sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Security, Alarms and Paging Connecting old fire panel to zone on Ademco Vista 20p

Hi everyone - Not sure how much help folks can be on this one, but thought I'd post to give a try. When I set a zone type to fire (type 09) on an Ademco Vista 20P panel, does the panel see that zone as normally open (like most fire panels are) or normally closed (like all zones on security panels). I've asked like six people now, and my answers are split down the middle.

We're trying to rig up an old Simplex 4246-1 fire panel from the stone ages to a zone on the Ademco panel, so that when the pull station is pulled, both systems go into alarm and the Ademco panel dials to report the fire.

I'm coming out on the sounder terminals (G1 & G2). No current when idle, and when in alarm, measures 110 volts, so a normally open circuit.

I'm connecting to a 110-volt relay. Coming out of the relay, I'm on the NO terminals going into the zone, with a 2K EOLR across the two zone terminals.

When I pull the station, the Simplex panel goes into alarm, but nothing happens at the Ademco panel.

I spoke with tech. support where I got the panel, and they're telling me that my EOLR should be connected in SERIES. I should take my wire going into the high terminal, crimp the EOLR onto the wire and connect the EOLR to the terminal that way. But, if I do that, then that means that the zone is normally CLOSED right??

With the wiring setup I have now, I'm getting 110 volts at the relay, and I can hear/feel the relay snap when power comes to it. But, nothing ever happens at the Ademco panel.

I fear that I'm on the wrong output terminals coming out of the relay. If anyone might be able to shed some light on the subject, I'd sure be grateful for the help. If you need some more info. let me know and I can try to post more. Many thanks.

If tech support is correct then what they stated would be a normally closed ckt.

A simple test would be to take a standard normally closed window contact and wire it at the panel. eolr is series. If its a normally closed zone then it should fault when you open the contact and clear when you close it.

Now with that said most fire alarm devices are nromally open, so you resistor should be in parallel across the last device. Then shorting across that device would trip the zone


Another issue I see and your code may be different but its worth a looking into is your trying to use the vista 20 as a dialer...the probelm is; at least around here, you need a backup dialer as well for fire and the vista 20 only has one....unless you add a GSM. You would be better off using a vista32FB....which is desgined for fire as well

just re-read your post, try moving the eolr from the zone termianls at the vista20p to the termials at the relay, see if that helps.

Thanks much for the help, Anthony. If I take my multimeter and measure voltage across that zone programmed as fire - if it's a NO circuit, my meter should read 0, correct? Voltage would come to it when the relay puts it into alarm. If I measure voltage there (like the other zones)...say...around 5 volts, then I'm assuming I'm dealing with a NC circuit? Would my thinking be right on that?

You know and I'm not sure why I did not relize this earlier...I am almost sure you can program the zone as a standard normally open or normal closed ckt without the eolr.

Your thinking is correct, wit zone 9 set for EOLR it is normally closed.