Ademco Panels?

Every manufacturer has it's pros & cons. Ademco just leads the way when it comes to providing innovative products 10 years after everyone else has done so. I have been watching Ademco for over 20 years. It hasn't been pretty. The ITI patent scandal was just a small part of what I have seen them do. Even their original 100 series panels were "borrowed" from someone else's hard work & sweat...again nothing new there.

Ademco wireless is excellent, they offer a wide range of sensors, and they have a pretty solid panel line. Their unfair pricing & restricted distribution channels are another story. It pisses me off when a manufacturer distributes their own products, which then creates unfair trade & selling practices. But then again, that's Ademco for you. Ademco is more than willing to sell direct to your customers, even though they have no "required" alarm license on file. Ademco is famous for shooting themselves in the foot with backdoor sales to local & government agencies, which they forgot originally came from their dealers.

About 5 years ago, I received an order from a government agency for 1000 panic buttons. I made the mistake of placing the name of the buyer on the PO. One week later, my order gets cancelled. Then I find out from the person I know from the government agency that Ademco sold the panic buttons direct to them for 30 percent less than my cost...real nice eh?

Ademco has even hired a couple of surplus distributors with truckloads of parts to sell off on eBay, instead of offering a good discount to their dealers. Of course they will never admit to it, but a few regulars here in ASA have seen this for themselves. I scatch my head and try to figure out why Ademco allows its surplus distributors to sell 5816 transmitters on ebay for $15-18 each, when they turn around and sell it to their remaining faithful dealers for $24+ each...

I stopped buying all products from ADI because of their BS pricing structures. I now enjoy 50-75 percent discounts everyday, with no minimum purchase orders, because I buy all my alarm products online.

Jim Rojas

I've been in this industry for 36 years and I'd have to say that Jim has hit it right on the money with his opinion of Ademco. It's business philosophy hasn't changed one bit since Morrice Colman started it, as Progress Electric prior to being purchased by Pittway, back in the

60's. Ruthless, merciless and considering it's size and resources, always behind in technology and innovation, with only a couple of exceptions . Also, ADI is the biggest ruse in the alarm industry.

ADI seems to be charging retail prices on a lot of their inventory...

No Jim- They wireless technology is also 10-20 years behind. Rotating/rolling codes? Not in Ademco or Napco Stuff. Want to piss off your ADI Distributor? Look to see if they have an Ademco System to protect the store. Then go to the shelf and put the batteries in a couple of transmitters and close up the boxes again. Wait till they ARM for the nite!

I have been using ademco for over 25 years but right about slow to get on the band wagon with inovation and i experimented with Moose,DSC,etc but came back to fulltime Ademco,FBII 14 years ago and currently there high end panels are very feature rich and very dependable out of all the products i have used ademco has had the fewest failures and i still have customers using there

1000 series old controls and wont upgrade.

I should have mentioned that their quality has been good through the years. And features are good but always ....... late. Unless of course one of the companys they bought .... has them .... which means they'll be in an Ademco product just as the ink dries on the contract.

Their Vista series panels are easy to program and at least as reliable as most other major brands. Ademco (now part of Honeywell) is the oldest make in the industry. I sell several Ademco Vista series panels a day to DIYers. Most buy the Vista-20P which is a solid workhorse panel. A few opt for the smaller Vista-10 and 15 panels. We even move a few of the big V128FBP panels every month. Those are commercial grade power houses that can handle a large facility.

With up to 48 zones (sensing circuits) and a variety of wired / wireless options the Vista-20P is among the most popular residential systems on the market.

I disagree, Jim. Their policy of selling through limited distributors may not be convenient for dealers who don't use those distributors but that's not "unfair trade". It's just their business model. Besides, you can buy Ademco from other distributors besides ADI/Honeywell. In fact, there's a competing distributor now 30 minutes from your office that sells Ademco. I buy Ademco from ADI because they give me good prices. On some lines they can't compete with other distributors so I buy those elsewhere. That's not unfair -- it's just business. They have the right to sell their products to whomever they want. Those who don't like it (and there are plenty who don't) simply opt for other brands. It's not as though there is a dearth of brands from which to choose.

First of all, Ademco's wireless works extremely well.

Second, the 5881EN receivers support "rolling code" encrypted keyfobs. I think it would be a little silly to have rolling codes for door/window transmitters, since there's no way to resync them without a service call. Plus, rolling codes don't appreciably increase the security of sensors, since an intruder's problem is to block the legitimate alarm signal from reaching the receiver, not to transmit the correct disarm signal.

