Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - Honeywell 6150 controller help-no display

I was painting the room where the controller is mounted. Disconnected the 4 wires, green black red and yellow. Re-connected them exactly the way I disconnected them, now I do not have a LCD display, completely blank. I have power to the controller, because the key are lit. Did I touch a wire wrong and short out the display? Should I order a new controller? Please help.

Check your connections. I suspect that one of the yellow or green wires isn't as well connected as you _think_ it is. Are you _sure_ you didn't swap the green with the yellow?

:confused:double and triple checked the connections. I took a picture of the connections before I disconnected it. The yellow and green are in the original location.

Try powering down the alarm system (take one wire off of the battery in the main system box, and unplug the transformer), then restart after a couple of minutes.

Otherwise, could you have possibly accidentally changed the keypad address? What is the _system_ that the keypad is attached to?

I bought a new control pad, and now I get beeping, and when I boot, I get the 31 in the display. How do I get an address code?

I did disconnect the battery, and re-powered the system, but still nothing, I had lights at the key pad, held down 1-3, but nothing. The new one responds when I touch the keys. I don't know what to do now.

What. Model. Alarm. System. Is. The. Keypad. Attached. To?

The keypad is not the alarm, it is just an interface.

Without that information we cannot tell you what to try next.

There are no universal answers for this stuff.

Mr. Ron, the system does not have an i.d. It was replaced by my current monitoring service, and is there is no I.D. of any kind. I called and had a tech come out, it only cost 65.00 and yes the keypad was fried, and the new one was i installed was fine, he re-adddressed the keypad, and it is perfect. I wish i could have i.d. the system. Problem solved.

All you had to do was open the door to the metal cabinet with the battery and read the model number off of the diagram inside the door.

Well, you are fixed now, so you are good to go.

They used different guts inside the cabinet. When I bought the house, my alarm company changed out the circuit board, inside the cabinet, and left the old cabinet in place. I did look a the diagram, and it had nothing to do with the currect contents of the cabinet. I looked for any model designators of any kind on the circuit board, nothing.

I have the same problem. I took the keypad down to strip wallpaper and then paint behind it. After putting it back up, the keys light up but there is nothing on the display. The display works as when I press 1 and 3, it displays 00. I tried setting the address to 16 by then pressing 16* but still no luck. When I did this, the display showed all its characters and lit the armed and ready lights so the display works.

I think it's just that the keypad isn't communicating with the rest of the system which is a VS20P.

ADT wants $111 for the first 30 minutes for a service call and $28 for every 15 minutes after that. Plus I guess they will charge me for a new keypad if that's the problem.

Anybody have any insights here?

Thanks!
JWS

I suspect that you have a 6150RF (if it beeps 3 times and the display alternates between -- and 00, then it's a 6150RF.

installer manual:
http://library.ademconet.com/MWT/fs2/1/4784.pdf

Unless you did something strange, disconnecting and reconnecting the keypad should not have altered any addresses or settings. Double check your wiring connections, then completely power down the system: Unplug the battery, then unplug the transformer, or remove the wire from the first terminal on the motherboard, wait a couple of minutes then restored the AC power then the battery.

Mr. Ron,

I'm pretty sure it's not a 6150RF. The model number embossed in the plastic is Ademco 6150ADT. And the label on the front says ADT SafeWatch Pro 3000.

The display is totally blank except after hitting 1&3. Then the display shows 00 as a prompt for entering the address. This is the only keypad on the system. Is it likely that ADT programmed it be anything other than 16? And when you press 1&3 isn't it supposed to show you the current address? Does seeing 00 every time mean that the address is 00 and it's never getting reset to 16? Is that why the display is blank -- because it is incorrectly addressed?

This keypad was disconnected from the system for about 48 hours. Is that long enough for it to need to be reprogrammed?

Oh, and based on other entries I've seen on here, I've cycled power to the entire system (unplugging the transformer) several times. Every time I do, I get a call from ADT telling me my power is off. And cycling the power hasn't helped.

Thanks for the advice.
JWS

One: Unplug the phone line...

Two: if it's not an RF kepad, (6150ADT just means it's been shipped with the ADT logo, it's otherwise just a 6150 keypad), you can only change the keypad address in the first 30 seconds after power is applied to the keypad.

Try this set of instructions instead: http://www.intellahome.com/alarmpdfs/6150.pdf

Normally these keypads could be powered off for a couple of years without the keypad address changing. It's possible that the act of disconnecting it _with_power_on_ was enough to change the address. The _default_ address is 31.

It's not connected to a phone line per se. We decided to drop our home phone and stick to cell phones so it has a wireless gizmo attached to it. I believe it is hard wired.

Thanks for the link to the 6150 manual. If I read it correctly, pressing 1 and 3 at anytime will display the address. I've never seen anything but 00 anytime I've pressed these keys whether it be within 60 seconds of power up or not. Does this mean the address is actually set to 00?

Is there any reason that ADT would have set it to any other address than 16? Maybe it's been 00 since the day it was installed and this is what it's supposed to be?

Did I mention that none of the keys beep when pressed except for after being in address mode or checking the address? Any time 1 and 3 have been pressed and held and the display returns to blank, only the next five key presses get beeps. After that, it's beepless again.

Thanks for the help,
JWS

If it's a vista 20p, then the keypad has to be addressed as 16-23. Those are the only valid addresses and address 16 is the default address that is always active.

