First make sure you have watched the videos about configuring your system for the AlarmDecoder.

This video discusses panel configuration as well as physical connection to the alarm system.

This video discusses connecting your AlarmDecoder to a PC.

This video discusses connecting your AlarmDecoder to a Mac.

Troubleshooting Steps

1. Does the AlarmDecoder have power?
   • Make sure the LED on the AlarmDecoder is flashing about once per second.
   • Check your power connections if you do not see the LED flashing.
2. Does the connected computer show an attached device?
   • Windows: Confirm the device is present in the Device Manager.
     • On some installs of windows it is necessary to enable the VCP option for the driver.
   • OSX/Linux: Check your syslog and look in /dev.
3. Can you communicate with the device with a terminal program?
   1. Open the device with your favorite terminal program. We suggest one of the following:
      • Windows: PuTTY
        1. Select the Serial option.
        2. Enter the COM port number. You can look this up in Device Manager.
        3. Enter the speed.
           • AD2USB & AD2Pi: 115200
           • AD2Serial: 19200
        4. Click Open
      • OSX/Linux: screen
        1. Open a terminal
        2. Locate your device by checking syslog or your /dev directory
        3. Execute screen [device] [baudrate]
           • Baudrate:
             • AD2USB & AD2Pi: 115200
             • AD2Serial: 19200
   2. Confirm that you can reboot your Alarm Decoder by typing: =
   3. Make sure you cleanly exit your terminal program.
      • PuTTY: Click the X
      • screen: Ctrl + A + K
4. Are you seeing messages from your panel?
   1. Confirm that the AlarmDecoder is wired correctly to your panel. See the videos above or the quickstart document.
   2. Confirm that you (or your alarm company) have added a keypad to your panel for the AlarmDecoder.
   3. Confirm the correct keypad address is configured on the device by typing ! and going through the prompts.
5. Can you send key presses to the panel?
   1. Type * (asterisk) You should see Sending.done and the panel should respond with the current status.
      • There may be up to five periods between 'Sending' and 'done'. If there are five the keypress has timed out and you should confirm your wiring.