Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - Change 6150 keypad to a 6160

I have an ademco 20p alarm system with a 6150 keypad and would like to upgrade to a 6160. All are hardwired. Will this require any programming for new keypad or is it a straight unwire old and replace with the new?

Thanks

6160 is compatiable for vista 20p

This is a great site. What would have taken me weeks to figure out takes only a few hours. As MrRon has told many would be necessary, to get the programming capability I'm looking for, I am awaiting delivery of a 6160 keypad. I'm looking forward to installing it but am hoping it doesn't turn out to be more complicated than I'm expecting.

Here's some background. I have an ADT Safewatch Pro 2000 system which I understand from this site is a Vista-20SE. The 6139 keypad is fixed text which isn't good enough for doing anything other than turning the system on and off.

In this thread, there was a response that the 6160 is compatible. Not exactly sure what that means. 1) Does it mean, remove wires from old remote and install them on the appropriate terminals of the 6160? 2) Is there any additional initialization/programming necessary - I assume there is to for example register the new text fields? 3) Will this all be documented in the 6160 user manual?

Also, I have to of course remove my 6139 keypad. I see 2 tabs on the top edge that appear to release the front face plate but they sure are difficult to push in. As it's all plastic, if I push much harder I'm expecting the whole case to crack or worse I'll rip the whole unit off my wall. 4) Any advise how to do this?

Sorry for the long note. I've asked 4 questions which have a number (1 to 4) in front of them. To simplify your response, feel free to just reference the questions by their number.

Thank you in advance.

Since you are replacing a 6139 with a 6160 (compatible means that Ademco lists this working with a Vista 20se/SW 2000), the new keypad should work right out of the box. You just swap wire for wire.

The keypad text on Ademco panels is stored in the alarm control. The keypad is just a display, so your existing text should be displayed.

The manual you really should be reading is the one for the Vista 20se:

http://alpinealarms.com/ademco/v20seim.pdf

I thought the 6139 was good for programming as well as the 6160?

I thought the 6139 was good for programming as well as the 6160?

To help ensure this thread doesn't cause unnecessary confusion in the future, my old keypad was actually a 6137B. I quoted 6139 in error. Sorry about that.

If anyone out there is thinking of upgrading, I can tell you it was one of the easiest installs I've ever one. There will actually be more work painting the wall (new key pad covers different space than my old one). I certainly can live with that.

Thank you all, especially Mr Ron for all the info/advise.