Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - Vista 20P, Comm Failure, and phone wiring

I have a relatively-new Vista 20P that's been working fine since installed back in the spring. I recently undertook updating our phone wiring to run phone and network from a structured panel.

Part of the panel is a phone distribution block w/ an alarm jack. It's from Leviton: Telephone Security Module (http://www.smarthome.com/865171/Leviton-1x7-Telephone-Security-Module-with-Bracket-47609-TSV/p.aspx)

As an (I think) aside, I also put in their DSL filter board. I have my Line 1 pair running from the demarc to that board, then out to the security module, then distributed through the house.

The Vista 20P (which replaced a 10SE) was wired as indicated in the manual to a RJ31X jack mounted on top. As another aside, I think all of the wiring to the alarm panel for the phone was run w/ alarm wire, which was a great AM radio antenna.

Here's what happens: with nothing plugged into the Leviton jack (and with the module's switch set to "On"), I don't get phone in the rest of the house. When I plug the alarm's RJ-45 plug into the jack, I get phone elsewhere, but the alarm is still saying there's a Comm. Failure.

I tried plugging in a corded phone to the security module jack- it works, but I still get nothing in the rest of the house, even when the corded phone is hung up. I tried all combinations of the 4 wires at the alarm panel without success, in case one pair was reversed.

I'm open to suggestions about what might be wrong. Thanks.

On many of these distribution boards that incorporate the security jack there is a jumper or dip switch to enable to security jack. Is this the case with yours?

I believe these jacks replace your rj31x at the panel. So, you will wire the jack on your distribution panel directly to the panel.

Yep, the jumper is switched to "On" at the Leviton board. And I took the RJ-45 plug out of the old RJ31X jack and plugged it into the one on the Leviton board. The other end of this cable, at the 20P board, is the same as it was before.

When you plug a normal phone plug into a RJ-31x type jack, you are creating a line seizure. The handset has the dialtone, but there are no return wires feeding the house lines, thus no dialtone anywhere, so _that_ part is normal and shows that the jack is working correctly.

Is it possible that what is happening is that alarm is seizing the line to complete it's stored calls, and you are freaking because there are no dialtones on the house lines and unplugging the alarm before it finishes dialing out? Often it takes an alarm 30sec to 1min to connect and dump all of the stored data (which feels much longer than most people think).

One thing you can do is to take a normal phone jack and a couple of alligator clips and your test phone to make a "butt set" so you can check the terminals at the alarm itself.

MrRonFL:

Thanks. No freaking here. I haven't touched the alarm panel except when I was trying to figure out if something was wrong with the wiring as a result of the msg on the keypads.

I wasn't sure how plugging the regular phone into the RJ31X jack would work. But that makes sense, I'm thinking since the RJ-11 has only the 2 middle pairs that an RJ-45 does. And, IIRC, looking at the RJ31X link from the FAQ, it uses the inner pair and the outer pair on the RJ-45 for feed and return of the line from the alarm panel.

It seems to me that it's behaving like it should. But the exception is that the panel is still seeing a comm.s failure.

I thought for a while that I just needed to clear the trouble condition from when I unhooked the phone line to connect to the new wiring. I've keyed in both the master and one user code to try to do that. The "FC" condition keeps reappearing, though. I haven't powered down the panel to see if that helps. Am I missing something on clearing the trouble condition (possibly an old one)?

The other oddball thing that happened is that I have wired motion sensors on one zone. They're still working fine, judging from the LEDs. But the alarm panel lost the zone. The only thing I did was bundle up and zip tie the extra wiring in my crawlspace. I guess one of the conductors for the contacts on that zone must've broken when I did that.

Thanks for the help.

To clear the com fail, the alarm will have to send a successful signal. The easiest way to do this is with a dial test (code+5+1). It will take up to 45 sec. and the panel respond with FC (failed to communicate) or CD (Contacted).

Not sure on your motions...you may want to put the alarm on test, arm to away and trip the motions.

With the one zone having a trouble fault, I couldn't do the dial test to clear the comm. failure. I went into programming mode and disabled the zone with the motion detectors. The comm. failure cleared when I exited programming mode.

Still haven't had a chance to figure out what's going on with the motion detector zone.

Entering programming, then exiting will always clear faults. :( You could still have a communication issue. Try to test the alarm with code+5+1 Until you get a CD or Phone OK, you may not have monitoring:eek:

Simple test number 1

Disconnect the zone wires for the motion and replace them with a 2K ohm resistor. If the zone closes, then the problem is with either the motion itself, or with the wiring between the panel and the motion.

Simple test number 2

With the zone wiring connected, go to the motion, disconnect the wires from the alarm relay and short them together. (assuming that the resistor is at the panel (as is commonly done in residential installs)

If the zone closes, then you have a bad motion. If it doesn't, then your wiring is damaged between the panel and the motion.

I finally went back to look at this- one of the loop wires for the zone had broken at the terminal in the panel. It was a 30 sec fix to strip and re-land, then a minute to change the program and put the zone back in service.

Thanks y'all.