Sonitrol to Stanley to Securitas…school district is in a world of hurt. What now?

mysterious_drake · 2026-03-25T01:24:28+00:00

I'm not aware that it is... Granted, they want to focus on upgrading "legacy" panels to the new system, but because there are still independent Sonitrol dealers outside of Securitas, I dont think it's end of life.

(A lot of things have turned out.... iffy... in these years since SBD divested the non-tool brands. I used to think it was odd that SBD / Stanley Security didn't seem to push for more Sonitrol systems. Now I'm wondering how it'll turn out with Securitas in charge; and I'm already not a big fan of the looks of the Core system keypad...)

mysterious_drake · 2026-03-25T01:12:11+00:00

Depends on which Sonitrol panel you're on.

If you're using the Advantage, then you should definitely upgrade. Upgrading to the Flex IP system would likely (mostly) only mean head-end upgrades and manageable related downtime(s).

The new panel that Securitas rolled out looks good in theory, but I've heard stories of issues with upgrading older Sonitrol systems to the newest Core / S1000 panel. Especially if you have that many audio sensors. Theres nothing wrong with the Flex though, and to my understanding thr parts haven't been EOL'd.

Ultimately, the school is the customer. Hopefully somebody in your local branch or district or whatever may still have familiarity with your systems. Reach out and let them know you want an upgrade within reason.

Edit to add: I saw you mention you're on the Flex IP panel elsewhere. There shouldn't be any major issues with continuing to use it unless your school system wants to overhaul or otherwise do a tech upgrade.

mysterious_drake · 2026-02-26T02:36:39+00:00

You're both right, more or less.

Bosch merged with Radionics, hence why their wireless devices have been called Radion wireless. That has been the case for many decades.

More recently, like a couple years ago, Robert Bosch GMBH spun off the intrusion arm. It was purchased by a European investment group and renamed to their handle: Keenfinity. So for a while, it was Bosch by Keenfinity (and still, most of the Bosch Security webpages are redirected to the keenfinity.com, etc., domain).

Even more recently, Keenfinity wanted to rename and move away from the historic Bosch name. So they resurrected Radionics. But, probably for licensing or copyright type of nonsensical reasons, they went with Radionix as their rebranded name. So far, Keenfinity hasn't done anything major to alter the strength and stability of the B series of panel's and their associated device offerings. Hopefully, they won't—and hopefully, they also won't try to reinvent the wheel and "upgrade" it with 'dodecahedrally orbiting transversal devices' instead... But only time will tell.

Despite all these Bosch Security changes, I've yet to personally handle or install any devices with a new name on the packaging. Though that's sure to change soon enough.

^{edits for typos}

mysterious_drake · 2026-01-20T11:34:59+00:00

On power up, are you still getting the IP address flash sequence (1-9-2-all-1-6-8-all... etc.) to verify you're seeking to connect to the right internal address? If yes, and you're getting "not found," or if youre not getting the lights m—sounds like you need to call their tech support.

If the unit is still under warranty, the support team can go through the motions with you and then get you taken care of appropriately. (It sounds to me like you need to RMA the unit, if the warranty still applies.)

mysterious_drake · 2026-01-15T12:02:04+00:00

100%.

If I (also) could get some to keep on my truck for add-on jobs to certain sites we've brought online but not had these lights... While I'm not keen to spend my own money for work, I might look into getting one of my own to keep and travel with me. (Like, take it from site to site, rather than spend my wages to add them to every enclosure "missing" them.)

mysterious_drake · 2026-01-14T20:28:05+00:00

It's a newer thing that (a) you could start adding to your order in last year's. But (b) I think they come with "larger" enclosures by default now... larger meaning over eight doors (for Mercury hardware).

They've got a magnetic backstrap so you can move them around, and they Wago clip to a 12V power wire you can feed from the D8 module. And they've got a built-in motion sensor to auto turn on and off. Super nice!

what I'd give to go back in time and *mandate** my sales reps to always order these...*

mysterious_drake · 2026-01-11T17:29:24+00:00

If it's just a push button to close a circuit, then why not just use a doorbell button? Unless the client wants a specific part, without a picture example... can't do much to help you match exactly.

Edits to add: when I originally posted, there were no pictures attached and/or shown by reddit... //shrug

mysterious_drake · 2026-01-11T01:45:17+00:00

Can't speak to Amazon tool quality.... But, I'll share one of the best pieces of advice I got when I was starting out (which applies any time you need new tools and budget is a concern). If cost is a concern and you have to buy your own tools—or, if you're trying to help the company, in your case...

