dougoh
01-27-2010, 02:39 AM
In a previous post I promised to post a thread documenting my experience upgrading from my old CS350 (which wouldn't charge battery anymore) to the Signet 200. So, here goes....
- spent quite a bit of time upfront mapping the wires coming into the CS350 to the physical zones in my house (6 in total), popped a tag on each wire for later identification in the Signet panel.
- read up on the Signet panel, which comes with a wealth of technical documentation on the CD that comes with it. Major differences (relevant to my upgrade):
1.Signet defaults to using Dual EOL, where my CS350 was SEOL.
2.Signet DEOL resistors are 2K2, CS350 4K7 (the resistor values can be changed on the Signet panel).
3. Each pair of zones on the Signet shares a common(negative) terminal, where each zone on the CS350 has it's own common(negative) terminal.
4.Signet panel has USB connection, which allows it to be configured using
the supplied software, via a laptop connected to the panel :-)
- I opted to re-wire all 6 zones of my house to DEOL, since
a) this is the default of the Signet panel, so likely path of least resistance(I'm from a software background, so know that 'default' values are typically the best tested).
b) this would allow me to effectively identify which zone was faulty or being tampered with (I didn't like the fact that the CS350 had all 6 zone tampers wired in series to the same tamper circuit and even on the Signet if I configured for SEOL then it only has 2 external aux tamper circuits).
Now this step took me about 3 hrs in total, as I went through each sensor (starting at EOL sensor), added resistor(s) and finally checked resistance values for tamper, closed, open... however, given that my system didn't have any maintenance in 12 years of use it served as a good excercise to make sure everything working well. I also discovered two sensors that had had their tampers bypassed :-(
- Next step I got up to the bellbox and disconnected the battery (actually I was replacing my bellbox with a HKC SABB, so took the old one down).
- Next I disconnected each zone from the CS350 one by one, took the panel off the wall and mounted the Signet panel in it's place (bigger footprint on the wall but not a big deal).
- routing the wires into the Signet panel was 'cosy' but not complex. All wires were able to sit behind the panel enclosure, even once mounted on the wall.
- I then connected each zone one by one using the label I'd put on the wires(this time, only 2 wires per zone due to DEOL config). This was very straightforward and alot less 'messy' than the wire maze that existed in my CS350, largely due to the DEOL config I'd setup for the Signet.
- I then connected the RKPD and switched on...
...
No issues at all, all 6 zones identified :-)
- I then connected the Signet config software and used it to config each of my zones from their defaults to the actual values I needed, configured users etc.
- I then checked that all the zones were working well using the testing options in the Signet software (they were!).
- Next I connected the internal buzzer and the external SABB I did some basic testing of these and everything more or less worked first time.
In total, it probably took me about a day to do all this, not including prep time spent reading up on signet panel and playing with signet config s/w to get familiar with it.
The only gotchas I found:
- The Signet config software is a bit fussy about running on Vista/Windows 7. I needed to install/re-install, disconnect/reconnect my USB connection a number of times before things settled down. Some of that could be due to my laptop but the manual does seem to indicate that there were some issues with the config s/w on Vista.
However, the software itself is excellent as it means you can test and configure your panel from your PC, rather than trying to navigate through a seeming infinite list of menus on a keypad. you can also save your panel config offline and later do a restore to a known good config.
Anyway, sorry for the long post but just wanted to share my experience doing this panel upgrade.
- spent quite a bit of time upfront mapping the wires coming into the CS350 to the physical zones in my house (6 in total), popped a tag on each wire for later identification in the Signet panel.
- read up on the Signet panel, which comes with a wealth of technical documentation on the CD that comes with it. Major differences (relevant to my upgrade):
1.Signet defaults to using Dual EOL, where my CS350 was SEOL.
2.Signet DEOL resistors are 2K2, CS350 4K7 (the resistor values can be changed on the Signet panel).
3. Each pair of zones on the Signet shares a common(negative) terminal, where each zone on the CS350 has it's own common(negative) terminal.
4.Signet panel has USB connection, which allows it to be configured using
the supplied software, via a laptop connected to the panel :-)
- I opted to re-wire all 6 zones of my house to DEOL, since
a) this is the default of the Signet panel, so likely path of least resistance(I'm from a software background, so know that 'default' values are typically the best tested).
b) this would allow me to effectively identify which zone was faulty or being tampered with (I didn't like the fact that the CS350 had all 6 zone tampers wired in series to the same tamper circuit and even on the Signet if I configured for SEOL then it only has 2 external aux tamper circuits).
Now this step took me about 3 hrs in total, as I went through each sensor (starting at EOL sensor), added resistor(s) and finally checked resistance values for tamper, closed, open... however, given that my system didn't have any maintenance in 12 years of use it served as a good excercise to make sure everything working well. I also discovered two sensors that had had their tampers bypassed :-(
- Next step I got up to the bellbox and disconnected the battery (actually I was replacing my bellbox with a HKC SABB, so took the old one down).
- Next I disconnected each zone from the CS350 one by one, took the panel off the wall and mounted the Signet panel in it's place (bigger footprint on the wall but not a big deal).
- routing the wires into the Signet panel was 'cosy' but not complex. All wires were able to sit behind the panel enclosure, even once mounted on the wall.
- I then connected each zone one by one using the label I'd put on the wires(this time, only 2 wires per zone due to DEOL config). This was very straightforward and alot less 'messy' than the wire maze that existed in my CS350, largely due to the DEOL config I'd setup for the Signet.
- I then connected the RKPD and switched on...
...
No issues at all, all 6 zones identified :-)
- I then connected the Signet config software and used it to config each of my zones from their defaults to the actual values I needed, configured users etc.
- I then checked that all the zones were working well using the testing options in the Signet software (they were!).
- Next I connected the internal buzzer and the external SABB I did some basic testing of these and everything more or less worked first time.
In total, it probably took me about a day to do all this, not including prep time spent reading up on signet panel and playing with signet config s/w to get familiar with it.
The only gotchas I found:
- The Signet config software is a bit fussy about running on Vista/Windows 7. I needed to install/re-install, disconnect/reconnect my USB connection a number of times before things settled down. Some of that could be due to my laptop but the manual does seem to indicate that there were some issues with the config s/w on Vista.
However, the software itself is excellent as it means you can test and configure your panel from your PC, rather than trying to navigate through a seeming infinite list of menus on a keypad. you can also save your panel config offline and later do a restore to a known good config.
Anyway, sorry for the long post but just wanted to share my experience doing this panel upgrade.