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

If you are a professional alarm installer then I guess this thing is just peachy. If not, you are probably out of luck. I have read and re-read the book a dozen times. I have watched hours of video online. I have beat my damned brains out trying to get it to work. The instructions are NOT user friendly at all. There is no glossary of terms and believe me there are many you must know and comprehend to be able to program it. The instructions assume that you already have knowledge of alarm systems. Everything is abbreviated, both in the book and on the panel display. You will find yourself wandering aimlessly through the book for clarification of a term, function, or device at the most inopportune times. I suggest you download the PDF manual from Ademco and read it before you buy this monstrosity. If you find yourself confused after that DO NOT buy the system. I have added a snip from the manual as am example of what you will be dealing with(see photo).

This is a great system for the money. There are a few quirks in the programming instructions but I was able to figure things out with YouTube videos. Do your homework before installing and you shouldnt have any problems.

Tore the old system out, stuck this in, reconnected the wires as they were in the old box and Im up and running. Simple and works well, why would anyone that can DIY pay others to do this?

Awesome panel. Plenty features.

A+

Just received this panel today (4/15/2014), and ordered from NuWave AV based off of one of the reviews below. I needed Revision 9.16 or higher to work with the keypad that I ordered. I received Revision 9.12 from them. I will be returning this immediately as it does not work with the keypad that I ordered. On top of that, the battery was shipped with it inside the panel box, and was loose during shipping. It moved around inside the box and shockingly didnt bust, but who knows how much damage it did to the panel itself. BEWARE OF ORDERING FROM NuWave AV. I will not order from them again!!!

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.

Latest model, very good service

PANEL WAS LOCKED OUT VIA COMPASS, WAS NOT ABLE TO ENTER PROGRAMMING. THEY DID NOT SELL ME A NEW PRODUCT, WASTE OF TIME AND ENERGY. I WILL NOT BUY FROM THEM AGAIN.

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.