Lyric Security System: Master Code

Hi, DIYers. Sterling with AlarmGrid here, and today, we're going to show you the difference between the master code and the installer code when using your Honeywell Lyric all-in-one system. So while Honeywell, through its LYNX Touch systems and now the revolutionary new Lyric system, are starting to build more DIY friendly systems, they still have not quite yet embraced a full true DIY installation. They're still expecting that your system will be installed by a professional alarm company and that you, the end user, will only be doing certain actions: arming the system, disarming the system, checking event logs, adding codes, certain features that the installer would be kept out of. And the deeper level programming for setting up the monitoring or setting up the sensors or anything deeper level is restricted that only the installer code can do that.

So a lot of people, when they get their brand new Honeywell Lyric system, they start using the 4112 default programmer code because that's the code that lets you learn in zones and do the deeper level stuff, and they don't even realize there's a whole other section of programming which is the master code programming that's really supposed to be designed for the end user. Here at Alarm Grid, we act as your security professional and basically we're empowering you, the end user, to be both the master user and the installer. So we want to show you that you have access to both these modes, and that explanation, a lot of people are confused why they would even have separate modes, and it's for that very reason.

So if your installation company puts your system in, they use the installer code to learn in all your zones, get the monitoring working, everything's good to go, then the last thing they'll do is have you change your master code. You don't have to give them the master code. And now, they have access to the programming and you, the end user, don't because you don't know what the installer code is, so you can't make any mistakes to what they've set up. But using the master code, you can still do the things that an end user should be able to do, such as add codes, view the event log, connect to the Wi-Fi, that kind of stuff. So again, that's the general idea why there are two levels of programming, and we're going to show you both and what's accessible through each method.

So no matter which [inaudible 00:02:39] security, you have this screen where you can arm the system. You can check messages, check system trouble codes. In this case, we're not yet enabled for monitoring, so it's throwing up a Comm. Trouble. And you can see zones. We don't have any zones, just our temperature zones. Our default temperature zones are showing. But basically these are like very...this is the top level security page.

When you hit Tools, that's saying, "Okay, I want to program something." And the system doesn't know if you're the master user or the installer user. And for our customers, you're both, so it just depends on what you're looking to do. If you put the master code, which by default is 1234, you see this screen and this screen is the master user programming screen. As described, you have abilities to manipulate your system users. You can change the master code by clicking Edit, and if you type in the user code, you could put in a new four-digit code. You can set up a guest code. So you could edit this and enable a guest code. You could set up a duress code. And same idea. Edit. You set up a duress code so that if you were in a duress situation, emergency situation, you could send a special alert to the central station to dispatch the police right away.

You also, from this screen, can add new and user three. So you would be able to add sub-users. Okay? And this system can do...Let's see. The guest code is slot number 47. So that, means this system, including the guest and duress code, can do 48 various user codes. And if you noticed, the master code is slot number two, and that's just because the installer code is slot number one. So for a master user, you can't change the installer code through here. You would have to do that through the installer code programming which we'll show you in a different video. But basically, I want to just highlight again that Honeywell expects an end user to be able to manipulate the codes that can arm and disarm the system, change the master, set up and change the guest or the duress, and even add sub-users for various other...either employees if it's a commercial application, or if each family member wanted their own codes so you could track who's coming and going. You could do that as well.

You have events, and this is a running event log, or as I like to call it, the black box of the system. So anything that the system does is displayed on this menu screen here. And it reads left to right, top to bottom. So the top left is the most recent event and then it goes next most recent, next most recent, next most recent, down. And you can hit the down arrow to scroll back in time, and so the very first even we had which is January 1, 2015 before it was online to grab the right time from the server, we had a reset right at that same time it popped up with our comm. trouble, and then we were able to join to the Wi-Fi network and we start to see other events such as Program Mode Entry, Program Mode Exit, Comm. Trouble again when we've been power cycling and going through various stuff.

This event log goes back in time and will fill up eventually, and once it's full, it'll overwrite automatically the last or oldest event in the screen. So you can't clear this screen. You really shouldn't have any reason to clear it, but if you ever had an event that occurred that you felt like things didn't happen exactly as expected, this is where you would check to make sure the event that you think happened really did happen and this gives you your explanation of whatever event occurred: Program Mode Entry, Comm. Trouble, Arm, Disarm, or Open, Close, so on.

You can export these logs. There's actually a USB port underneath here. So for any reason, let's say there was a break-in and you needed to submit evidence to the police or to an insurance company, you could actually export your event log through a USB that could be accessible from a computer. If you're monitored, your alarm company certainly would have that ability as well through their dealer software, but it's just a nice option for the end user to be able to export. That's a new feature for the Lyric that the older LYNX Touch panels did not offer.

All right. So we've gone through the first two. This next screen is advanced. And advanced is almost like installer level programming but doesn't quite give you everything the installer would let you do, but it does let you do a lot. So system information, it'll give you the product ID and the revision number. This is a firmware updatable panel, and as Honeywell releases new features and cleans up various bugs that might be found on the system, the revision number is going to be an important thing to be able to know what revision your system is running so that you can know if there's a newer, later, more recent firmware that could help your system solve a problem or bring a new feature to the panel. And so if your company is ever asking you, "What is your revision number?" that's something as the end user using the master code, you can see from this advanced system information tab. And this revision, REV number is your actual firmware.

All right. So you hit OK there. You have your walk tests and your comm. tests. So you have ways to test the system and the sensors. You have ways to test the system and the communication to the central station. So you could test an Ethernet message. If you hooked up cellular, you could send a cellular message. This Test Ethernet [inaudible 00:08:37] basic tech support, troubleshooting options are available to the end user through these screens.

