Basic alarm panel pointers please

Hi All,

Sorry for the newby post but when I try and search for any Paradox alarm info your forum posts always seem to pop up, i.e. non Paradox vendor sites.

So I'm hoping you can point me in the right direction to find some basic alarm automation info specifically using my Evo48 alarm panel. (Not using the cbus interface. )

So far, I have re-wired my house for the new sensors (we renovated). I could use the existing panel programming for remotes etc. but now I'd like to take the next step.

However, I need to understand some alarm panel basics before the manuals will make sense to me. I'm specifically referring to the relation between key switches, programs and relays and how to trigger them.

For example, to start, I want to use my REM-3 to open my motor gate and garage door and put my one partition into stay mode. The motors will handle the lights.

From what I understand is that I need to set up a key switch for this which then activate a pgm or relay for each motor. Is this correct?

The tricky bit would be to not toggle something that is already open. I specifically purchased the somfy motors as I was told it has dedicated open and close triggers but this seemed to be a "misunderstanding".

Anyway first prize would be to get rid of one remote and then to reduce the number of button presses later.

Thanks for the pointers in advance.

Regards

Paul

 

Progress

Just some feedback on the progress I've been able to make...

PGM's turns out to be relatively straight forward.

PGM on my panel are essentially dry contacts, unless marked as 5A relays, and is what is used to provide a signal to anything that works off a simple switch. i.e. garage motor trigger.

How the PGM is triggered is essentially endless and listed in the programming manual or the software that you might be using.

Then if you want activate the (PGM) button from you remote you need to assign a utility key to the correct remote button. On the specific PGM the correct utility key number used on the remote should be assigned to the PGM.

Not sure what key switches is yet and how to use it but with the above I will be able to do most of what I wanted.

So once you're connected to your panel you need to find an unused PGM. Installers use it sometimes to trigger other events or when key switches are used. Lazy installers also do not remove the code, but simply the wires, so you'll have to double check that there is nothing programmed on the PGM itself.

As a test I set mine as a 1s timed event to trigger when any zone is open which in turn triggers a wireless relay. So I have a light that goes on and off in sequence whenever any alarm zone is open. Not very useful I know but a nice building block as you can specify a single zone and a range of zones as well.

So for example, you can make your garage light come on when you open your garage door that leads to the house using the contact sensor on it. Change the pgm to a normal event which deactivates when the door closes. So no need to switch on or off that light as generally you garage door remains closed.

Anyway, I digress, just wanted to report back on my question.

 

the type of PGM you have is dependant on the panel. They can be solid state relays with a single terminal being a +/- trigger (programmable), capable of 100mA, or Voltage free NO/NC 5A Relays.

Keyswitches are inputs which are used for Arming/Disarming of Partitions.

As you might have seen, there are many options for the activation and deactivation events of PGMs, and you can set the deactivation to follow the event, or the timer, or you can make it flexible, which means whichever comes first.

 

Thanks

Hi Robbo_VIC,

(If this is a duplicate post please delete.)

Thanks for the feedback.

Something strange I noticed on the 100mA PGM's is that they would activate randomly. Only when I started using the 5A relay did I get consistent relay response. I also looked everywhere in the programming to see if there was something else that might trigger the PGM and also tried a different PGM but got the same random behaviour. So it works as programmed but then would also trigger for example when the alarm panel is armed/disarmed.

I'm using the 5A relays now, but just found the random behaviour strange.

Then on the keyswitch. I saw that these are sometimes tied to a spare zone. Is this merely so the zone is used as the trigger, e.g. when using a garage door remote receiver tied to panel. I presume that you would then need to sacrifice two zones, one for arming and another for disarming.

Thanks again.

Paul