Lyric Security System: Program Guest Code

Hi DIYers. Sterling with alarm grid here and today we're going to show you how to use and set up the guest code for the Honeywell Lyric system. If you're familiar with Honeywell security systems, whether its the older...well not older, but the traditional Vista security systems, or the Lynx Plus or Lynx Touch systems, you may already know or have heard about a babysitter code. The Lynx Touch panels changed the name from babysitter to guest, but it's all the same idea.

It's a special user code that can arm and disarm the system, however it can only disarm the system if that particular code was used to arm it, alright? I like the phrasing "babysitter" better than "guest", because a lot of people will enable the guest code for their neighbor, that they want to have access to arm and disarm no matter what. And when they do that, they find out that there's some limitations with the guest code. So it used to be better to be calling it the babysitter code because it made a little more sense. But just keep in mind that the guest user slot is the babysitter code or it's the special guest code. And again, it can arm and disarm, but it can only disarm if that particular code was used to arm.

So, the reason I like "babysitter" as a better phrase is because of this scenario. You and the Mrs. invite the babysitter over. You're going to go on a date and leave the kids behind. You give the babysitter the babysitter or the guest code, okay? It's a special four digit code unique, separate from your installer code, or your master code, or any sub-user codes.

You tell the babysitter code what that code is, and then you guys go to dinner. You leave the system disarmed because the babysitter's there with the kids. If the babysitter wants to take the kids out for ice cream, they can leave and they can arm with the guest code, alright? Now the system is secure when they leave. You would, of course, encourage your babysitter to do that so your house is secure while they take the kids out for an errand. When they come back, because they used their code, because they don't know any other codes, they'll be able to disarm with that code and the system will disarm and they'll be back in the house, they can rearm it to stay mode. And when you guys come home, you can disarm with your master code.

A master code can disarm a guest or babysitter code arming, alright? Now, tomorrow, you guys go to work, you arm it to the master code user, because that's what you guys used to arm and disarm. And now you don't have to wonder if that babysitter comes back tomorrow and says, "Man, they had a lot of nice stuff in that house. They gave me a code that I can use to arm and disarm their system and now that they trust me because I'm their babysitter, I'm going to come in and break in and use my code and they're never going to even know." If they try to do that, and you've armed it with the master code, their babysitter code or guest code will not disarm the system and the alarm will go off, and police will go out, and you'll be protected. So that scenario of a babysitter situation to me makes a lot of sense for why to use this guest code, and that's why I like the phrasing "the babysitter". But basically, in this panel it's called "guest". And again, it's just a special code that can arm and disarm, but can only disarm if that particular code was used to arm.

So if you gave it to your housekeeper, as long as you have your master code that you're using on a day-to-day basis, on the day when the cleaning lady comes, you're going to arm it instead with the guest code. And because you've armed it with the guest code, you can give the house cleaner that code. And the system, having been armed with that code, they can then come and disarm with that code and they'll have access to the house, they clean, they do their thing. You tell them, "On your way out, you arm with that same code." And again, they'll be able to leave, of course they'd be able to come back. But, once you guys come back, you can disarm with the master, or a sub-user, or the guest code. The system will disarm and again, once you arm it back with the master code, the guest code will no longer allow the system to disarm.

So, now that we've explained the guest code and alternatively called the babysitter code and how it works, let's show you how to set it up. The thing you'll need to set it up is your existing master code and by default that master code is one, two, three, four. So you type that in and you're on this master level programming screen, and from this screen you can hit "users", and then if you highlight "guest" and hit "edit", you'll see out of the box "default", this guest box is here. You cannot delete this box. You can hit "delete", but nothing happens. This is because it's a hard coded special user, alright?

So there's no four digit code assigned yet, but it's there, it can't be removed. And when you hit "edit", you can see as guest it's slot 47, and if you hit the user code, you can type any code you want. In this case we're going to do nine, eight, seven, six. When we hit "done", we can now see we have four asterisks letting us visually see that a guest code has been enabled and making sure we hit "save". If we hit this return arrow, we've just undone everything we did. But hitting "save" locks it in. And now all of these three codes are set up because we have asterisks.

So we have our master, we have our guest, we have our duress, alright? You can add new sub-users and we have a video on how to do that. Those sub-users could arm or disarm, no matter who armed the system. With the guest code, they're only disarming if the guest was used. So we're going to show you that now.

So we've gone over in detail how it works and why it works, and now we're going to show it to you. So the master code is one, two, three, four. We arm with one, two, three, four, and if we try to disarm with the guest, it doesn't work. It still says, "Armed away, exit now." We're still on our countdown. It didn't give us an error message, it just didn't work. It would be the same thing as if we tried a code that wasn't programmed at all. So when the master is used to arm, the guest code doesn't do anything at all, alright? But if we then disarm with the master, systems's disarmed, ready to arm. We're good to go.

So, if we arm it now with the guest, nine, eight, seven, six. Same idea, system arms. If we try to disarm with one, two, three, four, it would disarm because that's a master. And if we're the guest or the babysitter and we're coming back from an errand with the kids, because we armed it with nine, eight, seven, six...or, if I'm the cleaning lady, because the homeowner armed it when they left for work with this code knowing I'm coming, hitting nine, eight, seven, six will disarm the system. And if you look in the event log of the panel, which is master level programming, you can see that when we armed it with the master code, it reported it as user two. When we disarmed, it reported as master user two and then when we armed it with the guest, it reported it as user 47. And because the guest code was used to arm, that same guest code was then able to disarm the system, which also reported as user 47.

So it's a unique code that allows you to give limited access to people that should only have access to the home at various times. So you can't tell the system to use this code between these hours. But based on the code that you used to arm the system last, you can allow certain people that wouldn't otherwise have access to the home to be able to come in and disarm the system without the alarm going off. So we hope you've enjoyed that explanation of the guest code. Again, alternatively it's called the babysitter code in other systems. And you now know how to enable a guest code and how you would use a guest code to help you use your Lyric system better. So, we hope you've enjoyed that, if you have any questions on setting up a guest code please let us know, we're happy to help. And we invite you to subscribe to our channel so that you're updated on all of these new videos about this great new revolutionary Honeywell Lyric system.