What is a Transmitter Sniffer Test on a Vista Panel?

The transmitter sniffer test is used on the Vista-15P, 20P, and 21iP panels to verify that wireless zones have been programmed and are working correctly. Once all wireless programming is complete, the user should exit programming and perform the test to verify proper operation of the panel.

There are several test features available that are associated with the wireless portion of the alarm system. The transmitter sniffer test is helpful to easily verify if the serial numbers for wireless zones have been programmed properly and/or whether or not the particular transmitter is getting a signal to the panel/receiver.

In order to enter this mode, the system must be ready with no faults, bypasses or armed partitions. Also, the communicator must not be active. Unlike the Go/No Go test, when the transmitter sniffer test is active, the receiver operates at full gain. On partitioned systems, the keypads of all partitions will display a scrolling list of zone numbers for any enabled zone with an RF, UR or BR input type. When the panel receives a wireless transmission from a serial number, it removes all zones associated with that serial number from the scrolling list. Ideally, once you've faulted and restored all wireless zones, the display will be blank. This indicates that every zone programmed received a matching serial number transmission. If there are zones remaining on the display once all zones have been tested, verify the serial number programming for that zone, correct it if necessary, then test again.

If a transmitter has not been programmed into the alarm panel, no zone number for it will be displayed. If you transmit with that device, you will not receive indication that it hasn't been programmed. In other words, this test is good for verifying that the zones that have been programmed are correct. However, this test does not help verify that all of the zones are programmed. For that, you should also perform a walk test, and verify that each transmitter shows up with a zone number on the panel.