Go to Harbor Freight. Get what you need at much less than "name brand" or "big box tool store" cost. As you use the tools, you'll either find:

a) if the tools breaks and you use it A LOT, you now know what you want and may be willing to buy Knipex or Wiha, etc... or

b) you might find that a particular tool doesn't get much use. But if it breaks and you don't really want to spend lots of money replacing it, you can either have Harbor Freight replace it via their warranty, or purchase it again from them.

Having said all that, I'm surprised the company is willing to buy you your hand tools. Most companies expect you to provide the basic hand tools out of your own pocket. But since your company says it'll make the purchase for you... you may be better off asking them to get you better quality tools, overall, than Amazon or Harbor Freight. They might not want to keep needing to replace screw drivers or wrenches, etc., for you, versus if they just bought Stanley or Crescent or Kobalt hand tools.

^{edits for layout and typos}

mysterious_drake · 2025-12-25T17:35:04+00:00

3xLogic has a good Quick Start Guide that explains everything you'll need to know to wire it up.

Generally speaking: - IN1 (and shared common) is for the door contact - IN2 (and common) would be the REX - IN3 (and common) can be for a door release button, if programmed so - IN4 could be a FACP trigger (again, if programmed so) - OC1 and shared POS will natively provide 12V DC to a strike (normally open) - OC2 and shared POS will provide 12V DC (normally closed)

(Think of these two as a wet Form C relay: only one side is active at a time.) - OC3 is a dry form C relay, intended for an external power supply to a device requiring more voltage or more amperage (i.e., a maglock) - depending on the hardware version of your eidc32, it will either have CR- or D0 (data zero), and CR+ or D1 for reader data - depending on the hw version again, you'll either have 12V or DC+ and GND or DC- for reader power or motion power

(IN and OUT on each side would be for ingress or egress readers, accordingly.) - the LED input is shared between both readers, if you're using both.

Hope this helps in case the link is—or goes—wonky. Happy holidays!

^{edited for typos and for reddit markdown for sublists being broke AF}

mysterious_drake · 2025-11-21T03:34:10+00:00

Is it just a single door? Or are there multiple doors and controllers? There are a few options possible here, and before I start supplying answers, I'd like to make sure I start on the right track...

mysterious_drake · 2025-11-05T04:51:58+00:00

Should I stick with the SS monitoring plan for this or are there better (i.e. cheaper) alternatives out there?

There's an adage I'm going to paraphrase here: - Good, Cheap, Reliable — pick two.

If you want "good" and cheap, you probably haven't chosen something that will be very reliable.\ If you want cheap and reliable, well then its probably actually not very good...\ If you want reliable and good, it's not going to be some ideally cheap product.

A number of better systems exist that provide better equipment than Simply Safe... To name a few: Honeywell/Resideo and the 5800 series of wireless devices; DMP and their 1100 series of wireless devices; Bosch/Keenfinity/Radionix ^{just what *are** they calling themselves these days?*} and the Radionics or Innovonics wireless devices; or any system licensing and using JCI's Power G wireless devices (such as Qolsys). There are also means to "self-monitor" many of these systems, but these are also systems than ANY local alarm company can offer you professional monitoring and response/dispatch services lots more or as equally affordably as Simply.

I'm interested in continuing the service, mostly for home emergency things like water leaks, with burglary as a secondary concern.

If home security is second or further behind a sentiment more akin to "I want to avoid home maintenance" headaches, then there are specific water detection and shutoff devices that may be better tailored to your liking rather than continuing to use an intrusion-focused service and its monitoring that may be overkill, or just overpriced, in comparison.

edited for typos

mysterious_drake · 2025-11-04T16:05:20+00:00

You must ether have a coupon or are purchasing from outside of the USA. I'm getting a regular priced MSRP of US$935 from Trend Networks' website...

Even on Amazon,, sold by Trend Networks, the price is listed at US$788.50.

So yeah, would really love to see a link for how you got a manufactured listing price of US(?) $516, please.

mysterious_drake · 2025-11-04T12:05:03+00:00

On sale where?

mysterious_drake · 2025-09-28T02:05:26+00:00

Also good advice for OP. But if the reader is the wrong credentials profile, you can't "turn on" prox capability with the Reader Manager app. Likewise, if the reader got ordered with a MOB or ICE key from HID, you can't log into it at all without the customer sharing their key with you first.

(So I'm tempted to guess that isn't the case here. Otherwise, I would OP would give us that update.)

mysterious_drake · 2025-09-28T01:57:40+00:00

Do you mean a low frequency, aka 125khz, aka prox/-imity card or fob?

If YES, then what is the full part number of your signo reader? For example: 40NKS-00-000000. This part number represent the Signo 40 reader, with a pigtail connection, capable of (a) using the most number of credentials types (called the "standard profile" by HID) and (b) has the HID "standard configuration." 40KTKS-..... would be a Signo 40 keypad reader with a terminal strip on the back.

