Hey, DIYers.
Dylan here with Alarm Grid.
Today we are going to be talking about how to wire in a GSMX4G
communicator.
Now, we have a model here.
This is not the GSMX4G.
This is an LTEXV.
This is a Verizon module.
It's one of the newer Verizon modules.
It's on LTE network.
The wiring is exactly the same for this and the other module,
so we'll be just using this as an example today.
Just keep mind that this is the LTEX4G, the Verizon LTE
communicator, while the GSMX4G is an AT&T 4G communicator.
So to start, the communicator gets its power
from four-wire ECP connection.
Most of the time, when you're doing these installs,
it's going to draw power directly
from panel, from the ECP bus terminals right there.
Those buses are 5 through 6.
So 4, 5, 6, 7.
4 through 7, actually, sorry.
So for the wiring, I'm going to begin to actually
how to wire it a bit later on.
I just want to talk about more the communicator
in the meantime.
So as mentioned, most of the time
you're going be doing the wiring directly to the panel.
Sometimes, if the panel has too much power being drawn from it
already, this will not be able to get the proper power it
needs to operate.
The operating voltage is about--
let's see.
It is about 12 VDC for this.
So if the panel is getting too much power drawn from it,
another way you can set this up is
by using a 24-hour backup battery
as well to provide power to the communicator.
So for the communicator, if you're
going to wire it into the battery,
you're going to have to have the ground be common
for both the panel as well as the battery.
So that's usually the black wire right here.
And then that way you can get the proper power it needs
if, of course, the panel cannot provide the proper voltage.
So the operating current for the communicator
is about 65 milliamps just on standby.
So when it's not sending out a signal,
when it's not receiving anything,
when it's kind of just sitting there, about 65 milliamps.
When it does actually send out a signal,
it's going to be operating about 250 milliamps.
So that's it either sending out a signal or receiving a signal.
So there are a couple of features about the communicator
I want to talk about first.
The communicator does have a flip open cover.
So it's consistently connected to the communicator.
You can't lose the cover or anything.
Flips right up, exposes the inside.
As you can see here, we have the Verizon Sim card,
since this is the LTEXV.
If you had the GSM model, that'd be the AT&T Sim card.
So right here, we've already connected our power wires
into the ports on the panel--
well, on the communicator.
Comes with a very, very simple connection, very easy,
just plugs right in there.
And then you get to go.
And then obviously, the rest of the wires
you're going to feed through the little connector
right there, which we'll be connected
to the top of the panel.
Basically, has like a little screw
where you can tighten this in, feed the wires through
so it's not exposed.
It's not looking too bad.
You can't really see any of it.
And then obviously, once you start wiring it to the panel,
it's a lot easier if it's just going directly through it.
So with this, there's also no tamper button.
So that is a bit of a downside.
So no tamper button means that if this is ever opened,
the panel will not alert you.
If you have ever opened a sensor, a keypad,
the panel itself sometimes even, or some of the older
communicators, iGSMV4G, GSM4G, so on and so forth,
it will trigger a tamper on your keypads.
You will start to hear a beeping,
and then you'll be getting an alert saying,
check tamper cover for this, tamper cover for that.
This will not tell you that.
It does have a button in the bottom left-hand corner
right here.
That's usually what a tamper button
would look like, however, that is not tamper button.
That's a registration button.
You can register the communicator
by pressing that about three times.
It's not really recommend it for that one.
Usually we just have the actual dealers do the registration
from their end.
So let's see.
So the communicator does have a built-in antenna,
which is right here.
There are options for external antenna as well.
So if you're not getting the proper signal strength
from where this is installed, you
can always get an external antenna wired in as well.
There's more information about that
in the actual User and Install Guide,
so I would recommend just reviewing that if you
want to do external antennas.
OK, so a couple things we'll do now is, first, we'll do wiring.
So first thing we're going to do is make sure
that this can get proper signal.
So to do that, we're going to first power down our VISTA.
I'm using the LT-CABLE to power on the VISTA.
We do sell this cable.
It's just for easy install.
It has a barrel connection right here
which powers into the terminals on the actual VISTA.
So to unplug it, simply just unplug that.
My VISTA is dead, no more power.
As you can see, I don't have a backup battery or anything
installed, so I know that that was my only power source.
So what we're going to do--
I'm going to try to do this from where I'm standing.
So we're going to wire in the red and the black wires.
Those are the power wires for the communicator,
and we're going to wire them into terminal 5 for red
and then terminal 4 for black.
So we'll start with black, our ground.
And that is terminal 4.
Excuse me for getting in the way.
Got that there.
Wire that in.
OK, nice and secure.
And then we're going to do our red wire, which
is our auxiliary wire.
That is going to terminal number 5, so right next door.
Just make sure we have our connections straight on here
so it gets nice and secure.
Once again, excuse me for getting in the way.
Pop that in there.
It's not too easy doing it from behind, but--
That should be good, nice and secure.
Give them all a yank.
All right, perfect.
So now that I have my power connections into the VISTA,
I'm going to power the VISTA back on.
And what we're going to do is wait for these LEDs
right here to stop on the signal and to show us
that the signal is OK.
So the indication that signal is OK
is that it's just going to stay green.
It will stay lit.
It's going to cycle through at first.
And then, basically, the reason that
you want to do this first--
so as you see, we did not connect the data wires.
The power wires, it's basically just having the communicator
itself test the signal.
So if that signal never lights up or doesn't stay green,
we know there's no signal here.
There's no point in installing this.
It's just going to be a waste of time, doing a lot of work
for nothing.
We need this to show that we have good signal
before we proceed.
Now, this can take about a minute to two minutes.
