Attempting to program vista 20p using Eyez-On Envisalink

[sburleson]

I am new to the Envisalink and have successfully installed the board/device into our Vista 20P. I can arm/disarm, label, etc... I would like to use the system to actually do some programming on our 20P (i.e. adding a zone/motion, change zone type, etc...) Can someone advise how to start programming through the portal? I choose "Code" and put in our Master code which comes back and says Partition 1. From here I am not sure how to issue commands to the Vista 20P. Do I choose Sequence? Could someone provide an example of how to issue further commands and what I should expect to see on screen? Are commands followed with pauses? are this issued separately? Thanks for all in advance!

[n3suv@outlook.com]

I was just looking on the forum for the first time. I would love to be able to do this too. Who ever is looking at this .. This will be very useful to me to be able to do this..

[dcuste]

I don't know how you would make program changes using envisalink, but I'm real curious why you would want to do that rather than programing using a local keypad or the compass program. If it is even possible, remote programming using envisalink sounds risky to me. Can you tell me why you would want to remotely add a zone or change a zone type?

[tomedjo]

Yes, you can easily program a 20p with evl3. But, it is a little risky if you are a long ways away. Of course, this is reason you need to program using evl3, rather than the panel. It is risky in that it could stop mid string and you have no way of knowing what to do next. If that happens, you have to keep hitting the star button and the off button and hope for the best. Not great.

Anyway, the reasons to use evl3 are because we aren't on site at the time and a change is needed. One change may be that you have a tamper circuit on something outside the house and some workers will be there to work in the area. Say you happen to be out of state and need to disable the tamper alarm for a few days.

As to how to do it --- simply use the exact same string as you would on at the panel. So, you have to use the installer code, not the master code. Put the entire string into the Custom code blank and hit enter. I would highly recommend testing this while at the house before trying it on the road. It didn't work the first time for us, because eyezon didn't allow this long of a program string. This has been corrected by eyezon. There was also a quirk because of our use of different 20p versions in different locations. Again, eyezon resolved this problem. Anyway, do test locally before attempting it remotely.

Good Luck.

[dcuste]

I've never had to deal with tamper circuits so please excuse me if this question seems ignorant. Wouldn't it work to disarm the panel, bypass the zones that could be tampered with, and then re-arm the panel? I would think that would be safer and easier than changing the programming. What am I missing?

[tomedjo]

dcuste,

Excellent point. Using Bypass, instead of a programming change is way easier and much safer in most situations. Not much I can say in my defense -- at the time we were going to be gone for a lengthy period, had a tamper zone that was going to need to be inactive for part of it, and had a neighbor checking on the dogs a couple of times a day. So, we thought it might be easier to disable the zone rather than have to remember to set the Bypass at each rearming. We also thought it would alarm if this tamper circuit was opened while the neighbor was there and we had disarmed the system for them. This tamper zone becomes active when the system is disarmed. So, that seemed like the thing to do at the time.

Generally, though, we will use your Bypass suggestion. Thank you very much.