Difference between revisions of "VistaICM"

Revision as of 02:50, 28 September 2010

Overview

The VistaICM is an alarm panel interface which will allow you to fully integrate panels supported by it with LinuxMCE. It allows both control of the security panel modes, and monitoring of the security panels zones. This means that any sensor connected to the security panel can be used to trigger events with any other device on your LinuxMCE system.

Note: The VistaICM was discontinued [1] by Honeywell in January of 2010. As of April 2010 no replacement has been announced.

Note: Please add compatible panels to the security category as you find them.

Features

• Full control over panel modes from LinuxMCE
• LinuxMCE monitors panel mode changes from keypads and acts accordingly
• Zone monitoring
• Trigger events from zone sensors
• Virtually everything that works when using LinuxMCE as your security panel is supported with this interface

Preparation

You need to do a few things to prepare for your integration with LinuxMCE. The first thing you should to is to configure your alarm panel which the VistaICM is connected to for your LinuxMCE pincodes. You will need to refer to your security panel's installer manual for the detailed instructions. You can either set all of your LinuxMCE user's to use the same pincode or if your security panel supports it, you can create a user code for each of your LinuxMCE users.

Note: To configure the pin code in LinuxMCE go to Wizard > Basic Info > Users > Change Pin.

You will also want to have a list of your zones with descriptions and sensors connected to each zone prepared. This will make the process of configuring your sensors in LinuxMCE absolutely painless.

Installation

The VistaICM is plug and play with the exception of the fact that you will need to manually configure your zones and sensors after the device has been detected and installed.

To configure your sensors to to Wizard > Devices > Security Add a device for each sensor installed on your security panel. Make sure to set the Port/Channel Number of each sensor to the zone they are installed in. You also want to be sure to give each sensor a clear Description and assign it to the appropriate room.

To configure your zones go to Wizard > Devices > Security > Security Zones Add a zone for each zone you have and assign the sensors attached to each zone to the zone you just created.

The last part of the installation is to place the sensors on your floorplan. To do this go to Wizard > Devices > Floorplan Wizard then select your floorplan and be sure the dropdown is on Security Zone. Now just drag and drop the sensors where they are located on the floorplan.

Known Issues/Bugs

FIXED:The VistaICM device thread crashes in LinuxMCE randomly, need to do more troubleshooting to finally nail this bug down once and for all.

When the panel is set to Armed - Stay the VistaICM does not send zone trigger information. This is an odd bug in the implementation of the ICM itself. We were not able to find a workable solution for it.

When the security panel is in alarmed state LinuxMCE's mode and the panel's mode can become out of sync until disarmed/armed/disarmed again.