Just for the sake of timing in the video,
I've already installed this communicator before.
I do know that it can do signal.
We've tested it before.
So in this case, we're just going to go ahead.
We're going to say the signal is good.
It's shown good.
I'm going to power the system back off, again,
with the LT-CABLE.
Just simply unplug it.
System powered off, LEDs are killed.
So now what we're going to do is wire in the data connection.
So this is going to be how the communicator is going
to work with the panel and how it's going to communicate
with US, alarm dealers.
So for that, we are going to be doing the yellow cord--
yellow wire into terminal 7 for data out.
And then the green cord, we're going to do terminal 6 for data
in.
So let's go ahead and get that done.
Start with green, terminal 6.
Make sure my connection's good.
Let's see.
Just undo that real quick, get our connection good.
Put that up there.
Setting it back up, get our connection.
And then finally yellow.
Once again, yellow is going into data out, which is terminal 7,
right next door.
Toss that in there.
And then let's tighten that back up, make sure the connection's
good.
All right.
Again, just give them a little tug,
make sure they're nice and secure.
Everything's secure, we're good to go.
So we're going to start off by powering this on.
Now, actually, before I power it on, I just
want to review what the LEDs will do.
So I'm going to go top to bottom.
So top, our REG, which is the registration, that
is a green colored LED.
So when it is on, it means that the panel is-- not the panel,
but the communicator is not registered.
When it is off, so when you do not see an LED on that,
it means the panel is registered.
If it's doing a fast blink, it means that there
is a download in progress.
What that means is that someone remotely-- your alarm dealer--
is connecting into the panel through a program
called Compass.
It's basically a programming software.
So what that means, it just means
someone's connecting through Compass to do
some programming remotely.
A slow blink is registration in progress.
So when you do contact your alarm dealer
and when you're setting this up with them,
during the registration, you're going
to see that do a slow blink.
The next one, the TX/RX, that is your transmission.
That is going to be a consistent yellow.
So when that is on, it means that a transmission is pending,
waiting to either be sent out or received.
A periodic blink-- so kind of like a heartbeat--
so that's just meaning it's normal, it's functioning fine.
You're going to see it blink as often
as once every couple seconds.
It's going to be consistent, and that's fine.
For a fast blink, that means a message is waiting.
And for a slow blink, as well as--
as I mentioned before with the registration--
a slow blink on this means the registration is in progress.
So you will see both the REG and the TX/RX lights
do a slow blink during the registration,
just showing that everything is going through
and it's waiting to finish.
The next one, our fault. That is going to be a red LED.
So when that is on, that means there
is no contact with the network.
So the communicator is still functioning with the panel,
but it's not talking to us.
It's not talking to AlarmNet 360,
which is the Honeywell servers that we register these to.
If it is off, that is normal.
So if there's no red LED, you're good, no issues.
If it's doing a slow blink, that means
there is a loss of communication.
What that means is that it's still
communicating with AlarmNet, but it's not
communicating with the panel.
So that is basically just something
that you've got to make sure your connections are good.
For the fast blink, it means there
is no contact with the network, as well
as a loss of communication.
So it's just not talking to anyone.
It's not talking to the panel.
It's not talking to the AlarmNet servers.
It's not doing anything.
It's just sitting there.
Again, that's something you have to figure out with your alarm
company for the registration process, of course,
because they can see signal strength.
And then for communicating with the panel,
that's usually your data wires.
Most the time what we see--
very, very simple issue--
people will swap the yellow and the green.
So they'll put green to data out and then the yellow to data in.
That happens quite often, usually
with the iGSMV4G communicators.
The same idea here.
If it's not communicating, more than likely
it's those data wires.
Let's see.
So right here, our SIGNAL, that is going to be a green LED.
When that is just on, it's showing minimal signal
strength.
If it is blinking, it's showing marginal signal strength.
And if it's off, it means that the signal--
I'm sorry the installation is not recommended.
So as I mentioned before, when we had just connected the power
wires and we were waiting for it to cycle, if that did not
light up, then that means we don't have signal.
And finally, if all the LEDs are blinking when you wire this up,
just consistently blinking, that means
there is a hardware issue, either with the panel
or the communicator.
You just have to troubleshoot that and possibly replace
one or the other.
OK, so now that that is all out of the way, let's go ahead
and power this back up.
So while this is powering back up,
I mean, that's essentially all the wiring right there.
It's very, very simple to wire these.
And especially because it comes with that pre-built connector
right there.
I mean, that's very, very simple and it's very, very helpful.
For other communicators, you would
have to wire in to the communicator
as you did the panel.
So each connection.
That's usually where those data issues come from,
because people will always get confused.
They'll do data in to data in, data out to data out.
And then, yeah, as I mentioned, we've
already messed around with this communicator before,
so I do know that it's registered.
As the end user, you're going to have
contact your alarm dealer, so either by phone, by sign-up,
email, however they work.
You're going to contact them.
You're going to give them the information
off the communicator.
So that's going to be the MAC address right there,
such as 00D0.
And then the MAC CRC, 4F24.
Obviously, all the codes will be different
for other communicators.
This is tied up to our servers.
So once they have that information,
they're going to start registering the product.
If they do come across any issues, obviously,
they can tell you or do it for you, depending on if it's DIY
or if they're actually coming out.
They can change a couple of settings
with the keypad for the VISTA, get that communicating,
and then get it registered.
That is pretty much everything I have
to say about the communicator.
If you did want to learn more about it
and see more wiring videos, learn more about registrations,
sign up for monitoring or anything like that,
you can check out our website, www.alarmgrid.com.
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OK, well, thank you guys very much, and have a great day.