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Cake day: November 2nd, 2024

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  • Ademco Vista 6139 keypad.

    As suggested by others, this will be wired back to a bigger box somewhere in the building. Any monitoring devices like door contacts will also be wired back there. Look for any references to the installer - it may still be under a monitoring & maintenance contract.

    If no contract or out of contract, look up some manuals for this series and try getting into engineer mode. I think the default with these is 4110 800 iirc. If you can get engineer, you can put in new user codes for… using your system. It’s likely the engineer code has been changed though.

    So break in. Most boxes are equipped with a tamper switch, so it is likely to scream if you remove the cover. If you decide to do so, switch off the mains supply first. Then remove the cover and immediately disconnect the battery to kill it.

    From here, ID the unit and find the installer or engineer manual. The user manual is useless at this stage. Familiarise yourself with it.

    When you are ready to play, pop the battery back on, restore power and then go immediately back to the keypad to press * and # together. This should reset the engineer code to the above, but retain the rest of the current programming.

    These are old systems and a lot of this is from memory, so YMMV.

    Alternatively, get the codes off the previous owner or replace it with something new. This one could be over 20 years old; vistas started in the 90s.



















  • If a device relies on any kind of external service to initially set up or function thereafter, do not buy. Regardless of brand.

    Or accept that it has a finite lifespan that you cannot control. It’s not a matter of if the rug will get pulled, but when.

    There is a grey area for things that can be reflashed or rebrained, but I prefer to not rely on this. Local access methods like ZigBee, Z-Wave and 433Mhz are immune to this kind of enshittification by design. Even WiFi devices can fit in here, with appropriate restrictions in place.

    An acceptable middle-ground would be for EOL devices to be offered (with a big disclaimer) a final update that removes the reliance on the service but retains the core function. That’s a pipe dream though.


  • Sorry, should have been clear. Lethal allergen tour = bad. Banning completely = also bad.

    My main point was that there is a line between discomfort and danger. That line can move based on the situation, so it is awkward to abstract without getting down to specifics.

    If say 5% of the population suddenly developed a tendency to go into anaphylactic shock on exposure to vanilla, then you could easily see it disappearing from fragrances altogether and becoming a non-problem in that regard. Yet it would still have culinary use and join many friends on the bolded ingredient lists on food.

    There is a turnover point (that I cannot explicitly define) where the onus is on the afflicted to ensure their own safety, rather than the population at large going out of their way to ensure it.

    I am fortunate to have no issues like this. In 5% Vanilla-Death-Land, the smell of the stuff would still give me pause, as I probably know someone who could well die from the idiot that just walked in the door honking of it.

    If the same person instead just brought in a vanilla milkshake, I probably wouldn’t bat an eye.