ADT Cellular Backup Upgrade from 2G to 3G "breaks" OV
Hi All,
Something I am digging into at this point:
My ADT Alarm system was installed by ADT when I started with them around 2001. Under the hood it is an ADEMCO Vista 20p Control panel, but using SafeWatch 2000 Pro Custom Alpha Keypads (wired)
An intermittent problem surfaced about a month ago (quite a while after we were forced to upgrade our cellular backup radio from 2G to 3G)
Some background:
The old cellular radio spoke directly to the Alarm system via the same pair of data leads on the alarm's control panel that the keypads use.
The control panel sent and received serial commands over these leads to the 2G cell backup unit to do it's reporting to the Central Monitoring Station if needed.
This put control of using the cell backup directly in the hands of the alarm control panel itself.
The Alarm Panel would only use cellular if it tried and failed to seize the land line and place a call over it.
My panel is an older one, and in order to accommodate 3G, it seems that it requires a bit of Rube Goldberg gear to do it.
Either there is no 3G unit that will talk directly to the panel over the serial lines, or ADT chose not to use one that can.
As far as I can identify, my new 3G cell unit is an ADT-branded DSC 3G4000RF-ADTUSA
To jump the gun and oversimplify the upshot, this unit pretends to be a landline to the control panel, and THIS UNIT ITSELF decides when to cut off the actual landline feed
makes for some potential runaway race conditions, methinks:
Here are the components in my system, some of which are shown in the attached pictures and documentation:
Optimum Voice
Arris Cable Modem jack 1
Optimum technician-installed wire with RJ-11 on Cable Modem end and punched down to Leviton on the other end.
LEVITON 47609-TSV
1x7 Telephone Security Module (a bridged distribution block with security interrupt)
110 block with one 4 pair input row and 7 bridged 4 pair output rows
RJ31-X jack is interrupt between pair 1 of input row and pair 1 in all output rows
Satin wire with RJ45 (8P8C) plug on one end and 4 wire pigtail on the other
Inside pins (pin 4 & 5) carry telephone service input to the "alarm system"
Outside pins (pin 1 & 8) carry handset / house wiring feed back from the "alarm system"
"alarm system" is in quotes because it now includes the 3G backup in the circuit directly
http://www.cabling-design.com/references/pinouts/RJ31x.shtml
ADT / ADEMCO Vista 20P Alarm Control Panel
4 terminals involved in this:
Tip and Ring intended for main telephone service inputs
Handset/house wiring T1 and R1 outputs
ADT Branded DSC Cellular Alarm Communicator: 3G4000RF-ADTUSA
4 internal terminals involved:
Tip & Ring - Actual Phone service input wires
T1 & R1 - Outputs to feed the Tip and Ring telephone service inputs on the Alarm Control Panel
Connected using a 4 wire bare ended cable with Red, Blue, and Black, Yellow wires
The new telephone signal wiring looks like this:
OV jack ----> punched down to LEVITON 47609-TSV input row 1 pair 1
LEVITON's RJ-31X --> RJ45 (8P8C) Plug, flat satin cable, pigtail ----> pigtail's Red & Green ----> Wire Nutted to (3G4000RF cable) Red & Blue wires
(3G4000RF cable) Red & Blue wires ----> 3G4000RF Tip & Sleeve Telephone Line input terminals
3G4000RF - T1 and R1 Output Terminals ----> (3G4000RF Cable) Yellow and Black wires
(3G400RF Cable) Yellow and Black wires -----> Ademco Vista 20P Incoming Phone Line Tip and Ring input terminals
Vista 20P Handset Tip and Ring Terminals ------> Pigtail's Brown and Grey wires -----> LEVTON's RJ31X jack (line 1 in premise phone wiring)
Here's what I found happening:
So, it seems that at some point a couple weeks previous to the day timestamped in the logs below The cable modem must have gone down.
there was an electrical storm at that time so perhaps there was a brief power outage as well.
Of course, at the time this was going on, I did not make that connection in my head, because we were having a new baby and my mom was staying at our house while in hospital and we NEEDED to be able to reach her if her cell was not available.
While trying to reach the hospital using my landline, I figure out that I can't make outgoing calls anymore...
I have dialtone but it does not respond to dialed digits.
I go to my laptop and connect to the arris management page: 192.168.100.1 and check the logs.
