Honeywell Home Tuxedo Is Not a Standalone Alarm Panel

Hi, DIYers. This is Michael from AlarmGrid. And today, I'm going to be answering the question of whether or not the Honeywell Home Tuxedo keypad, or the Resideo Tuxedo keypad is an alarm panel. And the answer to that question is no, the Tuxedo is not an alarm panel. It is a keypad. You use it with an alarm panel, specifically, a Honeywell VISTA alarm panel. This is a hardwired alarm panel. And you use it as a keypad for controlling your alarm system. So if you were to use this as a standalone device without an alarm system, you would really only be controlling connected Z-Wave devices. You technically can use the Tuxedo without an alarm system as a standalone Z-Wave controller, but very few people are going to do that because if you're looking for a standalone Z-Wave controller or a Z-Wave hub, then you would normally just get a dedicated device for that purpose, such as a Samsung SmartThings. The main reason to get a Tuxedo is because you are looking for a keypad, specifically, a touchscreen keypad, for a VISTA system. Now, when you interact with your Tuxedo on a day-to-day basis, a lot of people who don't know security systems very well-- maybe they inherited the system, they moved into a home and they just saw this on their wall, and they thought this was their system. But what they might not know is that somewhere, often in a storage closet, or in a basement, maybe a garage, or the attic, out of sight-- it doesn't have to be out of sight-- but just for aesthetic purposes, it often is. You'll actually have a beige metal cabinet. That is your alarm panel. And that's what we have here. You see the circuit board is the actual panel, and then it's housed in this metal cabinet for security purposes. So this is your alarm panel. And then you have a keypad that's used to control it, such as a Tuxedo. You can have an alphanumeric keypad, such as the 6160, or a fixed English keypad like this 6150, which is a bit covered up by our communicator right here. So those are some of the keypads you might have. Or you might have an old style Tuxedo, which this is the Tuxedo Touch, and this is just the regular Tuxedo right here that we're pointing out today. So, no, this isn't your alarm panel. This is a keypad for controlling your alarm system. You can do a variety of different functions on the Tuxedo. If I click on security, and then I do Arm Away-- I do Arm Away. Then it arms away. It's-- it's armed the system. So we're actually using the Tuxedo to control our system. And then I'll choose disarm, and I'll enter in our master code, which ours is at the default of one, two, three, four. You usually change that code for security purposes. But you see that we're controlling our system using the Tuxedo. Another thing you can do, if we choose this more choices button right over here, and I go to console mode, then I can use the Tuxedo in the same way that I would use an alphanumeric keypad. So this is good for programming this system. And just to demonstrate that, I'll get into programming mode. We'll enter in our installer code, which ours is at the default, four, one, one, two. Then we enter eight, zero, zero. And you see it says installer code 20, indicating that we have entered programming. And you'll notice that the alphanumeric keypad is also connected with the system, and it also went into programming mode. So when I do something on this, then this also displays the new setting, as well. So just for fun, I'll exit using this-- using star, nine, nine. And always use star 99 to exit. Don't use a different command to exit, or else you will become locked out of programming, and you'll have to backdoor in, or you might become locked out permanently. And that would really be a bad time. So-- and once we exit programming, the Tuxedo does reboot. That's normal. Whenever you exit programming, it does do that just as part of a refresh when it's getting information from the panel. Because this is the panel, not this. This is just a keypad, that's all this is, for controlling the system. This is the panel down here, or wherever you have it-- in your closet, your attic, wherever. But you look-- you're looking for this. So if you try and change the PROM chip, then you'd look for this, not this. This is just the keypad that you interact with. So the Tuxedo is not an alarm panel. It is a keypad. If you found this video helpful, make sure to give it a thumbs up below to like the video. You have any questions about the Tuxedo or the Honeywell VISTA alarm panels, or about alarm monitoring services, send an email to support@alarmgrid.com. And remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for updates on future videos. We hope you enjoyed the video. Thank you.