The failure to respond either means that the address is wrong. The failure after 5 keypresses means either the green or yellow wire connection isn't connected properly, or reversed.

If there is a metal bar the size of a paper clip going across the top of the circuit board on the back and another down the side it is an RF keypad. Also how many keypads are in the home. Most companies address the the 2nd :)keypad 17 and the 3rd 18 and so on. If you have more than one try a different address.

These wires that make it an RF are on the back (non component) side of the keypad circuit board? If that is the case, mine is a plain 6150.

Is it true that pressing/holding 1&3 at any time displays the address? If so, then mine is addressed as 00. If 16-23 are the only valid addresses for a Vista 20P (mine is a 20P3, actually) this would explain the blank display.

Can I take this keypad and hook it up directly to only 12 VDC and set the address? If I do it that way, will it still show me it's address when I press 1&3?

Bottom line -- how can I get it addressed as 16 and show me 16 when querying the address by pushing 1&3?

Thanks!
JWS

All i could recommend is to go to the main panel, disconnect all wires going into the panels keypad terminals, and tied the keypad directly into the main board. Power the panel down(remove ac and battery) and up again. Then do the 1 and 3 thing press 16 then * good luck

There was no joy from the direct connection to the V20P board. I didn't think there would be since the wire between the keypad and the board is only 18" long at most and I had already rung it out with an ohm meter and all the wires are fine.

Does anyone know whether the keypad really knows its address or does the system associate the address with the keypad as an alias for some hard coded info on the keypad? Sort of like the IP address of your computer on a network is really assigned by a router somewhere based on the MAC of your network adapter. This is what keeps two PC's on the network from having the same IP address.

Likewise, each keypad on the system has a unique address but the address is actually assigned by the system.

So in my case, I'm thinking 00 is a result of the keypad asking the system to tell it what it's assigned address is and not getting a reply because the communication is screwed up.

If I disconnect a data wire or reverse them, the display shows OC and after a couple of minutes starts to beep to let me know there is a communications problem.

So my question is this. Is the problem more likely to be that the keypad can't talk to the system or the system can't talk to the keypad?

Thanks
JWS

You are overanalyzing this. Read the instructions, follow the instructions. Set the keypad address to 16 _or_it_will_not_work_! There is no magic, there is no voodoo.

The motherboard only communicates with keypads set to the addresses that are set as active in the system programming, and.

Do not assume that your connections on the keypad terminals are good, it's 22 gauge wire, and very easy to have a bad connection if you are not used to working with it.

If you are trying to avoid running back and forth, the easiest and safest way to power down/up the keypad is to take the black wire loose then reconnect it.

You can _only_ alter the keypad address in that 60 second window when power first applies to the keypad.

Not trying to be difficult, Mr. Ron -- just trying to figure out why I can't get the address to 'take' on my 6150. I've followed the instructions to the letter several times but the address just won't take. All it ever shows is 00. I'm just trying to understand/figure out whether the keypad or the system board is fried.

In your expert opinion, if I'm doing it right and the display persists in showing the address as 00 is it more likely that the keypad is bad or the main board is bad?

Are you familiar with the ADT wireless telephone gizmo? If I remove the wires on terminals 23 and 24 of the V20P will this do the same thing as 'unplugging the phone line'? Will ADT then call me to tell my 'phone' is not working?

Thanks!
JWS

Take the black wire off of the dialer wiring connection, this kills the power to it while you tinker.

I am seriously starting to think that by disconnecting this keypad while it was powered you damaged it. This is not the first post where someone has disconnected a 6150/6160 "hot" and had to replace it, as you may have noted, the originator of this thread ended up having to have their keypad replaced by ADT.

These are actually fairly simple devices, they really don't have very many surprises or hidden features.

Mr. Ron,

Good thought on the ground wire for power to the wireless dialer. However, it has a gel cell under the cover keeping it powered up. And that cover holds a NC 'tamper' switch 'open' so ADT knows when the cover is off. That's why I was wondering if taking the wires off the V90P terminals that would ordinarily be connected to the conventional phone lines would work.

And I think you are correct that I've probably killed the keyboard. The fact that it was responding to the 1/3 gave me hope that it was not totally fried. I just hope it's the keyboard and not the main board.

The guy who got his fixed for $65 must not have ADT. I couldn't believe their rates for a service call.

I sincerely appreciate your input and I hope I didn't upset you or anybody else too much with my continued queries. Your tag line says to ask the right question. That's all I was trying to do.

Thanks!
JWS

For anyone who has been following my saga or anyone who reads this in the future:

My 6150 keypad was indeed fried. Who would have thought that disconnecting and/or reconnecting it with the power on would kill it?

It seems like it would be worthy of a sticky at the top of this forum warning about this possibility. After all, there are two fried 6150's in this thread.

Thanks for all for your comments and help!
JWS

It's only recently that I've started seeing such posts concerning 6150/6160 keypads failing if disconnected "hot". They may have made some changes to the design of the Honeywell/Ademco keypads that make them more suceptible.

In general, with alarms, its never a good idea to disconnect components that draw power (i.e. keypads, motions, acoustic glassbreaks, etc.) with the system powered up. Rather than fuses, most systems use solid state thermister or MOV devices, which do sometimes fail on trip.