I’ve been sharing my experience with SuretyDIY with my in-laws, which has been great so far. In doing so my father-in-law offered up a bag of goodies he no longer wants. It’s a GC2 panel, a multitude of Door/Window sensors a Z-wave appliance module and a camera. I’ll be pulling down the fire/smoke today to check the expiration date. All equipment originally from Vivint.
Questions #1 Can the Vivint ADC-V520 be used again? Or does vivint have there cameras locked down too? #2 Can I perform a firmware upgrade on the GC2 and release it from the Vivint ball and chain? Or is a new communicator required? I’m not in the market to buy another communicatot but I was hoping to free up the panel so I could keep it as a spare, also thinking about using it as a simple Z-Wave controller for the wife’s “She Shed” …
Anyways I’d like to make use of as much of the equipment as possible, The gift will definatly save me some money so I can add to my system!!! I have already started adding the window/door sensors to my own system to further secure our perimeter.
I’m glad to hear you’ve been enjoying our service!
Can the Vivint ADC-V520 be used again? Or does vivint have there cameras locked down too?
You may be able to. Cameras can only be linked to one account at a time, and based on historical posts the cams are usually left attached to accounts.
You could try the cam on the video page in ADC to see if it can be found as a new cam to be added. If not it is likely still registered to an account.
If they still have access to the account this camera was used with you could try deleting. it from that account.
2 Can I perform a firmware upgrade on the GC2 and release it from the Vivint ball and chain? Or is a new communicator required? I’m not in the market to buy another communicatot but I was hoping to free up the panel so I could keep it as a spare, also thinking about using it as a simple Z-Wave controller for the wife’s “She Shed”
In order for us to be able to remotely unlock programming it would need a new communication module and service. The communicators with the stated provider have historically all been proprietary and unable to be used by other vendors and configuration is typically locked out.
If used as a spare or with your current service, you could just swap over your module, provided the panel has adequate firmware. Remote commands can then be sent to unlock.
Note that this would overwrite your ADC device and info with whatever is present in the new panel at the time.
Camera - As for the Camera as long as it is not attached to an old account I may be able to use it? When you say “account” are you referring to ADC or Company “V”? Also he has terminated his service with company “V”. Would this still require a “De-Registration” or would the termination automatically de-register the device. I’m asking because we do not have the Cloud Video feature yet. I would like to be a little more sure about its usability before purchasing the extra feature.
GC2 - If I were to swap my currently active LTE Module into the newly acquired panel we would be able to send the needed commands in order to free it from previous programming. The catch is that it would alter my current ADC data? Did I understand that correctly? Or will the Current ADC data be transferred to the newly acquired Panel?
And yes so far we are very happy with the Surety Service. I have several friends/family that are “under contract” and looking to change over to DIY in the future. Saving a bit of $$$ and learning how to service/control your own system is always nice in my opinion.
Camera – As for the Camera as long as it is not attached to an old account I may be able to use it? When you say “account” are you referring to ADC or Company “V”? Also he has terminated his service with company “V”. Would this still require a “De-Registration” or would the termination automatically de-register the device.
Account refers to the ADC account it was previously assigned to. While the original owner may have cancelled their service account with the previous provider, the camera could still be tied to that ADC account. Termination of services with that provider may not result in the “de-registration” of the device.
Since ADC compatible cameras can only be linked to one ADC account at a time, the camera can only be associated with your ADC account if it was un associated with the previous ADC account.
As a reminder, as plans are offered on a month to month basis, they can be altered at any time.
GC2 – If I were to swap my currently active LTE Module into the newly acquired panel we would be able to send the needed commands in order to free it from previous programming. The catch is that it would alter my current ADC data? Did I understand that correctly? Or will the Current ADC data be transferred to the newly acquired Panel?
Swapping your LTE module to the other panel would allow us to send commands to that panel to free up programming/allow for installer access. If you swap, your ADC account would reflect the device info of the panel being swapped to.
In order to utilize the LTE module, the additional GC2 would need to be on firmware version 1.17 or higher.
Saving a bit of $$$ and learning how to service/control your own system is always nice in my opinion
One last time on the GC2 Panel. How would it effect us if we swapped modules only to unlock the newly acquired panel and then switched right back? I understand that the newly attached panel would update to ADC. But once I’ve unlocked the newly acquired panel and I am able to manipulate the programming on my own, would I be able to just swap the communication module back into my original panel? And if so would the original panel settings re-populate in ADC? I know this seems like a lot of work but I’d like to free this panel from the previously mentioned company’s programming so that we can use it as we wish. I’d just hate to purchase a new module specifically for that purpose…
PS, I do have the Firmware update cable purchased from you guys so the firmware would not be an issue.
Once again, Thankyou for your time and patience…
Website Question - I have opted to receive notifications on the posts in the forum but am not receiving those notifications. I’ve verified E-Mail address in my forum profile and it is correct. Is this feature or the site broken?
But once I’ve unlocked the newly acquired panel and I am able to manipulate the programming on my own, would I be able to just swap the communication module back into my original panel? And if so would the original panel settings re-populate in ADC?
