Grown out of an Accenta G4 - where next?

[secureiam]

its unlikely the wifi would interfere, unless the PIR is very close to the wifi unit.

as for the bell box, depends on what it is and how its wired, most modern bells are happy with 12V to them, but some can be placed in hold off first and then have the power disconnected

 

[daern]

its unlikely the wifi would interfere, unless the PIR is very close to the wifi unit.

as for the bell box, depends on what it is and how its wired, most modern bells are happy with 12V to them, but some can be placed in hold off first and then have the power disconnected

Thanks - I suspect it will be easier to just get the ladders out and disconnect the battery in the bell-box. One less thing to faff with!

 

[daern]

Kit arrived today and looks pretty impressive.

One thing that surprised me a great deal is that the whole lot, control panel, keypads, even the SmartCom is made in the UK. According to their website, they even do their own injection moulding in Oldham, of all places! I knew that the company was based in the UK and probably designed the kit here too, but it's so rare for any consumer electronics to be made here these days, it's a very pleasant surprise to find it's also manufactured in the UK too.

Just waiting for a cold, wet Saturday when I can't go out cycling and we'll get it all fitted

 

[secureiam]

yes plastic slackcoat lane delph, along with bell boxes and some klaxon products and Haslingden for the rest.

Not sure everything is made in the UK but most of it is.

 

[daern]

Just getting my head around the differences between the Accenta and the Premier Elite and have a quick question on programming:

If I get this right, the Texecom panel has zones (physical wired connections), areas (a logical group of zones - e.g. "upstairs" or "garage") and suites (a group of areas to arm - e.g. "house" which would arm "upstairs" and "downstairs").

One thing we do today is use the Accenta's three programs to have different modes for our uses cases. These are:

1. Normal arm (when house is left)
2. Night arm (when we are in the house, in bed)
3. Boundary alarm (usually used to just arm the external doors, and none of the internal sensors)

With the Accenta, these could have different configurations for each zone in each program - e.g. the "normal arm" would have an entry/exit timer on the external doors, but the night alarm will instantly sound if the external doors are opened as we would never need an entry/exit on the doors when in bed.

From my reading, the Texecom panel has fixed zone configs (i.e. the front door has to be entry/exit regardless of how it is set). I see some specific attributes for allowing zones to be entry/exit when in a part-set configuration, but would this be the correct way to approach recreating something vaguely similar to what we had before?

 

[sparkymarka]

3 part sets like the accenta( for each area)
Areas can be eg house and detached garage on one system , you can come and go into the garage without having to turn the house off , there are multiple ways of setting up this system unlike the accenta

 

[secureiam]

Bell box connections should be the same except A 12V and D 0V on Texecom and on the Accenta A is 0V and D is 12V

 

[secureiam]

The best thing to do initially is get things assembled and use area A for everything to keep it simple once you have it all powered up and working sensors bell box and keypad.

You can then program up for the areas involved.

How do you want things to work for each area?

Its a big jump from an accenta to a PE48,

 

[daern]

The best thing to do initially is get things assembled and use area A for everything to keep it simple once you have it all powered up and working sensors bell box and keypad.

Yes, definitely!

How do you want things to work for each area?

The current programs are as follows:

Prog 1 (default):
Front Door: Entry/Exit
Back Door: Entry/Exit
All other zones: immediate alarm

Prog 2: (night)
Hallway PIR: Entry/Exit
Upstairs zones: disabled
All other zones: immediate alarm

Prog 3: (used when in the house at night, but not in bed)
All external doors: immediate alarm
outbuildings: immediate alarm
All other zones: disabled

My plan for the new system would be to have the outbuildings in their own area, armed separately, with a local keypad connected via the PSU200XP so these can be set/unset independently. I'd still, ideally, like to have something similar to the Accenta setup for the house. I suspect having areas for "upstairs", "downstairs" and "doors" would satisfy this with combinations applied to the various arm suites, but I don't really want to over-complicate things too much.

One thing I want to avoid is individual zone "omits" - they have a low "WAF" (wife-approval factor!) and having pre-set programs is both easier and more foolproof.

 

[secureiam]

not sure how beat up you will be using WAF and fool proof in the same sentence.....lol

at default zone 1 on panel is e/e, zone 2 guard access, the rest guard. All you need to change is the text for the zone and potentially the wiring types accordingly to match wiring used and sensor setup.

the rear door changed to e/e also.

as for the outbuildings depending on how you are setting and unsetting or want to there are options, with programming and a little wiring its possible to make some operations simpler. As for which you both find easiest is another matter.

 

[daern]

Just thought I'd update here. Installed the Texecom Elite today and it was a pretty straightforward job, although it did take a few hours as I took the opportunity to tidy up over a decade's worth of fiddling and expansion, which had left its mark on the old alarm wiring. Still a bit of tidying up to do, but ran out of time for this weekend, so will have to sort it another day.

Basic programming setup seems ok now. Impressed by the ease of use and flexibility of the digicom outputs - such a difference from the old system, so I should be able to do a lot more with my own integrations here.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to have a look into the SmartCom and what it's capable of. Looks like there's some emerging integrations with Home Assistant, which should prove very interesting...!

If I had one complaint, it's that the displays are all slightly wonky in the keypads, which will play havoc with my wife's OCD! Is this normal on this model?

 

[secureiam]

without seeing picture of the keypads hard to say but they shouldn't be wonky

 

[daern]

A bit like this and you can see the gap around the LCD display:

This view is taken from the normal angle that I would operate the keypad (they were originally set a bit lower so the kids can reach them), but it's visibly out of line even when looked straight on:

I wouldn't object too much, but the keypads aren't exactly cheap things to buy - nearly as much as the whole control panel, including PSU and metal box - so I'd expect them to at least be more or less straight!

 

[secureiam]

It shouldn't be like that, whilst you could have a go rectifying it yourself (you wouldnt want to break your warranty), i would get your supplier to replace.