I’m back to tinkering with our alarm system. In 2023, we replaced the landline phone dialer with a combo IP/cellular communicator. The manufacturer recommends connecting the communicator via the Vista-20P long range radio interface. That mostly works, but every few months or so, the panel would briefly stop “seeing” the communicator, which would cause the keypads to start incessantly beeping until someone manually cleared the trouble condition. One time, we went away for the weekend, only to return and find that it had been doing this for two days straight (our cats were not happy). Fortunately, the communicator also supports a “tip/ring” configuration that emulates a phone line, and I was able to switch over to that to (ostensibly) prevent the trouble condition. I have yet to test it, because the panel also needs a new battery, another condition that causes it to periodically go into trouble. As a result, we’ve mostly been keeping the panel in programming mode, and not using the alarm for the past few months.

I have a new battery ready to go, but before I put everything back into service, I’m working on adding a Konnected Alarm Panel Pro Interface Kit to the system. This is a really clever system that attaches to the existing panel and makes up to 12 existing zones visible to our home automation controller. It can also arm/disarm via a keyswitch zone, and monitor arm/disarm and alarm trigger status using the Vista’s on-board relays. My initial plan is to hook the front/back/basement/patio doors, garage door, and motion detector zones up to the Konnected panel, which will make some cool automations possible, e.g. turning on the back porch light when we open the door at night, disarming the panel at the same time we unlock the back door, setting the hub mode to “away” when the alarm is armed (and vice versa), etc. As of this writing, I have all of the Konnected components mounted, connected, and powered up, and just need to hook up the zones and do the programming on the Vista for keyswitch and triggers. The hardest part of this was finding room in the panel cabinet for the Konnected boards. They are not large, but the cabinet is… rather crowded. When I installed the alarm back in 2002, I didn’t give much thought to wire management, so it’s kind of a bird’s nest in there. There is the Vista board itself, the battery, 2 terminal blocks, a zone expander, and lots and lots of haphazard wires. I was able to reposition the zone expander to make room for the new boards, but it took some very careful planning. Once everything is finished, I’m going to see if I can neaten the wiring up a little bit and maybe organize some of it with zip ties. Whatever the case, I’m looking forward to seeing how this works.