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

Love it. Works as promised. Replace my old ADT Brinks panel. Just swapped this one in and that one out. Also added Envisalink. Really cool.

Returned it would not program. Went through tech support at Honeywell but could not get my Ademco Honeywell 6160 or 6160RF keypad to be recognized on the panel, bad unit.

Honeywell alarm panel. Extremely versatile! Can be fitted with 5881enh wireless receiver to make a wireless alarm system as well as wired. Can be used with a variety of control pads. Includes a telephone interface to call for help. 100% professional. Not really intended for a casual do-it-yourselfer. If you understand alarm system technology and can run the wires, or mount the wireless sensors you can use this. With any alarm system youll want to have it monitored. Alarm Relay in El Segundo will monitor the panel and help you program it - but you must know the basics. You will need to have it working before they do the final programming.

New in box just as described, Works great.

Takes some technical know-how to wire up and program correctly. Very reliable hardware. Up-to-date EEPROM on Vista board.

I absolutely love these panels. Been using them for years. They will still be going strong even after 20 years. I say get one.

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.

Perfect replacement for our old existing one.

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.

Once I reviewed many You Tube videos I was able to do the setup. I still do not know how to connect a panic switch.