Honeywell VISTA-20P Ademco Control Panel, PCB in Aluminum Enclosure

Good.

Im a pro and Honeywell is incredibly easy to program after youve installed your first 20 or 30 systems. So novices beware and cram with YouTube videos to make progress. Someone said it was designed to be difficult to program but they dont realize it was NEVER intended to be a consumer installed product and frankly you can get robbed or lose your house to a fire just by making one of any number of tiny programming mistakes. It was not designed to be foolproof it was designed and slowly upgraded over many years for professionals (I didnt say rocket scientists-just pros). Some newer gen products are better suited to novice installers but Honeywell products are at least very reliable in my experience.

This was easy to set up for fire and security. It replaced an older panel that was just being used for security and was not communicating with a central station..Connected the existing security zones and changed the end of line resistors. I added two wire smoke detectors and then connected it to a central station. It works really good and we are very pleased. I added a siren driver and speakers for the audible alarm. I also used the 6160RF keypad just in case in the future we would want to add some wireless devices. We used a regular 6160 keypad for the timed entry-exit door. We did not try the voice feature as my wife didnt want it activated. This is a good cost effective fire-security panel for most homes or a small business.

If youre planning on a DIY wired (or wireless) alarm system, then this product is impossible to beat, both for function and for price. Plenty of zones, and it will accept multiple types of keypads. The instructions tend to assume that you know how to program one of these things, but there is plenty of information available on the web to help you through it, and once you understand how the programming works, youll see that the instructions are very detailed and complete. One thing this unit doesnt offer is the ability to dial my own cell phone if the alarm goes off. Then again, no other product, at any price, does either. But because this product offers many outputs, I am going to see if I can program a Raspberry Pi to perform that function.

Needed to replace defective panel

Technician says it’s the best!

I purchased this to replace a proprietary system,installed by a prior homeowner, that had been inactive for several years. With a little bit of Google research of of the model number it was clear that the old unit had been manufactured by Honeywell. I was interested in self monitoring and did not want to commit to an expensive, multi-year contract to re-activate the old system. The Vista system seemed well recommended as a neutral platform. On the physical side, I was able to re-use the existing wiring and Honeywell branded wireless sensors, but the speaker, keypad, and wireless receiver all had to be replaced. I paired this with a 6162 keypad, a WAVE-2 siren, and a 5881 wireless receiver. If I could do it again I would have probably went with the 6162rf keypad, since it has a RF receiver built in and my sensors are all relatively close to the unit. On the wiring side, you need to be comfortable stripping wire and using screw terminals, and for new installs there is the issue of routing wires through the wall for the power, keypad, and siren -- everything else can be wireless if desired. A keypad that supports Vista Intelligent Programming, such as one of the 616X series keypads, is essential. The control unit shipped to me had a v10.x firmware, so I was set under the requirement to have version 9.18 or higher to use the menu programming. In line with other comments, the programming menu is more oriented towards installers and requires navigating through several menus, but I was able to complete basic programming and enable ~5 wired and wireless zones over an afternoon by following along with online guides and YouTube videos. There are some great YouTube videos that basically walk from initial start up to configuring and naming a few zones. Im not sure if you need the software engineer background others mention to program it, but comfort with technology and a willingness to treat it as an adventure helped. So far the system is working great, and Ive added an Envisalink 3 for web based monitoring and control, which I was able to get up and running in about 30 minutes. The end result is that I have a system with plenty of capacity to grow that does everything I need -- I am very happy with the system. Day to day operation is very smooth, with the full text display again helping (as you can name zones and be notified of issues). The added features (web monitoring/control and text/e-mail alerts) from the EnvisaLink are great as well. While there are an increasing number of all wireless or home automation oriented systems out there, I am more comfortable with the idea of having a solid, stand alone, reliable system like the 20p for security, with home automation on its own platform until there is a little more standards convergence. Next steps include adding a sensor for the garage door and possibly wireless smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. I will eventually look into the Honeywell Connect and/or Tuxedo Touch add-ons as they continue to mature.

Panel worked out great it very user friendly,and work well with all the exciting products .I used any older version ademco 6138 key pad and it was upgraded to new firm ware 10.2 .very happy I bought it.

New in box just as described, Works great.

Latest model, very good service