Some people would say that rolling codes are just marketing crap dreamed up by the car alarm companies. I'd be interested in seeing some proof that residential alarm systems have been defeated by duplicated keyfob signals. My gut feeling is that this just doesn't happen.

As far as putting batteries in Ademco wireless transmitters to piss off ADI...apparently, you don't understand serial numbers. If the receiver picks up a signal from an unprogrammed serial number, the system simply ignores it. That's the whole point behind serial numbers.

I don't like the variable pricing structure, or the fact they'll sell to end users. But the equipment works, and it doesn't cause trouble. That's more than you can say for some other manufacturers.

- badenov

Which will do what exactly?

I think it would be a little silly to have rolling codes for door/window

Bullshit- GE's stuff works fine

Who's opinion? Yours, documented or proven by yourself?

Guess again smartass- I've seen it done by perps with a "Board" full of deivces that they drive thru neighborhoods with.

It's a joke jerkoff, I understand the technology more than a two bit jackshit like you does. If the receiver

Won't do nuttin' honey.

| > > Ademco wireless is excellent, they offer a wide range of sensors, and | they | > > have a pretty solid panel line. | > No Jim- They wireless technology is also 10-20 years behind. | > Rotating/rolling codes? | > Not in Ademco or Napco Stuff. | > Want to piss off your ADI Distributor? Look to see if they have an | > Ademco System to protect the store. Then go to the shelf and put the | > batteries in a couple of transmitters and close up the boxes again. Wait | > till they ARM for the nite! | | Which will do what exactly? | | |

He's right about this, Mike. To understand why, assume some intruder has the knowledge and hardware to emulate a window transmitter but can't overcome a rolling code. The would-be thief can only send the equivalent of "sensor open", "sensor close" and "sensor tamper" signals. None of those will prevent or cancel an alarm.

If he can emulate a wireless keyfob he can shut off the alarm, but those units do use rolling code (Ademco/Honeywell calls it encrypted) technology.

It's probably safe to assume that there are *some* perps somewhere doing this though I can't say I've seen evidence of it happening. As such, I believe rolling codes for RF controllers are a good idea. However, I agree with the anonymous poster that they're not necessary for alarm sensors.

That's between you and the anonymous guy hiding behind an alias.

Correct.

That's just competition. We get better prices on Ademco than most other dealers because we buy so much of it. If you want better pricing you have to support the product and sell it.

Give this man a cookie! :)

Chocy Chips please.

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| > | > > Ademco wireless is excellent, they offer a wide range of sensors, | and | > | they | > | > > have a pretty solid panel line. | > | > No Jim- They wireless technology is also 10-20 years behind. | > | > Rotating/rolling codes? | > | > Not in Ademco or Napco Stuff. | > | > Want to piss off your ADI Distributor? Look to see if they have an | > | > Ademco System to protect the store. Then go to the shelf and put the | > | > batteries in a couple of transmitters and close up the boxes again. | Wait | > | > till they ARM for the nite! | > | | > | Which will do what exactly? | > | | > | | > | | >

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It's my understanding that only the keyfobs use rolling codes -- ELM, as GE calls it. However, I don't use ITI/GE wireless, so I may be mistaken.

Even Bass has figured this one out. You should be embarrassed. Rolling codes are intended to prevent someone from disarming the system by transmitting the correct serial number/code. If I tell you that the wireless transmitter for a certain house is #012345, please tell us how transmitting that serial number will defeat the system.

You've "seen it done?" You ride around neighborhoods with perps?

A burglar would have to know what brand of system is in use. He would then have to know that the system is configured for wireless keyfobs. He would then need to identify which wireless signal is the disarm signal, and determine that it is not a rolling code system. Then, he'd need to have the equipment to transmit that particular code. Not entirely beyond the realm of possibility, but not very damn likely, either.

No, it wasn't a joke. You just don't know what the f*ck you are talking about, and are trying to cover up your ignorance.

Let me give you a tip: if you're going to make a joke, it works better if you actually say something funny. Otherwise, people just assume you're a stupid shit.

- badenov

Long before you did.

This is somewhat analogous to the situation with alarm system configuration software. Several here have argued that by providing software to end users I am helping thieves defeat alarm systems. It's as ridiculous as the idea that by duplicating the RF signal from an alarm sensor someone could defeat the alarm system.

That's the same kind of response we usually see from Cracker and the MM when either of them loses an argument (something which happens virtually every time either of them argues with anyone).