By Stephen Bowen
Manager of the DMP Call Center
Keypad Bus addressing is something that's often referred to with phrases like "I don't understand," "This is complicated" and "Where is zone 46?" Other than a few phrases to remember, what if I told you Keypad Bus addressing was as easy as drawing this picture? A column for the Device number, another column for the device's Zone number, then put the two numbers together and you have the Keypad Bus Zone #.
Each device slot can have up to four zones on it. The zone number will be the Keypad Bus device number plus a 1, 2, 3 or 4. That means you won't have a zone ending with a 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 0 on the Keypad Bus. (The XTL panel family uses wireless only so does not conform to the Keypad Bus addressing structure.)
Each device slot takes up four zones. For example: A 711 Single Zone Expansion Module is one device and takes up four zone slots. If it was set to address 2, the zone would be 21, and you would not be able to add 22-24 on the Keypad Bus because the 711 takes the entire device slot.
Each four zones take up a device slot. For example: A 714-16 Zone Expansion Module has sixteen zones, so it takes four device slots. If it was set to address 2, the zones would be 21-24, 31-34, 41-44, and 51-54 and you would need to program devices 2-5 in Device Setup.
*Note: Be sure not to overlap devices. If your keypad is address 1, don't make an expander address 1. If you are using 12 zones on a 16-zone expander addressed as 2, it uses device addresses 2, 3, 4, 5 so do not put another device on address 5. That's it, that's all there is to Keypad Bus addressing.