sixwheeledbeast

Spending a lot less time worrying about what's on a 5 inch screen that's always under your nose.... My point still stands IMO. It's just a fancy remote control it's still very far from the ubiquitous computing concept of ambient intelligence that would actually be useful to people day to day.

Manufacturer recommendations are always different depending on the installer. Every place has their preferred kit with having the experience of fitting that multiple times for different jobs, which is irrelevant for you. Any decent hybrid panel will have all the functionality you require. Texecom, Galaxy, Eaton etc etc. HKC is restricted so probably not an option. Some have all the features onboard, some are more modular like the Texecom where you add modules for functionality. Traditional phone lines will be dead in the next decade like JW says so consider this as well.

I still don't find any of these apps or "smart" features - smart. Your just tied into manufactured obsolescence and compatibility woes as you say. They may have their very limited applications for some jobs but it's just a daft requirement in the current age that people want all there electronic tat to have an app, if there is a point or not.

Apps are all junk to some degree anyway...

Limiting your options if you want app with no subscription and auto update firmware, I'd start researching manufacturers from there.

I'd generally try to keep as far as possible away normally trying to keep minimum of a foot or so like JW says. BS7671 is 50mm minimum between LV and ELV, unless in it's own metallic containment. More of concern is alarm cabling being outside of the alarms protected area which is generally avoided, if you have to for a single run you need to think about protection from cable tampering.

It's not my preferred kit but PowerMaster is at least full two way unlike the now discontinued PowerMax junk. I have only ever worked on the older models 30/10 etc. As long as it's not an ADT one, should be fine if you keep it maintained. You may want to look into the app and if the previous owners have access to it etc.

The noise is made by power from somewhere when you have no mains. Would expect one battery inside and one outside in the bell.

Bear in mind the system is wireless so will require batteries in ALL devices swapping on a fairly regular basis. Very different system to your wired Paragon or Veritas you had previously, only having one main SLA battery maintenance wise.

It is an installer option to make a zone chime(able), yes. If you have the manual I would suggest you read it as they have pretty idiot proof flow diagrams in. As a summary you need to "Define Zones" select the Zone number you want, skip to the chime option and select the chime type.

It's so old and never been serviced, for the sake of your neighbours either get it repaired, upgraded or decommissioned if you don't use it. If you went away for a while and the system disturbs the neighbours for long enough, the council can get an order to force entry and have it silenced for you. Not pleasant to come back to your house with the locks changed and a note in the window to come to the nearest council offices in working hours and bill for those services. Even if you don't use the system they still need maintenance, if you don't more likely it will give you trouble at the most inconvenient time.

I would say if the keypad now isn't responding and just showing the keypad version then you have lost data signal to the keypad as JW says. The terminals for the keypad are on the bottom of the PCB next to the battery on all 9x5x I believe, so you may have disturbed them if they where not connected well.

Pretty sure Comms Delay is default 0, best to check that for your Area (assume A if it's basic). I say it's more likely to be something like the Reports or Area, they are possibly default Maintenance events only.

It could be aborting if you silence quickly. Are "Reports" setup for the correct alarm types and for the correct Area? Shouldn't be any need for Wintex, it just lays all the options out for you to see on a screen better.

Should really have an unswitched fused connection unit adjacent the control panel if not you have no way to safely isolate separately from a shared circuit. Alarms aren't designed to be easy to "switch off" that wouldn't sensible, this is why maintenance for them is important. If the system is working correctly you will likely trigger the external sounders again trying to isolate it. If your not planning on fixing it for now and it's not making any noise I'd leave it alone IMO. If it's just a chime sound and your confident it's caused by you activating a sensor, then you could try pressing the "music note" button to disable the chime.

I would say it's had a surge and maybe blown or lost it's programming. At least the battery, bellbox maybe keypad have something wrong with them, from the chain of events you describe. If your going to do this yourself your going to need some knowledge of how to diagnose each part and work from there. Personally I'd say if your not sure have an installer look at it as you'll end up replacing stuff when your not sure. It's not cost effective to buy a keypad and then find the panel is blown when they come with one for example.

TBH it's unlikely to be much use for your application anyway, even if you did get it working. You'd only be able to use contacts which are pretty limited depending on the garage.

If you have the manual I would suggest giving it a read as defaulting instructions are in there. Make sure you follow it correctly as if you do it wrong the panel will not store programming correctly until its complete. You could try guessing some of your own likely codes as it will be one you came up with at some point.

As above will be your smoke detection. With doing work in the house your more likely to get dust in them. Also if it's PP3 batteries in them they're more likely to signal low voltage in cooler weather.

It's possible but we do not provide defaulting instructions here as per our guidelines. You would also need to know how to program all the equipment back correctly, I understand this is the DIY section but is that something you know how to do? If not you have a panel with no detection connected. Powermax model is budget one way signalling system and obsolete now, so really you look to upgrade especially if you need to alter the system.

Oh cool, enough spare cores for a security light then...

Where do you buy your 5 core cable from...? Looking to save on all those bell runs. ?

Cancelling the strobe with the bell would be the norm now as above. Consider a house in your street with it's strobe flashing for a week or so, chances of it attracting attention of thieves is much higher and they have a bit of knowledge to the status of the system.

It's likely a Pre-2K model (Red LED) so manuals you are finding online would be wrong. If you have no service history of the system then it's 22 years old and done a turn, pretty sensible to upgrade. Equally it could be something an installer can give a check over, service and you get a bit longer out of it. If it's only one sensor it could be faulty or the LED switched off. If your not confident it getting it straight consider having an engineer look at it. If all the wiring is fine then I'd expect you would only need the electronic bits replacing so minimal mess, take no longer than a day.

For your DIY solution this would be possible when everything is controlled from a control panel but I wouldn't want to be trusting one way wireless doorbells or the like with this. My first thought would be using site PA system or class change to get messages out. Clearly a bespoke system like in the link above is a much better solution all round. Was thinking the same, very yellow.