Install Cellular Module. So this is a new one. If you've ever had a LYNX Touch, you ever called us and say, "Hey, I got my cellular unit installed but my panel can't see it," first thing we'll always ask you, "Did you happen to install that unit when the panel was powered up?" And of course, an end user, do-it-yourselfer that might not know better, a lot of times they say, "Yeah, I sure did do that when it was powered up." You should never do that, and our videos tell you not to do that, but of course, not everyone watches the videos or not everyone knows what they're doing and sometimes you install things and you don't realize what's happening.

So with the LYNX Touch, you had to power the panel down, physically hard power it down. Remove the battery and unplug the transformer to get the panel into a ready state to accept the cell module. This system is really slick. If you hit Install Cellular Module and it says, "Would you like to install it?" when you hit Yes, it actually, right on this screen, cuts power internally to the connector for the GSM. So your system is still powered up but you pop this slot out and your cellular card fits in here and now you're able to install that even if your system is operational and fully powered on. So it makes it for a much easier installation, especially for a do-it-yourselfer that wouldn't want to go through the hassle of opening up the panel, disconnecting the battery, unplugging your transformer from the outlet, unplugging the transformer, verifying that you're powered down. All of that could be done simply by hitting these Install Cellular Module options, which handles cutting power to that portion of the system so you can't do any damage when you plug it in. So that's really nice.

So when you're done, you just hit OK. Or in our case, we're not going to even do it. So we're going to hit Cancel and basically, now it's powered that port back up. So it's just a really nice way that the system will cut the power. Same idea. Install battery backup. So normally when we're recommending a battery change, we say, "Take the power fully down and then plug the new battery in first and power the system up." In this case, if we hit Yes, they're telling you exactly what to do to open the system, take the old battery out, put the new battery in, and then you hit OK and you're done. You don't have to worry about powering the system down. So again, really nice DIY friendly method to both install your cell communicator and install or replace your backup battery. So that's available through the advanced master code level of programming.

Update sensor firmware is another option. So unlike the more basic 5800 RF series sensors, the new Lyric 6 sensors are each firmware updatable. Each sensor is an actual microprocessor with a MAC address, and because they're bidirectional and talk to and from the system, you can actually do a firmware update on a specific sensor so that if Honeywell released new features that were sensor features, you could do that through there. In this case, we don't have any zones programmed yet, so there's nothing to see when you hit that. But it would be done from here and it would auto update each sensor firmware by doing this level of programming. Same idea but just with the key fobs. It even shows Press Start. Immediately press all four key fob buttons so it's letting you know what you have to do to get that firmware loaded down to your sensor and key fob level programming.

And then the last option you have through here is reboot. So just like on the LYNX Touch, instead of having to fully hard power the system down, a cycle power, you can just hit Reboot. And if you're sure, you hit Yes. In this case, we're going to say No. But that would do a soft reboot, just cut power internally and then the panel boots back up. So all of that lives under the advanced level of the master programming.

Keypad is if you wanted to use the paid app, no monthly fees but Honeywell will have a paid Lyric app that will allow you...I shouldn't say paid because we don't know yet, but there will be some app that you can use in the home when you're on the same network as the system so that you can use a tablet, mobile phone, device like that in the house to simulate this Lyric screen. So if you're on your couch or up in your bedroom, you can control the system via Wi-Fi keypad basically. So instead of giving you the option for wireless touchscreen keypads, Honeywell says, "We already know you have nice electronics in the home, tablets that you're already familiar with and already use and already have," so they're just going to let you use those existing devices and use those as extra keypads.

And it actually is designed to work a lot better than the LYNX Connect app which does the same thing. With that one, you had to accept license agreements or end user agreements every time you accessed it and the app would time out. With this one, if you had a tablet devoted just to be an extra keypad, it would stay launched on that app and you don't have to go through as much steps to get it loaded. So that's all done through this keypad screen.

You have date/time. So you can actually select your date and time for the panel, although we recommend leaving this default because it's going to grab it based on the servers and normally, you want to just leave it like that. The one thing you may have to do is just to select your time zone. In this case, we are at Eastern Time Zone, but if we were to have this, say, on Pacific, it's going to grab the server time based on the server's time and then also based on the time zone set in the panel. So if we were Pacific Time, because this comes default Eastern, you would actually show that your time is off by three hours. It's grabbing the server time but because the panel is set on the wrong time zone, you're having that issue. So date and time can all be manipulated through there.

Reminders is kind of cool. You can just do a reminder. It can be a voice message that lets the kids know, "Hey, don't forget to do your chores when you come home." It can even be acknowledged that, yes, they saw they had to do that. Voice command. Okay. This is really cool and we'll do another video on a much deeper level explanation of this feature, but this Lyric system is designed to be voice activated. So the simple prompt of "Hello Lyric" can wake this thing up and ask you what you want to do. And you have various basic commands: arm the system, disarm the system, turn lights on or off, activate Z-Wave scenes. Various things like that can all be voice activated and this is the screens that allow you to manipulate and tweak the settings for learning your voice to the panel.

And then finally, as we've shown you already on some other videos that we've done so far, you have your Wi-Fi configuration options. So again, these are basically what Honeywell feels like an end user should have access to do. Of course, you want to be able to manipulate your users. You want to be able to view your event log in case you needed to make changes. They're letting you do some advanced settings but not quite as advanced as installer level programming. You can join your Wi-Fi keypads. You can manipulate your date and your time. You can set yourself reminders. You can tweak your voice command feature and you can set up your Wi-Fi config, all using tools and the master code of 1234.