Hello friends!
30 year service tech with a local family-owned ala rm company here. I've been installing/servicing the Honeywell Vista series all the way back from the 10/20SE days. Man, those were terrible panels. Th e 15/20P is obviously much, much better.I'm well versed in the 15/20P -- they make up probaly 80% of roughly 5000 accounts we monitor, s o I see the Vista 20P multiple times every day because I run service calls fixing what'd you'd expect: Broken switches, dead batteries, the usual garden variety stuff. We have a massive amount of 5800 series wireless stuff out there and I se e that every day too..
I'm not posting this to boast, but to demonstrate that I'm pretty darned sharp with the 5800 seri es wireless stuff on the V20P. I've seen every p ossible problem, or so I thought.....
[BEGIN THE MEAT OF THE POST]Over the past 2-ish years I've seen a certain pr oblem a handfull of times with V20P wireless. I've not been able to discover the cause of this o r any remedy. Honeywell tech support is baffled an d they can't offer any insight at all. Here is what happens.
Vista 20P alarm system with 5881 receiver (L, M, or H -- doesn't matter) is installed, up and running. There may or may not be hardwire zones installed. That does not matter. Presence of other devices like zone expander does not appear to m atter either.
In every instance I have seen this problem, there have been numerous 5816 wireless sensors enrolled and operating fine. There may also be wireless smoke, wireless glassbreak, etc.
After the system is up and running for a period of time --- I've not been able to determine h ow long, or even if that matters -- the system may begin to act erratically as if doors were opening/closing very rapidly, over and over. For instance, when a 5816 sensor is tripped (by openin g the door), the V20P displays the faulted zone approprately. When closed, the display shows appropria tely. But within a few seconds, the zone will ap pear to trip again and restore very rapidly. A f ew seconds later, it may happen again, then restor e. If clime mode is on, the keypad will chime each time. Then, the zone may stay faulted for a seemingly-random period of time, then restore. Then it may work correctly for a while. But ten tr ip/restore again -- sometimes in rapidfire display. It's quite the comedy to watch: someone opens the front door, for instance, and the keypad displays and chimes as expected, then does it again and again and again in an erratic way -- as if someone were opening/closing the door very very fast , faster than a human being could possibly do it .
Each time I have run into this, I have deleted the zone, and relearned a new sensor, reasoning the sensor has gone wonky. But then, that one will also behave the same way. Learning it by tripping the sensor or by manually entering the serial number does not matter. The loop number (internal reed or external contacts) does not matter either.
I have deleted the zone and moved to a new one with a new sensor -- same thing.
I have deleted all zones and started over -- sam e thing.
On a couple of occasions, when programming a new wireless zone, when the system is in learn mode , seemingly-random serial numbers will sort of "lear n" into the system over and over. None of the serial numbers displayed on the learn screen are o nes on the system. And no, my service truck does n't have any rogue transmitting sensors in the tra shcan in the back! :)
The learn mode behavior lead me to believe that a nearby system V20P -- maybe a next door neighb or -- is interfering with programming. Honeywell tec h support seems to believe that may be the right track, but they offer no further help along tho se lines.
I just don't know why aready-programmed sensors woul d be affected in such a way that the weird run
-mode behavior happens. All I can think of is th at there is some kind of wireless data spamming from the offending neighbor.