypad broadcasts. I guess this could be something to look into in the future?

GrandWizard wrote:2. You are correct. Only the panel knows how many zones there are. Nothing to be done here

Bummer . But along the same lines as what I said above, if I go to a keypad and type *8[installer code]202, the panel will inform me of which zones of the first 8 are active (replace section 202 with sections 203-209 to get that information for all 64 zones). I guess there's opportunity to improve here as well.

GrandWizard wrote:3. PDT is a real time zone. You are currently in PDT UTC-7, not PST UTC-08. Enter PDT and when there is a DST change-over it will be automatically corrected.

I guess a picture will make it easier to explain this one. This was capture from the "Account Settings" page:



I understand PDT (as in UTC-8) is a real time zone. I just don't think that PDT (as in UTC-7, for DST support) is a valid one. At least, this is the first time I hear about it.

That's not that important to me though. What's important to me is that the system figures out DST on its own and updates the time without any action from me. As I said before, setting the time zone to PDT (as in UTC-8) set my keypads back 1h. I'll try it again tonight when I get home, but that's what happened when I tried it before.

GrandWizard wrote:4. The new IE doesn't handle Ajax well which is the underlying technology on the portal. We receommend using chrome or firefox instead. They are much more secure browsers anyhow.

Humm, to each their own, but I would ask your dev team to double check on that. I haven't had any problem like this with IE in a very long time. When I did see a problem, it would usually be caused by the web site detecting IE but ignoring its version. That would cause the web site to fallback to some really old logic, like IE8 mode or something. The fact that I had to add you web site to the list under "Compatibility View" settings kind of reinforces that.

Thanks again!

No, PDT is UTC-7 and PST is UTC-8.

You are currently in PDT which is 7 hours off of UTC (Zulu hour). In the fall the server will switch your account to PST (UTC-8).

As for Keypad knowing zones, you went into installer's mode to get that information. It was not just given to a keypad. To replicate this we'd have to have users submit their installer's codes so the Envisalink could periodically ask the panel how many zones are active. That would be as likely as asking our users to submit their PIN numbers for their bank cards so we keep them informed of their bank balances.

GrandWizard wrote:No, PDT is UTC-7 and PST is UTC-8.

You are currently in PDT which is 7 hours off of UTC (Zulu hour). In the fall the server will switch your account to PST (UTC-8).

Ok, got it now. I was getting confused by PDT and PST. This is the first time I see them as 2 different time zones. I usually just specify PST on the various web site I visit and things just work (I guess they're just moving me in and out of PDT as necessary).

GrandWizard wrote:As for Keypad knowing zones, you went into installer's mode to get that information. It was not just given to a keypad. To replicate this we'd have to have users submit their installer's codes so the Envisalink could periodically ask the panel how many zones are active. That would be as likely as asking our users to submit their PIN numbers for their bank cards so we keep them informed of their bank balances.

Yeah, you're right. :-\ I'm guessing the number of zones and their labels don't change that often to justify it.

Out of curiosity though: do you know if the communication between keypads and control panel is encrypted? Is it possible to listen to that information as it goes across?