Replacing old Moose alarm system in home

Home Security Systems Forum
1

My Moose keypad is failing, so I’m looking to replace it with something current. 5 zones (4 door switches and a motion detector), hard-wired, not monitored.

I’m considering a Vista 20P and 6160rf keypad, and possibly an Envisalink, to get some more functionality without spending much.

Some questions:

  1. There’s a siren driver which powers an interior speaker (10 watt) and outdoor (30 W) paging speaker. Could I use this driver board with the 20P?
  2. Each of my sensors has a 2200 ohm EOL resistor. But the Vista 20P uses 2000 ohm resistors. Will I need to replace these resistors? (Zones currently measure 2170 ohms, on average)
  3. How is time accuracy maintained? My Moose system time has always drifted wildly, and was useless.

Am I considering the right things? Thanks.

2
  1. Your Siren driver should be OK
  2. You’ll want to use the specified value of resistor or take the resistors out and update programming not to use them.
  3. Time will drift but not by much. There’s daylight savings time settings that work well enough. If it ever loses power you’ll need to reset the time. One thing I love about alarm.com’s services is that on most panels it syncs the time. Alarm.com is pricey though.
3

@Scott
Thanks for the info.

4

I am not familiar with the systems but,

  1. No idea
  2. Always replace the resistors. Most panels only have 10% tolerance either way. 2k2 is on the edge, the zones will most likely work for the first 3 months and then become faulty.
  3. If it is possible, switch your clock programming to onboard (crystal) time. There will be time drift but not a lot.
5

@Gene
Those resistors will be the most difficult part of the project. I could take them out or move them to the panel, but that’s just as much work as simply changing them.

6

Alex said:
@Gene
Those resistors will be the most difficult part of the project. I could take them out or move them to the panel, but that’s just as much work as simply changing them.

Nonono! People forget what the resistors are for. The reason they are called END-of-lines (EoL) resistors.

If you move them to your panel then it becomes “instant easy” to bypass your sensors. You just splice and bridge all the cables from a sensor (except power, which can easily be found using a cheap multi tester).

Keep the resistors in the devices, just replace them. Never take shortcuts on security.

7

@Gene
Do you think I should replace either the switches or motion detector while I’m doing this upgrade? (30 years old). I’ve seen no indication of problems, but thought now would be the time to ask. Thanks.

8

@Alex
Wow. 30 years? Definitely, most household systems should actually be updated every 5 years, replaced at 10.

I do have some systems in the field that have lasted longer than 20 but are showing signs of degradation.

Timer is out of sync, charger circuit no longer charging the battery to full capacity, keypad buttons not registering keypresses, and I can go on.

TL;dr: Yup.

9

@Gene
Good advice. Thanks for the reminder. :slight_smile: