Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - DSC PowerSeries632 / PC1555 Arming issues

Hello all, I have a DSC PowerSeries632, PC1555 system. I have just added a second PC5508Z keypad in the garage so we don't have to go running though the house when we arm/disarm the system. Seems to work OK, but a few weird things going on: 1. When I arm from either keypad, the trouble light comes on. The system arms OK, but the trouble light while armed. The trouble light goes off when you disarm the system. 2. From the second keypad I cannot arm the system simply by holding the "away key" - it just beeps once when I do this. I have to enter in our code to arm the system. Arms normally from the original keypad upstairs. 3. When I arm the system the "bypass" light comes on. Again, the system arms fine, and this light comes off when I disarm. Through some googling I have discovered this is becuase I have not opened/closed a door after arming??? Is there a way to disable this feature? The whole reason I bought a 2nd keypad was so I wouldn't have to run around opening and closing doors! Other notes: While adding the 2nd keypad I attempted to add another zone via the zone input on the keypad. I have since given up on this, but I may have messed up something when I tried unsuccessfully to program in the additional zone. Maybe this is related to above issues? I have assigned each keypad (I think) and preformed a 902 reset. I think each is assigned and monitor correctly because when I disconnect the 2nd keypad the trouble light comes on on the first. Everything else seems to work perfectly. I get no trouble light except when armed, and the green ready light comes on when no zones are tripped. THANK YOU so much in advance for your time and help! -dave

If you have motions in the house, you generally _want_ them to auto-bypass when you arm in stay mode. If you don't have any motions or other interior stay/away type zones, you can simply ignore the bypass indicator, it means nothing.

Was this a _new_ keypad, or second hand? DSC keypads retain programming individually. Otherwise, I suspect that your failed attempt to setup a keypad zone is the culprit for your trouble, and you may have scrambled the function key programming when you were enrolling the keypad.

Thank you for the valuable information. I do have one motion sensor. Is there any way to disable the auto-bypass feature? I have looked through the installer's manual and come up empty, I will look again though. I'll also dig though and see about how to program the function keys and report back here with my findings. Again, thank you for pointing me in the right direction. Any clue on the trouble light while armed?

Thank you again.

-dave

THANK YOU MrRonFL,

With you pointing me in the right direction I have fixed the function keys! And guess what, when I arm using the AWAY key the bypass light no longer comes up!

For those who need to know, here is the proper sequence for setting the keypad (PC5508Z ) back to it's defaults as far as slot assignment, and function key assignment:

*8, XXXX, 000, 0, 11, 1, 03, 2, 04, 3, 06, 4, 14, 5, 16, #, #

Note: XXXX = installer's code

Also Note: I used 12 instead of 11 for slot assignment since this is my second keypad.

OK, just noticed that you responded to the trouble light question, how would I go about diagnosing this?. And yes the keypad was NEW.

THANKS!!

Press *2 while the light is on. The trouble display function works while the system is armed.

Yeah, I tried *2 while armed already, but I just tried it again to be sure. When I press *2 while armed the trouble light flashes, but non of the zone numbers (1-8) light up to tell be what the problem is....

Thanks again, sorry it took me so long to get back to you, this website wouldn't let me log in for some reason. :confused:

The last time I ran into this type of glitch, someone had changed the setting on one of the option programming locations that are marked in the programming forms as "for future use".

Since this started when you were trying to add the new keypad, all I can suggest is that you look at the settings you may have programmed for the function keys, first.

In the section of the manual on "how to program" it explains how to view the contents of a programming location without changing it.

Thanks MrRonFL! I will look into that and report back here. I am thinking with research I am doing that it might be worth while to invest in the PC-LINK-9PIN - seems like that may make the programming process (and finding this glitch) easier for a novice like me. Anyone had any experience with one, are they worth it?

You _still_ will have to understand the programming syntax and underlying concepts. In addition, the software is often a bit of a headache to get working on any given computer.

The _only_ thing that the software really helps with is programming zone descriptors on alpha keypads.

If you want to give it a shot, have at...