How to Adjust the Brightness on a DSC Keypad (PowerSeries Neo and PK5500)
The backlight on a DSC keypad is adjustable, and the setting is buried two levels into the user menu, which is why nobody finds it. Whether the keypad is too bright in a dark hallway at night or too dim to read in a sunny kitchen, the fix takes about twenty seconds and the same keystrokes work on the current PowerSeries Neo keypads and the older PowerSeries LCD keypads still in thousands of Utah homes.
- Your master code. Not a regular user code. The user menu that holds the brightness setting opens only for the master code.
- The system disarmed.
- An LCD keypad: PowerSeries Neo HS2LCD or HS2LCDRF, or a classic PowerSeries PK5500 or LCD5500. LED-only keypads have a different, smaller menu; see the note at the end.
The steps
- Open the user menu. With the system disarmed, press [*] then [6], then enter your master code. The display changes to the user functions menu.
- Scroll to Brightness Control. Use the < and > scroll keys until the display reads Brightness Control (Neo keypads may show it as Bright Control). Press [*] to select it.
- Set the level. Use the scroll keys to raise or lower the backlight. The keypad changes as you go, so stop where it looks right. Neo keypads offer fifteen levels; the older LCD keypads a handful.
- Exit. Press [#]. The setting is saved.
While you are in that menu, two neighbours are worth knowing. Contrast Control fixes an LCD that looks washed out or too dark regardless of backlight, and Buzzer Control sets how loud the keypad’s own beeps are, which is the setting people actually want when they say the keypad is “too loud at night.”
Watch it done
One minute, narrated, with the keys highlighted as they are pressed. On a phone, the vertical version is the same walkthrough.
If it did not work
- The code was refused. It has to be the master code. If you only have a user code, the person who set the system up has the master code, and if that was us, call the office and we will walk you through it after verifying the account.
- You cannot find Brightness Control in the list. Keep scrolling; the user menu also holds time and date, auto-arm, system test and a few installer-enabled items, and the order varies by firmware. On a Neo keypad the keypad settings sit near the end of the list.
- The keypad goes dark after a minute anyway. That is the backlight timer, a separate installer setting. Some systems are programmed to dim the keypad when idle to save power. We can change it on a service visit or, on monitored Alarm.com systems, remotely.
- You have an LED keypad (PK5508, PK5516, HS2LED). The display is a row of lights, not words, so there is no brightness list to scroll. These keypads have a fixed backlight, and the practical fix for a too-bright bedroom keypad is a different keypad or a relocation.
Still on a DSC keypad with no app? Most DSC PowerSeries and Neo panels can be connected to Alarm.com with a communicator and no rewiring, which adds phone control, notifications and professional monitoring on top of the keypad you already have. Our guide to upgrading older panels explains how, and monitoring starts here.
Shield Low Voltage installs and services DSC, Qolsys and Honeywell alarm systems with Alarm.com monitoring across Utah County, Salt Lake County and the Wasatch Back. Related: why your panel is beeping and how to change the master code.