Happy to clarify! I think the prior posts are just attempting to state that you will lose your current settings in ADC as your account is set up currently. To be clear, this means that settings, rules, notifications, etc., related to the system would be lost when a new system is connected.
Switching back to the original panel afterward will repopulate sensors, Z-wave devices etc., in Alarm.com, but not customized notifications and rules that may have been affected.
The swap is definitely an option and we are happy to help, just want to emphasize that there can be a bit of effort required to perform a swap to and back from a different panel, and there is no process available to ease that.
If you do go this route, be sure to perform all physical changes with the panels powered off completely. You can request installer access defaulted through our secure message tool here.
I have opted to receive notifications on the posts in the forum but am not receiving those notifications. I’ve verified E-Mail address in my forum profile and it is correct. Is this feature or the site broken?
I’m not aware of any issues, but we’ll test notifications and follow up. Be sure to double check spam or other inbox folders you may have set up.
Forum notifications resolved, it was being filtered by my e-mail client, apologies !!
As far as the panel unlocking, I appreciate the clarification, its very helpful. I’ll record/note all of my current rules and get the newly acquired panel firmware updated for the module swap. Probably be next week before I pursue that project.
Update on using my “Second Hand” ADC-V520. I have had the camera added for a little over 24 hours now. But it seems as every now and then we go from a Solid “Connected” LED to the Flashing Green LED. Which obviously means we can not view the Camera remotely and it also stops uploading the Clips. I found an older Thread in the forum about the Overloading of a service when the camera is overcome by to much activity. Not sure if this applies to my situation here. Are the ADC-V520s all victims of this issue? The camera does resume normal operation once we pull the power cord and do a power cycle.
As far as Internet connectivity everything checks out. Router shows connected. Also the settings page on the ADC Web app give “Available” for both the Remote Relay and the Public IP. Forwarding rule has been set up in the router to ensure that the Camera always has access to the outside WAN.
If this is an overloaded service issue do the newer cameras respond this this type of issue better? Is there a suggestion on maximum Motion/Clip activity so we can tune the camera better. Of course we’d like to capture as much activity as possible but can “turn down” sensitivity if it will help keep the camera online.
Network Background - Cable Internet connection with 225 meg Down and 10 meg Up. Asus RTN66U Router. Have a separate 2.4ghz Network with Unique SSID. It seems as our network would accommodate the ADC-V520 and the Skybell HD well. At this time we are not running any WiFi repeaters. All other clients on the network are newer and take advantage of the 5ghz network.
Open to all suggestions, Thankyou. The Camera firmware is “IP8135W-ALAM-0100i2”
Last night I turned all of the motion controls down, also created only one motion window in an area of the camera where no motion exists. The camera appears to have stayed online with all my children’s trafic in/out, and again today. So it appears as if this is a motion related issue. It is disappointing though as we aren’t able to record motion …
Has this issue been isolated to just the older cameras?
Has anyone been able to find a solution other than severely limiting motion recording or eliminating it?
Edit —- I just walked by the camera and the Led is flashing again … we have no recordings posted and the motion settings are as before … small motion window with settings turned all the way down to avoid recordings.
I’m not sure this is a motion related issue anymore …
Last night I turned all of the motion controls down, also created only one motion window in an area of the camera where no motion exists. The camera appears to have stayed online with all my children’s trafic in/out, and again today. So it appears as if this is a motion related issue. It is disappointing though as we aren’t able to record motion ….
Has this issue been isolated to just the older cameras?
Has anyone been able to find a solution other than severely limiting motion recording or eliminating it?
I’m not really aware of any specific issues like this. If you are able to find it, what forum thread are you referencing? In general I have seen local network traffic overwhelm the command buffer of network devices, but nothing specific to any camera models.
Motion Detection windows would not have any effect on network connection. They may affect the camera’s internal processing, and it is hard to say with certainty why older electronics might have odd failures, however, I wouldn’t assume relevance to the motion detection though without much more extended testing.
In fact, note that the last Wifi signal strength the camera reported was 44%. That is far too low for reliable signaling and much more likely the underlying issue.
How far away is the cam from the router source? On the 520, double check the antenna is screwed down tightly in the back and make sure it isn’t resting against metal.
Good catch on the signal, when I originally set the camera up it was in a more favorable location in order for reliable setup and firmware updating. It was reading 96-99.
We did however move it across the room for testing/playing/tinkering before we move it to the permanent location. The new location is only across the room but is obviously being effected by some environmental factor. I did not think moving across the room would make that big of a difference.
Here is the link from the other forum thread I was reading. It discusses multiple subjects that could effect the camera performance. One being a Service being disrupted within the camera. it is actually quit a long thread.
I will relocate the camera again and check signal strength. Once I get a good solid high number we’ll monitor again and see if the connection loss continues.
Aha, that thread is regarding a specific issue which was present on a brevity of V520IR cams (in fact that user is the only one of our users I know of that experienced it) where the cams would remain connected but recording would fail.
In this case we are looking at actual connectivity, so it is unlikely related.
I have added a repeater Between the router and the area we are testing the camera in. So far it has remained connected.
I should have checked the signal strength after moving the camera the first time. We’ll continue to keep an I on it. If all is well we’ll mount it in it permanent location.