Is there a requirement or recommendation for any specific Texecom panel firmware for maximum stability? My own is Premier Elite 48 (V5.04.01LS1) and I’ve always held back updating it on the basis that, even allowing for the odd add-on failure, it more or less worked well most of the time. What are you running on your own panel?
One thing I’m seeing that I wasn’t seeing on the old version is repeated re-securing of zones:
2025-02-25 08:01:12 - INFO: Updating all zone states...
2025-02-25 08:01:12 - INFO: Updating all area states...
2025-02-25 08:01:12 - INFO: Application ready
2025-02-25 08:02:23 - INFO: Dining Room status changed to Active
2025-02-25 08:02:27 - INFO: Dining Room status changed to Secure
2025-02-25 08:02:27 - INFO: Dining Room status changed to Secure
2025-02-25 08:02:27 - INFO: Dining Room status changed to Secure
2025-02-25 08:02:27 - INFO: Dining Room status changed to Secure
2025-02-25 08:02:27 - INFO: Dining Room status changed to Secure
2025-02-25 08:02:27 - INFO: Dining Room status changed to Secure
2025-02-25 08:07:51 - INFO: Dining Room status changed to Active
2025-02-25 08:07:53 - INFO: Dining Room status changed to Secure
It’s a bit anecdotal, but a quick scroll back through the log for the previous version showed a more expected alternate between states:
2025-02-25 07:58:17 - INFO: Dining Room status changed to Active
2025-02-25 07:58:18 - INFO: Dining Room status changed to Secure
2025-02-25 07:59:00 - INFO: Dining Room status changed to Active
2025-02-25 07:59:02 - INFO: Dining Room status changed to Secure
…and I couldn’t see any examples of it repeatedly sending the same state. Is this expected behaviour? FWIW, these additional states don’t appear in the HA entity history so I’d doubt that they would cause any issues (for me anyway).
I’m running Premier Elite 24 (V5.02.01LS1) but it should work on any version v4 or higher. Obviously I can only test on this panel though and there’s 100’s of variations of panel size + firmware + config setup, so the closer you are to my setup the better I guess?
The re-securing of zones is not expected behaviour and it is a little odd to be getting that many updates. Is it happening every time? Could you set the log level to ‘debug’ and send the debug log when it happens?
Thanks Daniel, sounds like I’m in the right area, firmware-wise.
Regarding the odd log entries, I’ll have a play a bit more when I get back home later this week. I’ve just applied the latest 1.3.1 update and it didn’t repeat the odd behaviour on startup, but I’ll wade back through the logs to see if there are any more occurrences and, if necessary, I will try to reproduce it.
I have a Premier Elite 24 and a SmartCom connection. Texecom firmware version is 5.06.00LS1, SmartCom version is 04.01.03.
I only operate my Texecom using this excellent Home Assistant add-on or the physical keypad (I do not use the Texecom iOS app)
Once in a while - maybe every few weeks/months - I get a COM1 fault show on my Texecom keypad. It’s very annoying as to reset this alert I think I need to disconnect the alarm from the mains and battery power so I can force a reboot of the Smartcom.
I think I have disabled Texecom Connect in ARC 1 Protocol of the engineer settings and also block the SmartCom from the internet.
Two questions:
Any ideas why I get this COM1 fault and how I can stop it happening?
Is there a quicker way to clear the COM1 fault if and when it appears?
If the alarm is activated - does disarming in HA stop it, and does it reset - or is it necessary to physically go to a keypad and reset. So if it is activated by a false alarm when I am away from home, can I turn the alarm off and re-arm from HA? Thanks
Still hoping for a response to this question above.
Also - in Home Assistant when I click on the entity it shows arming option is dont use - I can hide them in the alarm card, but if I click on the armed status it opens up the full list. Is there a way to remove unused arming options?
Personal opinion but I would go for the comip. I know it is £40/£50 more but it feels like the better solution - the Smartcom would work but its a more complex device as it is designed to connect to Texecom cloud primarily, not saying that it cant be used for pure ip comms though.
It will also take up two com ports which you may not need now but maybe in the future, it is also a seperate unit that has to be mounted and secured.
The ease of the comip, it being integrated into the alarm panel box and requiring minimal setup makes it a winner for me. Its simple and it works.
I’m using a ComIP for HA integration. it’s installed int he alarm enclosure and is rock solid in my experience.
you can pick them up 2nd hand form ebay for £60 ish
(i also have a SmartCom installed that i use for Wintex and the Texecom app)
Thanks for the input @MSE and @matt-uk you both confirmed what I think I wanted to hear, go for the ComIP. Tidier install in the panel, and a better dedicated device for this add-on.
I ordered one yesterday (couldn’t find any ebay bargains unfortunately).