1) Arris modem was recycling the phone line over and over every 1 min or so with the following errors in the log:
7/31/2017 13:37 6 Voice Line Protection State Change, Line Number = 1, New State = Fault DETECTED
7/31/2017 13:37 3 Voice Line State Change, Line Number = 1 , Prev State = IS, New State = OOS
7/31/2017 13:38 6 Voice Line Protection State Change, Line Number = 1, New State = Fault CLEARED
7/31/2017 13:38 3 Voice Line State Change, Line Number = 1 , Prev State = OOS, New State = IS
2) when we got an Optimum technician onsite he said that this is usually the result of a short
I had tested the premise wiring throughout the house and there was no short. Plus, how could we have a short if we have dial tone on the line?
3) We disconnected the OV jack from the wire feeding the LEVITON panel and connected a buttset directly to jack 1 on the Cable Modem: the resetting stopped, and we could verify the telephone number via ANAC at the buttset. DTMF was working from this configuration.
4) HOWEVER, I just happened to pick up an extension on the house wiring while in this state and there was DIAL TONE!!! WTF??? where could it be coming from??? the Cable Modem voice jack is disconnected from the rest of the wiring!!!
5) we check to see if there is old Verizon POTS wires maybe still connected, no they were cut down years ago.. Looking for someone tapping? no all the actual POTS wiring is inside the house.
6) disconnected the satin wire from the RJ-31X jack which bridges pair 1 directly to the rest of the block and the rest of the house wiring: Dial Tone disappears! WTF??
7) reconnected satin wire and reconnected the house wiring and the problem returned. again, no shorts in any of it.
8) At the point of that testing I did not have all the model information or documentation of what components and connections were inside my alarm system.
I was freaking out and had to be at the hospital the next morning for my wife to be induced.
So I connected the cordless base station directly to the Optimum Voice jack and it remains that way to this day.
So, How could we have been getting Dial Tone from the alarm system????
The 3G4000RF apparently has something called Simulated Landline Mode
Quoting the Installation Manual:
Simulated Landline Mode
The simulated landline provides the alarm control panel (with dialer interface) with a back up line in the event of PSTN line trouble.
NOTE: The 3G4000 must be programmed as a back-up communicator for Simulated Landline Mode to operate
If the voltage on the landline terminals (TIP/RING) drops below 2.8V for a period of between 10 seconds and 45 seconds - depending on the device connected to the T1/R1 terminals- the 3G4000 switches the connected telephone device to the wireless network.
After waiting between 30 and 40 seconds, it checks the landline for one of the following:
- If the landline has been restored the 3G4000 switches the connected device back to the landline, OR
- If the landline is still down, the 3G4000 continues the simulation until the landline is restored. The 3G4000 will not switch during ongoing calls
NOTE: When the landline is down, the 3G4000 provides a dial tone to any device connected to T1 and R1, including any telephones on the premises. The phones on the premises will not, however be able to dial out over the 3G4000
SOOOO, I am GUESSING, that the race condition started thusly:
1) Cable modem goes down during power outage, voltage on the telephone line input to the cell backup goes to zero
2) 3G4000 is battery backed: cuts the Optimum Voice feed out of the circuit (via an open? or short?) and feeds dial tone to the panel, but ALSO the house, so we don't know what is going on but can't dial out. THANKS ADT
3) Power is restored, Cable modem comes back up, sees an open? or short? and recycles voice line 1 because the line is bad.
4) Cable modem recycling the voice line brings the voltage back down?
5) 3G4000 sees that happen, and either never releases the landline back to the cable modem, or, releases it briefly but the cable modem has begun recycling again so 3G4000 re-seizes the line.
6) repeat until you go insane.
Before I have an ADT tech come out or anyone else for that matter, I want to know I am not wasting his/her time and my own and certainly not wasting my money, so I am trying to figure out if the scenario I described above is the likely culprit or if there is something that is actually broken in the cellular device keeping the Simulated Landline Mode in constant operation....
Questions for any Optimum technicians:
Do any of you have experience with a system like I have? ADT Vista 20p - 3G4000 for cell backup, Optimum voice?
What are the conditions that will cause the optimum voice line to cycle like that? an Open? or just a Short?
When the line cycles, does the voltage on the wire drop to zero or below 2.8v? if so, how long does it stay that way during the line cycling?
Any ADT people out there feel free to comment as well.
If the race condition is the problem as opposed to a broken 3G4000RF stuck in simulated landline mode, This also suggests that any time I need to reset the cable modem / router and switch and wait the usual amount of time (15 to 30 seconds) that I will likely trigger this situation all over again.
Thanks.
Chris.
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