Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[rhea]

Installing 2nd console? How real is that? (SC1200)
Anyone has the experience?

[dave w]

 
It should work.

Perhaps you could be a little more specific about the information you are looking for, or the reason for doing.

[Brian H]

Details like Sensors and Remotes. Registered to both or unique to each SC1200A as separate systems.

[Brian H]

A few general thoughts on having two SC1200As.
They have no power line receivers in them so they are not polite.
If both are triggered together. There is a good chance they will step on each others flashing the security lights and powerhorns if you have them. Either one alone would be fine.

If both are connected to the phone lines. Again if both are triggered at the sametime. I can see them messing up the trouble calls.
Either one alone probably fine. Calling into the home to remote control the console, maybe restricted to the one that answered first. One may need the default answer time changed to prevent both from answering at the sametime.

[dave w]

Yes, good points all. I was thinking perhaps rhea had a large house and needed more than 16 zones. Unfortunately rhea's questions assume we are mind readers.

[Brian H]

The SC1200A has 30 wireless zones and two wired zones.

If the DS12A Door Window Sensors are being used. They can be two separate zones. Internal and the External one on the PCB. They register separately so I would guess most only register the internal one.
Now me being slightly different.   Ignored all the internals and wired in all externals on mine. Mounting problems with the internals.
Yes the AHP does show periodic checkins from both the Internal and External Zones even if the console only see the Externals.

Now maybe a signal coverage thing to one console.

[rhea]

More specific.. I used to have ADT with 2 consoles   -one on 1st floor near entrance , the other on the second floor  near bedroom... in case of entry I dont have to run down to check the violated zone... so I thought , maybe it is possible here too...  now...

Been fighting the "error" messages... I know it's the wrong place for the question...
 LAST NITE REPROGRAMMED THE SENSORS :  worked fine... today again... zone 1&3 reported open... all closed, just checked, all report door opening with chime,  though the distance if pretty large... basement side door(#1) and  on the second floor(technically it is 3 rd floor) emergency door.. all two respond to opening... but when  activating "home" or "Away" they report as "door open"?

 Thanx in advance

[Brian H]

Well in theory, so take it for that.   If you just registered the Zones in the same order as in the first console. They should show on the second console.
Just don't arm the second console and register the remotes to it.

Which sensors are you using. The DS10A or DS12A?
If the console thinks the zone is open. It should be showing the zone number on the LCD display even before you try to arm it.

I guess communications from the sensor could be a factor, but it would have to be the zone closed message being missed. While the zone opened message was received.

[Mackat]

I have seen this request on here before, it's not that hard to do.  Being that I am disabled, I always go for the easy store bought solution.  I have been using two parallel consoles for several years with no problem. I am assuming that you want the second console in your bedroom so you can see what zones have alarmed without coming out of the bedroom to see a centrally placed console.  In my home, I have to place the main console close enough to the doors we enter and exit through so I can hear the system arm/disarm. My home is also large enough that if I place a single console in our bedroom at one end of the house, it does not always work well with sensors at the other end of the house.  With a centrally placed unit, if you have an alarm, you can't see what zone indicator is flashing without coming out of your bedroom, which may lead you into a conflict with whoever setoff the alarm in the first place. I wanted to see what zone was breached without having to leave my bedroom, so hears what I did.

Go to Radio Shack and buy a DC to AC inverter, the one I use is 75watts maximum, then buy a wall transformer that has a 120 volt input, and 12 volt output that will accommodate the load of the console. I use a 12 watt transformer and it handles the load of the console fine. 

What happens is the windings of the transformer and the inverter filter out the signal line carrier coming out of the console,(in plain English, it keeps the consoles from seeing each other and blocks the signals from the  console that is receiving power through the inverter setup to the sirens.

This allows you to setup a console in the center of the house that will be used as the main unit, and the second console can be setup in your bedroom with the inverter.  Set both to the same house code, then place both units in program mode and add all your sensors.  When finished, if an alarm is triggered in say, the basement backdoor zone 12, the console in your bedroom will alarm and indicate zone 12 breach and you don't have to come out of the bedroom to the centrally placed unit to know where the breach took place. You do not need to connect the console in the bedroom to a telephone wire or record a message, this console is only used to see what zone is flashing during a security breach.

If you need a second console because you do not have enough zones, that's another discussion.

[Brian H]

Your solution will not work with the new SC1200A. Sounds like it would work for the older DS7000 set.
The SC1200A has a special wall power supply that also has the power line transmitter in it and has a 4P4C {like a telephone handset size} plug that mates with the SC1200A. Maybe in this case an good X10 power filter on the special wall wart would work.

[dave w]

Go to Radio Shack and buy a DC to AC inverter, the one I use is 75watts maximum, then buy a wall transformer that has a 120 volt input, and 12 volt output that will accommodate the load of the console. I use a 12 watt transformer and it handles the load of the console fine. 

This is really pretty ingenious, but I think an X10 filter like the XPPF would do the same thing. Like Brian sugggests for the SC1200.

[Brian H]

Did I read it backwards.  
Use the wall power supply to run the inverter. That powered the console?

XPPF is much easier and probably more economical. Though an XPPF is not an off the shelf item most places.

[Mackat]

I haven't seen the new console but any device that will filter out the line carrier signal between two consoles would work. I chose this path after talking to X10 technical support and this forum several years ago and everyone told me you couldn't have redundant consoles. At that time, the line filter you are talking about must not have been available. My reasons for wanting redundant consoles has changed since then, I used to want a second console just for redundancy in case the first one failed or someone found it, in the RF world almost every piece of equipment has redundant parallel systems(old habits are hard to break), now I just want a second console to see what zone has triggered an alarm.

Being the curious person I am, and an RF engineer, I would like to understand more about your new console and the XPPF filter, I have not been able to purchase one from X10 in the past. If the new console has a wall wort with an RF transmitter on board than it would make seance to me that any setup that will filter the RF would work, isn't the goal to avoid the RF data collision between two consoles operating on the same house power lines?

Will the new console allow a redundant console operating in parallel so the main unit can be hidden from sight, or is there a separate zone indicator that can be mounted in a second location, like a bedroom?

[dave w]

If the new console has a wall wort with an RF transmitter on board than it would make seance to me that any setup that will filter the RF would work, isn't the goal to avoid the RF data collision between two consoles operating on the same house power lines?

NO RF transmitter. A PLC transmitter. All X10 security consoles activate lights and external alarms via power line carrier signals not RF. The XPPF blocks every thing around the X10 powerline modulation frequency of 120KHz. So would block any PLC transmissions from your second console, as you are doing with the inverter contraption.

[Brian H]

I used an XPPF on my SC1200A wall wart. When I was retuning it to 120KHz and didn't want to keep triggering my XTB-IIR.
The SC1200 is also not polite. No power line receiver in it. So it will gladly step on other X10 power line signals.