I’ve previously talked briefly about the new Texecom Capture sensors. This is a new range from Texecom and they are clearly trying to simply the product line and harmonise it as much as possible.
They have also very kindly sent me some to have a look at:
These are the Ricochet (wireless) types, although they have also brought out wired equivalents. They have clearly tried hard to rethink the design and make it as simple and consistent as possible. There are quite a few nice touches – the electronics are all in the front part, so when fitting to the wall you’ve only got the actual plate to deal with. Also they are all switchable between ‘pet tolerant’ and normal which is very handy. I’ve had to replace quite a few sensors since recently getting a cat, and in fact this was the main reason for my wanting to replace the sensors.
The design of things like this is really a matter of taste although personally I like this and it’s nice to see someone trying to do something a little bit different. There is an LED but it is inside the circular section and they aren’t used in the Ricochet devices except for when you first set them up.
The dip switch in the middle is used to select ‘pet mode’, in conjunction with a plastic shutter at the bottom which also needs adjusting (indicated by the arrow).
Then it’s simply a matter of learning it to the Ricochet system. There are a couple of ways of doing this and I’ve covered this before. This time, I used the ‘Learn Ricochet’ menu on the panel with the battery out, and then connecting the battery when prompted by the panel. It automatically sets up a zone with the appropriate profile (‘Guard’).
Overall I think these sensors are really nice. They are very simple to install, it’s great to have the optional pet mode and they look a bit different from the norm.
Universal Discovery Methodology 
Just came across your blog because my Texecom panel is malfunctioning, and I did a google to see if anyone had detailed replacing theirs with a little nano-PC of some kind.
Have you considered replacing your Texecom with an Arduino or Pi? It seems to me that the biggest obstacle would be getting the existing keypad (I have a Premier) talking to the nano-PC, but I’d be very grateful for any insights you have on the topic; I haven’t tinkered with electronics for decades!
This is an interesting idea, although I’d be tempted to ask why. As you say, interfacing with the keypads is likely to be difficult – although it may not be impossible. They use some kind of two wire network protocol, and Texecom may be willing to share the spec of this if you sign an NDA – they have released information about the various programming interfaces in this way. However, it does sound like rather too much like hard work. If I were you, I’d replace your current panel with a new one – they are really very cheap, even the higher end ‘Elite’ panels and much cheaper than a nano-PC. Then if you want to use a PC you can direct your efforts on interfacing – I’ve used the ‘digicom’ output with a simple interface board to get 8 outputs and you can do some clever programming in software to build output conditions. I’m a firm believer in using the best tool for the job and I think if you want an alarm then a dedicated alarm panel is the best place to start. Do let me know how you get on though!
Thanks for the reply, yes, I think I’ll take your advice on this and go the route of least resistance.
One thing that bugged me about my R8 was the awkward & minimalist interface when coming to troubleshoot and look at logs. The idea of having more verbose reports I could read from my PC was very appealing!
Have you looked into the ‘Wintex’ application in conjunction with either a USB or a network connection? You can get all sorts of useful stuff out of this, including exhaustive logs. There are some previous articles on here about how to build an interface very cheaply, although the official ones are now rather cheaper with the coming of the ‘SmartCom’ device.
How reliable are the wireless sensors? We’ve got a Texecom Elite panel all wired, had it for 6 years now and not once had an issue or false alarm, but could do with extending coverage to a garage, as it is a detached garage then getting wire from the house to the garage isn’t easy. What I’m not keen on is making the system more error prone for false alarms. We’ve had two wireless alarms in previous properties (different makes and not Texecom) and they all ended up giving about one or two false alarms a year, usually with some error code complaining about attempts to block the signal or supervisor pings not received.
I’ve had no trouble at all with false alarms, and I do have quite a few wireless sensors scattered around although to be fair they are all inside the house. I did have to experiment slightly with the position of the expander to get the best coverage although my house is a terrace and quite long and thin, and this has caused me issues with anything wireless including Wifi. Now it’s in place though, it’s rock solid. I’ve never had a single false alarm caused by those types of errors and I think it’s a pretty robust protocol. As above I live in quite a crowded area and so there is plenty of RF about (umpteen wifi networks and no doubt quite a few wireless alarms too) but it’s had no problems. Although it’s pretty obvious it is a good idea to have a regular plan for replacing batteries – some of the older sensors are not great at reporting low battery and so often the first thing you know is that the sensor fails with a ‘supervision fault’ error. This doesn’t cause false alarms, but it can cause the system to fail to set and depending on your config you might get an irritating ‘chirp’ from the alarm until it’s corrected. However the battery life is pretty good – about 2 years or so, although less on those that get used a lot (eg front / back door in my case). Like you I was a little sceptical but I’ve been totally won over and I wouldn’t think twice about using it for a garage in your example. I have a garden shed and I keep meaning to try one in there and see if it will reach.
Sounds promising and good to hear no false alarms. So what is the best way to upgrade a Premier Elite 24 (plastic case version) that already has an expander for 8 wired zones? Would it be to buy one of the Texecom Premier Elite 32XP-W Ricochet expanders? …..or maybe it might be better to buy a whole new panel with the Ricochet built in, this avoids a separate box on the wall.
After some research the best way seems to be adding an Elite 32XP-W. The Texecom Premier Elite 64-W with ricochet built in doesn’t have enough hard wired zones for my setup and appears not to be able to support an internal expander card to add more wired zones, so I would still end up with another box on the wall anyway for the hard wired zones. As the 32XP-W just connects to the network the same as the keypads, I should be able to mount it upstairs out the way, which would also help with range.
Yes sounds like a good plan. I don’t think the panels with integrated wireless are very useful if you are replacing a wired system as most will have more than 4 zones. They are really I think intended for new wireless installs with perhaps a couple of wired zones (eg front door) only. I did exactly the same and put the expander in a quiet corner which is closer to the sensors and almost invisible.
Well as it happens there is a post for that 😉 – https://universaldiscoverymethodology.com/2016/03/19/firmware-flash-success/
As you’ll see I got some of these in quite a few years ago, they come in a pack of 5 and I did distribute the other 4 to like-minded people. I _might_ have one or two left.. I’ll have a look. However the details of the pinout are all in the post above and this should be enough for a DIY job if you are so inclined