I thought U would start a new thread for this one…
I am interested in this system in comparison to the DSC.
Can you tell me how the keypads displays compare…I am a little unhappy with the DSC LCD display when you have multiple zones open I would like one to identify the zone without having to scroll through them manually. I am new to the DSC so correct me if I am doing something wrong. I ended up adding the LED keypads to the system beacause at a glance you know what zone is open.
Anything you can tell me would be most useful!
Also, do they have PC software for setting up this alarm system?
Regards
Tim Alls
AllSeas Yachts
http://www.dsc.com/index.php?n=products&o=view&id=15
No idea if it can show multiple Zones at once, but it might be worth a bit of investigation or a couple of phone calls?!
I thought the ideas was that you were going to use SQremote for status of Zones?
Thanks for the feedback,
I am using the SQRemote for displaying zones but I want the arming process to be easy when you are leaving…when looking at the system keypad having the message not ready to arm doesn’t help much. I want to know using the Alarm Harware what is open so that arming the system doesn’t require a lot of keystrokes. The SQRemote is more like frosting on the cake when you are in bed or away from the yacht.
The guys I deal with are usually very lazy!
On another yacht…years ago…we had a keypad (different brand) that scrolled the open zones across the display…very handy! I can’t remember if it was Ademco but it might have been.
Regards
Tim Alls
Which Keypad type are you using at the moment? Maybe there is a function that can be enabled to scroll these automatically. I’ll take a look at mine tonight and see if there is any setting in the template programing that can be changed also that may help.
I am using the DSC 5500 LCD keypad with wireless. I really didn’t look at the DSC site to see if there were options that could be set on the display…maybe that feature could be turned on. Good thinking!
Regards,
Tim
I’m using the Keypad referenced in here (K641) in the References section:
Paradox Alarm Plugin
If multiple Zones are open, it Cycles the display indicating:
Area 1
Not Ready
then
Zone Open
018 Garage Door
then
Zone Open
006 Kitchen Window
ete, eventually looping back to the “Area 1…” bit. This string is customizable, I’ve just been too Lazy to customize it 
There are also newer Keypads for the line. You can see them here:
Paradox - Headquarters
PS: The more modern version of the DGP-848 is an EVO-48, or EVO-192, depending upon how many Zones you need (max).
Guessed,
That’s exactly what I am looking for. I am going to check out their hardware if I can’t get the DSC 5500keypad to do the same thing. It may sound like a little thing but really isn’t.
Off the subject … What would you recommend for power monitoring? I would to start a new thread on your recommendations.
Regards
Tim
I had a look through the programming manual but couldn’t see anything obvious to fix it 
[quote=“TimAlls, post:7, topic:167912”]Guessed,
That’s exactly what I am looking for. I am going to check out their hardware if I can’t get the DSC 5500keypad to do the same thing. It may sound like a little thing but really isn’t.
Off the subject … What would you recommend for power monitoring? I would to start a new thread on your recommendations.
Regards
Tim[/quote]
Everything in my wiring closet is 12v. I used Netgear Green GigE switches, Vera, a Linksys Router, the ATT DSL and a few other bits.
These all hang off a MeanWell power supply 12v that supports battery backup. I have a 12v 18Ah battery that sustains everything in the closet during power loss.
My Alarm has a separate battery.
Not the best setup but it works well.
I also have another router ready to proves 3G Broadband backup if the primary DSL fails, but haven’t activated that yet. It’s a Cradlepoint MBR 800 (from memory)… Mostly since hacking Vera to do that would be unsupported (and largely unsupportable, over time with patches and all)
Thank you both.
Your feedback has saved me lots of hair from being pulled out!
In regards to power monitoring I am wondering if any of you have been using 120/220 amperage monitors. I have monitors on the mains but is there a good way to monitor sub circuits?
I will start another thread on this one since it is off the subject.
Regards
Tim Alls
AllSeas Yachts
[quote=“TimAlls, post:10, topic:167912”]Thank you both.
Your feedback has saved me lots of hair from being pulled out!
In regards to power monitoring I am wondering if any of you have been using 120/220 amperage monitors. I have monitors on the mains but is there a good way to monitor sub circuits?
I will start another thread on this one since it is off the subject.
