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Hooking up Alarm Panel Plug

10K views 11 replies 7 participants last post by  SD515 
#1 ·
I have an old Honeywell Ademco LYNXR Wireless Alarm system (panel, door contacts, motion detectors, etc) that came out of my last house that I'm finally getting around to hooking up.
The problem I'm having is that there's a 4 strand wire attached to the panel and I can't quite figure out how to connect the 4 wires to the 2 poles on the transformer.
I've tried 3 times and have had mixed success/failure.

Try #1
I hooked up the Green & Yellow (ground) wires, twisted together to pole #1.
Then hooked up the black & red wires, twisted together to pole #2.
The unit powered up, sounded the siren for a second, beeped, then the panel started blinking with some code on the LCD display.
Perfect, as much as I could expect.
Then about a minute or 2 later it started to smoke!
I'm not exactly sure if it was coming from the back of the panel or the transformer, since I unplugged it so quick.
Either way, not the result I was looking for.

I left the Green & Yellow wires alone, since from what I could tell from the manual, these are both "only" connected to the safety ground pole, and since I'm just trying to get the panel on and programmed on the kitchen table, I wasn't being overly concerned with this. As well, I don't know what or how they were previously hooked up at the last house.
Try #2: Red wire -> Pole 1, Black Wire -> Pole 2, Green & Yellow Disconnected
Try #3: Black wire -> Pole 1, Red Wire -> Pole 2, Green & Yellow Disconnected
No success on either connection, the panel didn't power up.

So I'm a little confused about the state of wiring this panel.
It seems like the red and black (15 & 16) wires should be hot and neutral, and the ground (1) should be, well ground.
But the transformer only has 2 pole, hot and neutral, no ground.

Most references to hooking this up online make it sound so straight forward, as to not require additional detail. This isn't the first time I've worked on DIY stuff like this, but I'm a little stumped.
Can someone please offer me some suggestions?

Thanks

For reference:
The full manual:
http://www.devconsecurity.com/pdf/Lynx-Readyguard.pdf

The actual panel & transformer:


The wiring diagram:


Note, in case anyone notices and is wondering about the transformer in the diagram, it has 5 poles because it's X10 home automation compatible. Mine only has 2 poles that you can see in my photo.
 
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#4 ·
I plugged the transformer into an extension code, so I didn't need to lose site of the screws on it, as I was trying to connect the wires.

I didn't look for a fuse, but I'll check, that's a good point though, that I hadn't thought about. I could have fried something like a fuse or component, that actually stopped it from powering it on for try #2 & #3.

I'll put a multi-meter to it, to see if power is passing from the transformer to the board.

Thanks.
 
#8 ·
Phone line connections appear to be on terminals 2-5. The OP's photo shows the green/yellow wires twisted together and landed on the "earth" terminal.

Applying voltage potential between that and the regular inputs -- with the inputs shunted together -- may have resulted in the smoke getting out.

Once the smoke gets out, the panel is no good ... :laughing:
 
#6 · (Edited)
....The unit powered up, sounded the siren for a second, beeped, then the panel started blinking with some code on the LCD display.
Perfect, as much as I could expect.
Then about a minute or 2 later it started to smoke!.....
The smoke got out! You have fried this panel.

Since you are using a class 2 power supply, there is not "hot and neutral" but low voltage from the transformer. The proper connection would have been from your 2 terminals on the transformer to terminals 15 and 16 on your circuit board.

Since you applied a potential difference between terminal 1 and shunted 15/16, you may have burned something out, resulting in the visible smoke.

Fodder for the landfill at this point, IMO. :(

Edit to add: after looking at the manual link, it appears that this is an ADEMCO panel.

ADEMCO equipment is not designed nor recommended for any DIY installations.
 
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