Lyric Security System: Program Duress User Code

Hi DIYers, Sterling with Alarm Grid here and today we're going to show you how to program a duress user code into the Lyric system. And before we just show you how to do it, we're going to just describe for those that have never used the system or never used a duress feature, what a duress code is. So basically, out of the box, the Honeywell Lyric will come enrolled with two codes. Slot number one code is the installer code and the default code is 4112. Slot number two is the master code and that's by default, 1234. The installer level code or 4112, gets you into the installer level program. The master code of 1234 allows you to arm and disarm the system. Also it allows you to get in the master code level of programming to add users, view event logs, master level events or master level parameters of the programming.

This system also supports sub-user codes. Okay, other codes that can arm and disarm, but not necessarily add other users. That's in case you want to track who's arming and disarming. There's a guest code, which we have a video that describes what that code's all about. And the last available code, slot number 48, is the duress code. And the reason for the duress code is for the type of intrusion or the type of home invasion where you are approached either right outside your door as you're answering or somehow they break in right as you're coming home.

So in this hypothetical situation, the intruder is waiting in the bushes, they see that you come home, they wait for you to put your key and turn the lock and at that moment they spring out. And if they're forcing you with either threat of violence or some sort of weapon, that you better disarm your system or else. So they might realize you have a system, maybe they hear the thing beeping at you, they know that you're in that entry delay period and before the alarm goes off, they're forcing you to disarm the system because they're hoping they're going to defeat the system. No alarms will go out to the central station because once the system is disarmed, the central station thinks that everything is good and no alarms will go out.

So for this type of intrusion, there's the duress code and it's designed for this situation that we hope never actually occurs, but it's always good to have every scenario accounted for. And in this case, when you disarm the system with the special duress code, this system will act like a normal disarm. The intruder will think that they've defeated the system. You did what they wanted you to do, you disarmed it, no alarm went off. However, when you disarm with the duress code, because the system sees that slot 48 user was used, it sends a very special message to the central station. No alarms are shown, no trouble messages are displayed, the intruder in the house thinks the system has been totally defeated.

Meanwhile, the central station gets the duress disarm and they know that they need to call the police immediately and report that as a duress alarm. Now the police are showing up, understanding that there's an intruder in the house and that this is a potentially life threatening situation. They're going to respond differently to that, and the central station, because the duress code was used to disarm, knows exactly how to handle that signal. They're not going to call you to say, "Hey is everything okay?" because now the intruder would be tipped off to "Hey, how did they know you did that?" And you'd be in a bad situation.

So the duress code is a way to secretly send a message to the central station, alerting them that you need help. You can put the duress code in at any time. So even if you're disarmed, if you were to try to disarm again and just type in the duress code, it'll still send the duress code. Okay, so be careful about that. Make sure you know what your duress code is and make sure no one presses it unless they mean to. But if you're in that type of situation we described, and they're prompting you to disarm, using your duress code will be your secret way to tell the central station to send the police immediately, right away, no questions asked.

So now that we understand what the duress code is, and why you would use it, let's show you how to add it. So you hit "security", "tools" and you have to know your master code because any code changes have to be done from the master code level programming. So if you hit 1234, which is the default master, now we're at this screen and hitting "users", shows you "master user", "guest user", "duress user". These are the three master levels codes that are in there by default. The guest and the duress don't actually have a code associated yet, they're just there because they're the special codes that you can use for these special purposes. So when you hit "duress" and "edit", you can see that it's named "duress", this cannot be changed because they don't want anybody ever to be confused about what this code's all about, you can see it's on slot 48, which is the last available user code slot. And if you type "user code", you can select your duress code.

When choosing your duress code, it's very important you choose a code that everybody will remember and especially remember in a very stressful situation. So it can be tough to remember your installer code, your master code, your false alarm verbal code for the central station when they call you. There's a lot of codes to remember. You have a user name and a password for Total Connect. You have a user name and a password for Alarm Grid.

We understand there's a lot of things to remember and that this can be an extra code that's going to be hard to remember. For that reason, it's very, very popular to use 2580 as your duress code. And if you saw how I put that in, you can see why that's a popular code. Stressful situation, gun to your head, someone forcing you to disarm or else, now you're wondering what's the master code, what's my sub-user, what's my special duress. Instead, if you just remember straight down the middle of the keypad, 2580, that's my special message that sends to the central station. That's a very common duress.

Another one that you may want to use is some sequence of the four outside buttons, 1397 or 1793. That's another very popular duress code. I've seen other people just use all the same number. Again, something that you will remember in a stressful situation. It really doesn't matter what you use, and in fact if the criminals start to pick up on the fact that 2580 is a popular one, it may be a reason to use something else. But most criminals aren't going to understand this level of programming and these features. So, we normally recommend 2580 just because it's easy, right down the middle of the keypad.

And once you hit done, and very important, once you hit save, you can now see the duress slot shows a four-digit asterisks code. It's security, it's not showing you the code, but it's letting you know it's there. And if this were to be a code that you used to disarm the system, so if we arm it with 1234, we can hit "disarm" and do 2580, system disarm says "normal". No alarms are triggered, intruder in the house thinks the panel's been defeated, but if monitoring were enabled, that secret message has been sent to the central station and the central station knows to dispatch the police right away so you get the fastest response possible for that type of emergency duress situation.

So we hope you've enjoyed this video on why to use a duress code and how to set up a duress code with your Honeywell Lyric system. If you have any questions on when to you use a duress or how to set it up, please let us know. We'd be happy to help further. And make sure to subscribe to our channel as we'll be releasing many more videos about this revolutionary new Honeywell Lyric system.