Regards
Tim Alls
AllSeas Yachts[/quote]
Not yet. There are a few indirect routes here that have been discussed elsewhere in the forums:
a) Ping/Poll some “Ethernet” device that’s not on BBackup. When it stops, you’ve likely lost power.
b) Attach a Power monitoring Z-Wave device to an always-on circuit and wait till it stops reporting usage
c) Use a real energy monitoring device, and detect “0” (or near 0, depending upon accuracy) power usage
d) Hang off a UPS-Monitor (USB-based ones don’t do this well, due to need for USB-HID Drivers in Verak, which are missing). An older (or larger) Serial or IP one might work. You can get PDU’s that have this type of info built in.
The other would be to “hang” off the Alarm System’s AC Failure data. Generally speaking, these panels seem to alert you to Battery and/or AC Failure events. If you could hook of these, you could use the one from the Alarm system to do something meaningful in case of AC failure.
Separately I have 2x Brultech ECM1240 waiting to be installed into my house. This will “amp-clamp” 14 circuits and get me real-usage data, at seconds level granularity, once I write the Plugin (which I’ve already stubbed based upon the wire format). This could be used for item (c) above, as could a TED 5000 device (with @woodsby’s plugin). In a boat, this could also be handy to show where the power hogs are.
Mostly though you’ll be roving new territory…
Could we use the Alarm Panels AC loss signal as an event? Obviously this only alerts you of the circuit that the Alarm is powered off, but would be handy anyway to at least send you an Alert that the power was lost? I Assume this would be possible using the Vendor Status Code that you already wrote the support in for using code 802?
In theory, yes, and that’s the intended purpose of this “vendorcode” stuff in the standard we’ve built… but I cannot remember if I fully wired up the VendorStatusCode in the DSC code, and in all the right spots. You might want to troll through the code to see. If it’s missing, open a ticket against the code to get it added.
The Brultech is what interest me…I will look up the specs. We want to monitor the power usage as well as water of the guests on board.
Thanks for the tip!
Regards
Tim
Tim,
On the Brultech’s, each ECM1240 unit has 7 inputs - two primary (CH1, CH2), and 5 Aux (Aux1…5). The latter take different types of clamps, and CH1/2 ones are for the “main” bus’s (Large Amp clamps)
Aux5 can also take some sort of “pulse” input for counting meter inputs, although I haven’t tried that. Apparently it can be used for Water/Gas meter measurement with the right type of input device.
I have 2 of these units, and they “share” a single serial channel (over XBee) to my Ethernet circuit… all on my “bench” at the moment, waiting for other things to wrap up. Conveniently, I have 12-14 “circuits” to monitor, so I’ll be able to get detailed measures for everything in the house.
Each unit will send it’s data (for all channels) every second. It’ll be interesting to see if my Vera can handle that information flow-rate. I have something else that I can offset it to if Vera can’t keep up, and I already plan to use that to generate the graphs (either that, or Google Charts)
Guessed,
The Brultech is a perfect fit for me. We want to monitor multiple inputs and make the data available on the network for each individual stateroom. This takes care of power monitoring and all I will have left is to figure out water consumtion! I am going to buy the serial version and have my Labview Engine Room Computer gather the data for distribution on the network.
I was wandering around the website trying to find the details on the binary dump the machine makes so I could get an idea on how long it will take me to write a driver but I didn’t see it…I may have to request the info.
Another great tip!
Thanks
Tim Alls
AllSeas Yachts
Yesterday I mentioned that I couldn’t find a setting in the panel programming for auto scrolling of zones; however, purely by chance when I was looking for something else on my panel, I think I just came across it picture and the keypad manual from the below link:
http://www.homesecuritystore.com/downloadmanual.aspx?mnl_id=587&prod_id=781
Looks like its section 076 8
So *8 [Installer Code] 076 8 ## or something like that!
What a stroke of luck! I don’t think I would have caught that one…thank you Strangley!
I will try it in the morning and see how it works.
Guessed, I bought the Brultech today and I was amazed at the reasonable price. I am going to get a head start on writing a driver for reading it and write a special Labview screen for displaying the data. I am still working on uploading variables into the Vera…getting closer. Thanks for yet another great tip!
Regards
Tim
OK tried the zone scroll setting on mine and it works! I missed an asterisk before so its:
*8 [installer code] * 076 8 ##
I expect a big discount on my future Boat for this! 
I was just about ready to throw it out and start over so yes…the beer is on me!
How sad that when you talk to the people that sold it to you they know nothing!
Thanks again, I owe you!
Regards
Tim