Resideo LTE-XA or LTE-XV: Troubleshooting "No Signal" Issue

Hi DIYers. This is Michael from Alarm Grid, and today I'm going to be showing you how to troubleshoot a no signal on Honeywell LTE XA or a Honeywell LTE XV. Now you may have noticed from our install video for our LTE XA on our VISTA-21iP-- or you're using a 15P or a 20P. You may have noticed on this install video that we did not have signal, and you can actually see that on the LED right now. There was no signal, and coupled with the fact that we have other AT&T LTE communicators in this room that do get signal, this should be getting some signal. So we're going to go through the troubleshooting process today of how you determine what's wrong and how you can fix it. So it begins with re-seating the communicator. So what we have-- I'm sorry, re-seating the SIM card, not re-seating the communicator. The SIM card is in the communicator. So we're re-seating the SIM card. And to get started, we have to first power down the system completely. Don't do this while the communicator is receiving power. So we're going to power down our system. We have a Honeywell LT cable. So we can just unplug this and disconnect the backup battery. You always want to disconnect the backup battery, but for the LT cable you might not have an LT cable. It just might be powered in wires into the proper terminals on the panel and then they would go to the transformer. So if that's the case, then you can unplug the transformer from the wall outlet. If you can't find the transformer-- maybe it's in a hard to reach area or something-- then a good option is to cut power at the circuit breaker. Don't attempt to disconnect the wires from the panel. That's dangerous. So once you have your system completely powered down like we do-- nothing's on the keypads, there's no LED lights, our system is completely powered down-- we can begin working on the communicator. So we still have ours connected with the washer so we'll undo that. Just undo that down there. And then ours is already opened up. We already did the screwdriver and we'll just disconnect this guy right there. So that way we can move it around as needed. I'm going to bring it close to me here, and you see that we have the SIM card right there, this yellow guy right here. So we need to unlock this. So to do that, what we want to do, we want to push that back and then we can pull that away and then we have our SIM card down here. So I'm going to set this down real quick. OK. So we have the SIM card out from the communicator now. And what we want to do, we just want to wipe it down, make sure there are no fingerprints on there, and make sure it's all clean. And then we can put it back in the communicator. So we have the communicator here. And we need to make sure that the contact points meet. You see these metal contact points on there? They need to be touching the SIM card when I put it in. So we'll slide that in properly here. OK. We slit our SIM card back into the port there, and then we can close it by just locking it into place by sliding this down. Make sure this is all the way down when you do this, which that's not all the way down yet. So we'll press it down, and there, it's unlocked. And then we lock it by moving the metal piece without moving the SIM card because the SIM card was popping out there. But there, now it's locked into place. All right, so we have our SIM card back in the communicator. Now normally you will do this three times, try re-seating three times. We're not going to do it three times, because we already know that it doesn't work. So in our case, we're going to put it back onto the VISTA system while the system's still powered down. And we will just do our simple connection here. And we're going to open that up and we just put that into the left one right there. Hopefully we get some more slack there. And it wants to keep twisting on me. So maybe it's upside down or something. There we go. It's in place. And then we can just close this up, and we'll do the washer just to secure it back into place. OK so we have our communicator reconnected to the VISTA system. So now we're going to power our panel back on. You want to start with the transformer. Remember, we're using an LT cable. If you unplugged a beige transformer, then plug that back in or resume power at the breaker, return power at the breaker. So we'll just plug that in. [BEEPS] And then we'll do our back up battery here. And remember, normally you would do the re-seating process three times to see if you get any change in signal. We're going to let that go through its boot up process. But when it gets back up, you'll see that there is no signal. That's how you go in to re-seat the SIM card for the communicator. And like I said, you normally do that three times. We've seen cases where people try it one or two times and it doesn't work right away. So really, Honeywell recommends the three times for the process. But once this gets back up and everything and we see that we still don't have the signal, then we'll go into the programming for the communicator using our 6160 here. And I'll show you how to diagnose problems. So we're back at the communicator now, and you do see we still have the