Looking for a basic alarm system

I stopped counting in binary when I removed the last Napco 800 (I still have the stupid programmer). My point is this is 2006 there's absolutely no reason we should be adding/programming with binary/hex or whatever...its dumb.

IMO a panel should be easy to program fully from the keypad in english (or some semblence of english or alarmlish).

I've never had any real probs with Napco on the ones I have though. Dunno what panel I'd like to eval. since I don't keep up with their stuff. My basic panels are the Vista 10P, 20P for anything bigger I go with another product.

"Jim" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com... | | Crash Gordon wrote: | > They were all take overs, so the struggle to program them didn't endear me | > to want to continue using the product. Maybe one day Napco will send me a | > evaluation panel for me to play with :-) | >

| What kind of panel would you be interested in evaluating? I'm sure | they'd be willing to send you something if they were asked. ( I could | ask if you don't want to) | | As you can surmise, the programing is just "different" not actually | difficult. If you you can grasp the concept of counting in binary ( if | you don't know how, it's very simple, once it's explained) then Napco | programing becomes very simple to understand. With a laptop it's no | problem whatsoever. The best thing about Napco is that it gives you a | versatility to do just about anything you'd ever be asked to do by a | client. Obviously, you don't always need to do "everything" but it's a | great feeling of confidence to know that pretty much anything a client | may come up with, you can do it. I've been using it since the 80's. | Pretty rock solid, in my opinion. In recent years they've tried to | simplify the programing, especially in the low end panels ( which I | don't use). It seems to be a tendency in the industry to reduce | programing complexity down to the level of a three year old. In my | opinion, I think that it's an effort to keep up with the downward slide | of competence in what passes for installers nowdays. | | When ever I go to do a service call on an older system for someone, | who's not already my client, the guy before me has usually told them | the system should be replaced. Only because they don't want to "work" | on programing. That's another thing I've noticed too. Since I can | program Napco, there's not a panel out there that I've come across, | that I can't comprehend the programing in a relatively short time. I | think that if someone has only ever experienced programing simply | programed panels, it seems that their comprehension of other panels | programing is never developed. | | Just an observation. |

My point was that if you knew how to count binary then "understanding" Napco programing was easy. You don't really have to count in binary to progam them. I guess because it's so second nature to me to program them now, it's as easy as I'll ever need it to be. Someone who's comparing it to say ..... cell phone style messaging, is certainly going to have a problem with it.

It doesn't matter to me.

I've found them to be VERY reliable. I just replaced a working 800 the other day. Only because the owner was doing an addition to their home. I think it was installed in 82. Same keypads, the old mechanical 39 magnetic contacts, 116 door push buttons. Even a 714 Ademco siren driver blaster module and a DS PIR the size of a half a loaf of bread. Worked all those years and still tickin. Actually I've got dozens and dozens of old panels down in the "tomb" that I've replaced through the years and they're were all still working when they were pulled. I can't remember when I've had a panel bad out of the box or had to have repaired. Years ago.

If you ARE interested, probably the Gemini 1632 would be a good panel to try. Since I don't use Ademco, I don't know what it would be equivalent to. I don't remember where you're located but if you want, let me know and I could find out who the rep is in your area so you could get in touch.