Premier Elite 24 - flashed to v4 - Ricochet hilarity ensues

[Wuffles]

I posted this on the Texecom forum yesterday, but I think they're all on holiday (or something). So I thought I would ask here.

Beginning to wish I'd not bothered right now, but here's where I'm at.

ComWIFI decided to give up on me so bought the Smartcom, Interface cable and flasher to maintain some sort of network connectivity.

I'd heard good things about the Smartcom to be honest, so thought I was doing the right thing as the ComWIFI had been a bit flaky sometimes.

Am flashed and up to date, hardware installed. No Ricochet devices were appearing in the Wintex/Ricochet Monitor, so following advice on another forum (this one), I've deleted them one by one by using the control panel and re-learned them again. This was particularly entertaining as it appeared to need me to bring them one by one into the house (from the outbuildings they live in) and push the battery in near the control panel.

Still not showing up in the Ricochet Monitor and I'm not sure what's wrong or whether they're even part of the alarm any more.

Connecting via Wintex is even more flaky than it was with "Connection with control panel could not be established - please check settings and try again!" sometimes, and others not. Connection to the Smartcom is wired as I'm not a fan of wifi for some things, because they're you know, flaky. Oh wait.

Just to add, Texecom have been excellent help on the phone, I'm going this route in the hope that someone can point me at a document that explains how to re-register these devices and get things back to how they should be. There's no mention of this in the documents that came with the kit, only what I've picked up elsewhere.

Currently Ricochet monitor says zero devices or smartkeys. I am able to set and unset the alarm with the smartkeys, and the Ricochet PIRs are showing in Wintex and beeping if I tamper.

Any help with this much appreciated.

 

[sparkymarka]

Elite 24 ? 24 with external richocet or 24w

 

[Wuffles]

Oooh, now you're asking. It's an external Ricochet.

 

[scott1980]

Did you follow the firmware upgrade instructions to the letter? You have to perform a factory reset of the panel after upgrading, then send all the programming from the old panel back in as V4 via Wintex (including Ricochet data) Have you got the latest version of Wintex?

We don't normally use Texecom, however I've got an Elite 48 at home that I upgraded to V4 for Connect. Didn't have any issues with the upgrade process and haven't had any issues with the app or connecting to Wintex via Smartcom.

 

[Wuffles]

Did you follow the firmware upgrade instructions to the letter? You have to perform a factory reset of the panel after upgrading, then send all the programming from the old panel back in as V4 via Wintex (including Ricochet data) Have you got the latest version of Wintex?

We don't normally use Texecom, however I've got an Elite 48 at home that I upgraded to V4 for Connect. Didn't have any issues with the upgrade process and haven't had any issues with the app or connecting to Wintex via Smartcom.

Yes and yes. To the first yes, I followed the instructions and did as they suggested, and to the second yes I have the latest Wintex. I figured out how to connect to the box through the network although no instructions seemed to exist for that - only that connections from Windows 7 and below don't work - I'm using XP in a virtual machine and it's fine - apart from the flaky connections mind you.

The instructions are, iffy to be fair. I had to ring Texecom and find out that I was supposed to download device drivers for the USB cable, no mention of it in the manual I have. There's no mention I can find about a factory reset either (from memory). Which instructions are you referring to? The Flash Update or the flasher interface (think that's what I followed).

Cheers.

 

[scott1980]

I followed the Version 4 flash upgrade instructions from the Texecom website:

http://www.texe.com/UK/uploads/INS552-4_Premier_Elite_Flasher_Instructions_2.pdf

It does mention in a couple of places about loading factory settings after the upgrade. Could be something to do with the issues you're getting?

 

[Wuffles]

Thank you!

"If the firmware is a Major Upgrade, say from V3.XX to V4.XX then panel defaults will need to be loaded. You MUST power down the control panel and perform a “Factory Reset” to ensure that all defaults are loaded correctly."

You mean this line right? How do you perform a "Factory Reset"? I'll happily do that if it means it might work. I'm not sure that line is in the printed material that came with my flasher or I'd have investigated it at the time.

 

[scott1980]

Yes, that's the one. To factory reset, power the panel down completely, reconnect the battery, press and hold the load defaults button then press the kick start button. The heartbeat LED should come on at this point, you can let go of the load defaults button and restore mains power. After 30s or so, the panel will go into alarm. Enter the default engineer code and it should be fully reset to factory settings.

Hopefully you have a copy of the original programming on Wintex as I'm not sure your current panel programming hasn't been corrupted by the last firmware update.

 

[secureiam]

Firstly you have updated wintex and ricochet monitor.
What version did you flash the panel to.
When you deleted the devices manually did you do so for all the slots previously occupied or not?
Then manually learn each device on, as for learning you devices in situ, it can be done but it isn't as easy as learning them near the panel, when away from the panel how was you starting the learn process?

I don't recommend injecting an updated profile into wintex, start a new profile with the devices re learned.

If your stuck tomorrow give us a shout.

 

[Wuffles]

Wintex says the panel is currently at v4.02.01. I don't know if the Ricochet was flashed as part of the single flash I did?

Yes when I deleted the devices (there's only 3 PIRs) I removed them completely so when I reprogrammed them they had the same numbers on the system.

I've been attempting to sync the two together that I expect I no longer have the original setup in Wintex and it'll have been overwritten. It's not particularly complicated though, so I guess I can zap it and recreate it easily enough just by copying screen grabs of what the various settings and stuff are on the Wintex I already have.

My issue will be that I don't want to have to re-register all the key fobs for each user (as they're not here)? Can they be re-entered manually from the Prox Tag numbers I have?

So the upshot is, zap it like @scott1980 has said and start over completely? Open to suggestions on what could be easier though, could do without reprogramming it entirely.

Thanks chaps!

 

[secureiam]

don't know how much of a mess your in and it doesn#'t take long to reprogram the system so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

wintex and ricochet monitor are programs and should be upto date, latest versions available from Texecom website.

Regardless of what you want to do, sometimes its easier with a clean sheet, rather than to try fumbling around and getting nowhere.

 

[Wuffles]

don't know how much of a mess your in and it doesn#'t take long to reprogram the system so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

wintex and ricochet monitor are programs and should be upto date, latest versions available from Texecom website.

Regardless of what you want to do, sometimes its easier with a clean sheet, rather than to try fumbling around and getting nowhere.

Ah, the Ricochet software. I thought for a moment you mean the Ricochet firmware.

 

[secureiam]

the ricochet firmware cant be flashed (Texecom can flash it with there special flasher and the wont give out the firmware anyway), That sais when it went to wireless keypad compatible there were hardware modifications to the wireless side of things.