solid LED at fault and nothing at signal. So that does indicate that we are having signal problems, and so we've tried re-seating the SIM card three times, and we're still not getting anything. So let's see if we can do some diagnostics at the keypad. So let's get into programming by entering our installer code, which ours is at the default of 4112, and then we'll enter 800. And you see installer code 20, indicating that we have access to programming. So the programming field we want to use is star 29. And then it's going to ask us to enable IP/GSM. We want to choose Yes, and then we'll choose star. 1 for yes, that's what we did there. And now we want to get into diagnostics. So we'll enter in 2. And now this changes the way that the 6160 operates. You're actually going to be emulating 7720P keypad. So these buttons on the side, they represent A, B, C, and D, going from top to bottom. So when you hear me say D that means I'm talking about the fourth key down here. So the one we want to do is we want to do D. And then you'll see that the Ready LED lights up. So then we're going to choose 2. And you see that we have the MAC and the MAC CRC codes on the keypad. It's reading it from the communicator. So this is the communicator's MAC and MAC CRC. So what we want to do now, we want to press star. And then you see that we do have numbers for SCID indicating that it is detecting the SIM card. It is reading it. We cleaned it off and it is touching the metal contact points, so that is working properly. So that's a good sign here so far. If you were just getting question mark symbols, then that would mean it was having trouble reading the SIM. So everything's in order so far. Now what we want to do, we're going to press D and then 5. And you see we get Data Not Available. So that means that there is a signal problem. OK, so if you take a look at our LTE XA communicator now, you will see that we are getting signal on the communicator. The reason we weren't before is because the SIM card inside was not activated. The way that works, all LTE communicators, the residual ones, the Honeywell ones, they come with a SIM card that is activated for three months from the factory. So when it's manufactured it stays active for three months, and then after that time period, it becomes deactivated. And if you try to use it, you try to activate the communicator, you will get no signal both on the communicator, the LED lights, and inside diagnostics, which I'm going to show you that. Now that it is working, I'm going to show you diagnostics menu in a second. But if your communicator becomes inactive if we're not using it for a while, for not activating it for three months, then you will need to have your monitoring company activate it, which we went ahead and did this. So now you can see we are getting signal on the communicator and I'm also going to show you the diagnostics menu again so that way you can see how it looks differently when the SIM card is activated. So what you'll have to do-- by the way, if you are activating the SIM card because it was deactivated and your monitoring company goes and activates it, you'll have to wait up to 15 minutes for it to come through. And you will need to power cycle the communicator. So basically you'll power cycle or your VISTA system. Again, that's disconnecting AC power either at the breaker or an LT cable or unplugging the beige transformer, and you will need to disconnect the backup battery, wait for a few seconds, and then power on transformer ac power first, and then do the backup battery. So, just do a quick power cycle after waiting up to 15 minutes for it to go through. So let's get into the diagnostics menu so we can see how it's different now that we are getting signals from the SIM card and the communicator is showing that the signal light is working. So we're going to go into programming 4112800 and then we're going to do our star 29 menu, star 29. And we will click Yes we want to enable IP GSM, and we'll press star. And then we're going to press 2 for diagnostics. And what we're going to press, we're going to press the D key, the fourth one down here, and then we'll press 5. And you see we do get an LTE signal strength. So we are getting signal now just to show you how this menu looks different when it is working properly when the SIM card is activated. So now we'll exit out of this menu, D, A. And now I'm going to go back into this star 29 field and I'm going to disable that so we don't get the check 103 error. So we're just going to do that real quick. Star 29. And this time I'm going to put 0 to disable this menu. So I'm just doing this just so we don't get the check 103 error and the keypad beeps at us. So I will press star to continue, and then we'll do star 99 to exit programming. So that concludes our video on troubleshooting the LTE XA or LTE XV. If you have any questions about the LTE XA, the LTE XV, about Honeywell VISTA security systems, or alarm monitoring services, send an email to support@alarmgrid.com. If you found this video helpful, make sure to give it a thumbs up below if you like the video. And remember to subscribe to our channel for updates on future videos. We hope you enjoyed the video. Thank you.