Disconnecting/Reprogramming HKC Ex-Phonewatch Alarm

ravydavygravy

Hi all,

Apologies if this is a stupid question - I've been searching around this forum and the electrical one, and I cant seem to find a complete answer to my question. We have a wired alarm in the house, which was installed by phonewatch years ago, and we recently cancelled the monitoring (one less bill, the small insurance hike was far cheaper than the annual monitoring fee). I gather from other threads that we need the engineer code to make it stop dialling the Phonewatch centre, but it would seem the code was changed from the default (4567) by the installer. So, my two questions:

1) Am I correct in understanding that any alarm enginner should be able to reset the system, and give us the new engineer code? Is this something we could attempt ourselves? Would it be expensive to call an engineer for this (Phonewatch wanted ~€110 for example, maybe this is the going rate?)

2) Since the system used to dial (and probably still tries to dial) some phone number in an attempt to reach phonewatch, can this number be changed to a different number of our choosing? What would you hear if it rang your number? Is it an understandable voice call or is it data like fax?

Thanks in advance,

Dave

altor

ravydavygravy wrote: »

Hi all,

Apologies if this is a stupid question - I've been searching around this forum and the electrical one, and I cant seem to find a complete answer to my question. We have a wired alarm in the house, which was installed by phonewatch years ago, and we recently cancelled the monitoring (one less bill, the small insurance hike was far cheaper than the annual monitoring fee). I gather from other threads that we need the engineer code to make it stop dialling the Phonewatch centre, but it would seem the code was changed from the default (4567) by the installer. So, my two questions:

1) Am I correct in understanding that any alarm enginner should be able to reset the system, and give us the new engineer code? Is this something we could attempt ourselves? Would it be expensive to call an engineer for this (Phonewatch wanted ~€110 for example, maybe this is the going rate?)

2) Since the system used to dial (and probably still tries to dial) some phone number in an attempt to reach phonewatch, can this number be changed to a different number of our choosing? What would you hear if it rang your number? Is it an understandable voice call or is it data like fax?

Thanks in advance,

Dave

Yes any company should be able to reprogram the system for you.
If you don't have the engineer code send me a P.M. and I will see what I can do
If you have the code deleting the numbers that dial the monitoring station is very easy to do. P.W. like to charge well for this service
Depending on the equipment installed it can be set up to text your phone rather than P.W.
You would need an 8/12 with plug on dialer to do this.
If not then a voice dialer can be connected, that's if it is a 6/10 you have installed.

ravydavygravy

Thanks, PM sent!

KoolKid

ravydavygravy wrote: »

Hi all,
1) Am I correct in understanding that any alarm enginner should be able to reset the system, and give us the new engineer code? Is this something we could attempt ourselves? Would it be expensive to call an engineer for this (Phonewatch wanted ~€110 for example, maybe this is the going rate?)

If the engineer code Altor advised you off doesn't work then yes any Engineer could reset the panel for you. You could also try a factory default yourself by doing the following:
Power down the system by turning off the mains power & removing the battery in the main control panel.
Remove the factory link marked LK1
Power back up the panel & follow the prompts on the keypad.
Defaulting the panel like this does mean you will have to reprogramme all system setting & zones etc.
If the keypad shows engineer locked you will need an engineer to call & default it for you.
€100+ is above the going rate so shop around .

ravydavygravy wrote: »

2) Since the system used to dial (and probably still tries to dial) some phone number in an attempt to reach phonewatch, can this number be changed to a different number of our choosing? What would you hear if it rang your number? Is it an understandable voice call or is it data like fax?

The dialler that's in it is designed to communicate with an ARC . It will ring any number but you will just hear a couple of beeps as the dialler looks for a comms handshake. It will not receive this & will continue to try the number a number of times before registering a fail to communicate error.
Any generic voice dialler could also easily be connected to this system.

ravydavygravy

Thanks for the help guys, Altor helped me figure out the engineer code, which I now have. Just looking at the menu structure here (maybe not completly correct, but look accurate enough?):

http://www.hkc.ie/hkc/Files/SW812%20Menu.pdf

Bit confused about what section deals with the dialout numbers - my best bet is 9-3-4 (Remote User Phones), but advice from someone more versed in these menus would be apprecated. Still unsure if its an 812 or a 610 model, Altor tells me I need to open the alarm panel to figure it out - will this cause the alarm to go off?

Thanks

Dave

ravydavygravy

Answering my own question for the benefit of others:

I found the menu structure was slightly different on my model, but basically everything I needed was in the "Dialer Options" menu and sub-menus within the "Serial Port Menu" at the top level.

I now have the alarm dialing three different numbers in the event of an alarm going off, with no voice dialler attached - I just get a call from my house with the beeping noise. There were lots of options for numbers of redials, redial interval, etc that probably need tuning since I don't think the alarm likes the fact that a machine isn't picking up the call (I has dialled me several times since out little test, attempting to tell me the alarm went off)

However, this is a minor inconvenience, which i'm happy to tolerate to save some €€€

Thanks for your help!

Dave

ravydavygravy

One question came to mind - does the alarm ever try to contact the call center (e.g. me) just to call home (with no alarm triggered?)

Dave

altor

You will need to delete the number out of the phones menu. If it just rings your phone it will be looking for a handshake. Only the monitoring station can give it this.
Then go into the sms menu to set up the phone numbers. That is providing your service provider is Eircom or Vodafone, or Sky as has being pointed out here. You will get alarm texts E.G. zone 2, unset and so on.

If you dont have this option then it may be a 6/10 you have installed.

ravydavygravy

Yeah, I don't have this option - its a 12 year old alarm. Not to worry, I don't mind it ringing me a few times - it rang me 6 times in total before giving up, 4 mins apart. I'm sure I can play with the settings and tune this further.

Dave