Texecom Premier Elite 24 - Taking The Cover Off?

[Simmonspa]

Hi forum folk,

 

This is my first question here, I'm thinking about extending my Texecom Premier Elite 24, which was professionally fitted when I bought my house.  I'd like to extend it to another room, and change one of the sensors.   

 

Would any of you kind soles give me some guidance on how to actually take the cover off?  I appreciate that's a basic question, but it doesn't seem covered in the instruction manual, unless I've missed it, and I'm pretty sure there is an anti-tamper thing.

 

The Elite 24 has a battery inside, so the obvious 'unplug it' is not going to work.

 

Some of you might be thinking, oh no, another DIYer!  However, I'm a software engineer with, I think, a reasonable grasp of electronics, so I'm hoping to be competent to reprogramme it - I'm planning to use the PC cable and Wintex software.  Does anyone have experience of that?

 

Finally, I'd appreciate any hints and tips and gotchas that you've found when adding a PIR to an existing system.

 

Many many thanks, happy installing!

[breff]

Turn the two white plastic slots and the inserts will come out revealing screws.

 

You will not be able to connect with Wintex unless you know the engineer code or UDL code, The panel may also be locked and have engineer reset for tamper conditions turned on, if this is so you will render your system inoperative by removing the cover. I would advise you get the installing company to return to do your additions.

[Simmonspa]

Ok, thanks Breff.  

 

I have the engineer code, so I'll take a look for the tamper conditions setting first.   

 

One of the reasons I wanted to look inside was to determine exactly how many 'slots' are available, as it changes my options - for example if I need an extender I might consider more sensors, or different kinds.  I know there are empty zones, so the s/w and controller can cope.

 

Anyway, thanks for the quick advice, I'll take a look and report back here for anyone interested.

[Simmonspa]

I deferred this problem for a while, as you'll notice by the dates.  Anyhow, I've now got round to this and it was easy, so as promised ...

 

First, I disconnected the mains power by removing the wall-mounted fuse.  Then I removed the metal cover for the control unit, which of course has an anti-tamper switch so I had to jump to the keypad to enter my user code and hit reset.  Then, with cover off, disconnect the battery.

 

I then followed instructions on 'commissioning' in the manual for the Premier 24, p.24, in order to provide my own engineer code with full access.  In fact though, the manual indicates I could have performed a simple 5-sec reset  by shorting across the 'load default' pins (p.33 if you have a manual and are following!).  The commissioning section on p.24 mistakenly says 'press the battery kick start button', whereas it's actually the same process of shorting the pins (I used the probe of my multimeter to be safe, as it was insulated).  

 

This worked for me, it looks like the memory of the NVM holds stuff like zones config, but not all the zone names or user names, so I had to do some renaming.  I set up a new engineering code, and other users, and I did a walk test and bell test etc...  

 

The engineering menus are great BTW there's a lot of detail configuration there which I think should be accessible to users, so long as you take care around the settings that need to match hardware.  For example, it's great to set the timers and have an auto option that decides if you are arming for night or going out based on whether an exit is open at the time.

 

I also discovered I've used all my input slots, so unless I ignore the panic alarm, which is a bit **** and unlikely to be used in reality, I need to get a small extension board ( the texecom 8xe expander ) to add more zones for my extension and improve my garage zone.

 

I should mention that it's definitely worth thinking whether you want to bother doing this yourself, remember that house insurance companies will ignore your alarm unless they are serviced by a professional firm, and it's possible that some of the annual cost is offset by that too.  So think twice about following my footsteps.  Not least because electricity is dangerous and you risk damaging the alarm kit too.