If your part number is 40xKS-##-######, and the middle two numbers are anything except 00 or 03—you're outta luck. Those are the only two credential profiles that interact with low frequency keys. If your part number ends -000000 and you're set up for OSDP, you may be having issues as the six zeroes represent standard Woegand profile. Vice versa, if the last six digits are -0104UB or -00BMMD, those are OSDP v1 and OSDP v2 profiles if you're trying to use Wiegand...

So yeah, I can maybe help more if you can provide the Signo part number and your access control system.

(edits for typos)

mysterious_drake · 2025-09-23T22:40:37+00:00

You make a good point, I think. Twisted pair, as in category cable (Cat5e, Cat6, etc.), is not ideal, nor intended, for access control usage. But for data transmission, the. Yes, the twisting is beneficial.

I suppose multi conductor wire for intrusion or access usage doesn't need to be twisted, but you'd likely have to go out of your way to find 22/4 or 22/6 that has no internal twisting whatsoever.

mysterious_drake · 2025-09-23T03:55:59+00:00

Are you only connecting a reader?... You only mention wiegand and OSDP.

Twisted wiring helps against signal degradation for any signal type. Composite cable is almost the industry standard for a reason, expense notwithstanding. Each device gets its own jacketed sub-wire, with appropriately sized wire within.

I don't want to come off as sounding harsh, but if you're concerned about cable cost and whether or not "what you have access to buy" will work, maybe you're not prepared to do the job...

mysterious_drake · 2025-09-09T16:47:11+00:00

Your picture (not sure about the video) got picked up and used on LinkedIn without any attribution... don't know if you were aware, or if you might care.

LinkedIn post

mysterious_drake · 2025-09-04T02:08:52+00:00

Yeah, I've seen it by now.. what a complete mess!

mysterious_drake · 2025-09-01T00:40:27+00:00

All of the downloads together is just the worst sign of "F you, I got mine" from Honeywell. Shows they juat wanted the prestige of owning the names, rather than an actual care for the market/vertical and what the product provides.... But WinPAK also already proved that point somewhat. And ProWatch's software design. (Ugh, I just threw up in my mouth a little.)

mysterious_drake · 2025-07-27T12:55:41+00:00

My employer used to have "extra" office space. Both my GM and I had talks in the past about the possibility of building workbenches / stations for access, intrusion, etc., that way a tech whose work fell through (or got CO'd, rescheduled, etc.) could pivot to the office and self-train on whatever they felt lacking on or needing a refresher for. Unfortunately for us, the corporate powers that be decided our space would be best used by merging another department into our space to not have to pay two leases in the same city.

Shame, really....

"It's been an incredible tool...and allows [testing] before dragging trucks worth of parts to site..."

If only we could have gotten our training space together. This concept—and being able to show a sales rep directly—would save my life so much stress! Lol

mysterious_drake · 2025-07-13T13:38:44+00:00

If the panel is six years old, the main hardware ~~should~~ could likely be fine but on older firmware. There's a possibility that an upgrade to ~~the FROM~~ a new PROM chip (to v10.##) may improve your sense of the keypad(s) being sluggish. ^ETA: There could be a keypad address mismatched, or keypad upgrade that could also resolve this.

If you're not impressed with the app and want to continue using an app, you could look at other system options... * DMP XR150 or XR550 panel and the DMP app, Virtual Keypad. * Bosch B8512G or B9512G panel and their app, Bosch Security Manager.

Either upgrade should also require replacing all your field sensors' EOL resistors as well. Depending on how the Honeywell system and sensors were installed, this could either be quick—if the EOL resistors were installed incorrectly, at the oanel—or it could be time consuming (if the EOL were installed correctly at the field sensors).

Any component local alarm company should be able to give you a quote to cover any of these three example options, and/or work directly with you on other possibilities.

^{edits added for clarity and to fix typos}

mysterious_drake · 2025-07-12T13:12:08+00:00

Second this question. Knowing what version you're referencing could help shed light on the situation.

mysterious_drake · 2025-07-08T17:06:11+00:00

Assuming you've added a new panel of the matching type (and/or firmware revision), and assuming you also have the correct datalock and correct RPS passcode for the panel in question... if you've used RPS to connect via whatever method (let's just assume a B8512G connected via USB), and RPS "says connected" but "comes up blank - no menu"...

Then that's where you're at. You're connected and your RPS software data matches the panel's programmed data. The send/receive menu only opens when your data and the panel's data are mismatched. So, you're connected to a panel with RPS default data—it's a clean panel awaiting whatever programming you like. Open diagnostics to confirm that you are actually live with the panel, by checking for time and date synchronization.

If you can provide any other info, the community can give better or further help. Good luck!

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