What motion sensor is recommended for 2Gig systems? Interior, not concerned with pets, but don’t want false alarms.
I tried a GoControl WAPIRZ-1 but it wouldn’t even register as a sensor. I tried it as a Z-wave device, and it wouldn’t work either. Maybe it’s defective, but the reviews I started seeing suggest it’s not a very good one anyways.
Also, do I need to do anything during configuration to ensure they are only active when in “Away” mode (not “Stay” mode), or is that implicit with the sensor type “interior follower”?
The WAPIRZ is not compatible with the 2GIG Panel because it is a z-wave sensor. Z-wave sensors are not typically compatible with alarm systems. The 2GIG panel uses 345Mhz sensors.
When it comes to 2GIG compatible motion sensors, it’s hard to go wrong with the 2GIG-PIR1-345 motion detector.
Interior Follower is all you would need for the sensor to be only active in “Away” Mode.
I have the 2Gig-PIR1-345 but having trouble with it. I have it configured in the panel as “do not report”, and it does show up on ADC. I setup an email notification when it’s activated - “When sensor opens or activates”. I have not “installed” the sensor to the final location - right now I just have it sitting on top of a picture frame on the wall for testing.
The problem is that it reported “Activated” once, and now is stuck in the “Activated” state and it’s been days. That isn’t how I expected it to work. I even put it in a closed cabinet and it still has not returned to an Idle state.
However, in ADC I still don’t get notifications and it still permanently shows as “Activated”. I’m assuming that after a certain amount of inactivity, it should go to “Closed” or “Inactive” or whatever the idle state is for motion sensors.
However, in ADC I still don’t get notifications and it still permanently shows as “Activated”. I’m assuming that after a certain amount of inactivity, it should go to “Closed” or “Inactive” or whatever the idle state is for motion sensors.
ADC only receives what the panel sends, notifications are sent based on reported activity by the panel. Have you tried removing the sensor’s battery, then replacing?
Also note that if the detector is in a location with fairly constant activity, it might not go idle.
Also, as a long shot Do you happen to have a wireless signal repeater for your 2gig sensors? (more to the point, are you using two perhaps?)
ADC only receives what the panel sends, notifications are sent based on reported activity by the panel. Have you tried removing the sensor’s battery, then replacing?
I removed/replaced the battery. I did get Tamper/End of Tamper notifications, but ADC is back to permanently showing the sensor as “ACTIVATED” and providing any notifications when there is activity.
o note that if the detector is in a location with fairly constant activity, it might not go idle.
Already tested against that by putting in a cabinet, and ADC still says “Activated”. Besides, when I did the Sensor Test it seemed to not trip until there was movement (though there was a disappointing delay before it reported).
Also, as a long shot Do you happen to have a wireless signal repeater for your 2gig sensors? (more to the point, are you using two perhaps?)
I’m certain there is at most one. During installation, something was installed to wirelessly connect the wired sensors built into the house with the 2gig panel - nothing else.
Besides the System Test, is there a way on the panel to see if it thinks the sensor is in a triggered state? I’m going to try enabling chime or voice to see if that provides any more information. At this point, I see these possibilities:
the sensor is constantly reporting motion to the panel, so it never sends a “deactivated” event to ADC. This seems unlikely given what I’ve already seen in sensor test
there is a flaw in the panel’s communication to ADC with motion sensors.
there is a flaw in ADC’s processing of events from the panel.
I’m not sure how I could evaluate if it was #2 or #3, unless I can figure out how to see what the panel thinks the sensor state is.
UPDATE: using the “voice” test I found that no matter where I placed the sensor, the panel reported the trigger event approx every 5 minutes.
I put it in a bathroom and closed the door - it kept triggering
I put it in a cabinet and closed the door - it kept triggering
So maybe it’s defective?
I only received one ADC notification after letting it sit for a while.
Keep in mind it depends on how often you are looking for a trigger. Motion detectors are not commonly used for instant notifications (not frequent ones anyway)
Mount the detector, set up a notification for activity monitoring. Ignore the activated status at the moment. That will remain for a long while to indicate activity has occurred when looking at the status of the system. (Up to 40 minutes or so)
Wait outside of motion detector view for 5 minutes, then trip the sensor. Do you get a notification?
Wait 30 minutes outside of motion detector view, then trip the sensor. Do you get another notification?
If you do not get notifications, try programming the sensor as a contact, rather than motion.
Programming as a contact will cause alarm.com to look specifically for open/close, with a 3 minute delay between the history reports of the same signal. Set up the notification again and test the same way. Any change in operation?
The PIR1 I was using previously was definitely defective (constantly reporting activated, as described above, regardless of stimuli). I got a replacement and it is working.
Furthermore, behavior matches what you are telling me it should do, which is great since it’s apparently undocumented:
the panel will only report the sensor again after 3.5 minutes
when set as type “motion”, ADC will report the notification once and list the sensor as ACTIVATED for about an hour, before reverting to IDLE.
when set as type “contact”, ADC will report the notification as quickly as every 3.5 minutes
The second one is important to know, since at first I thought the new one was broken too. So thank you!
FOLLOWUP QUESTION
How can I configure ADC to only report a notification if the system is armed “Away”? Right now, if setup a Sensor Activity notification, the only condition I have is time. So it will be very noisy when in a high traffic location.
Explanation: I’m paranoid of false positives - I don’t want to be away from the house then find out an alarm tripped but not have any way to confirm it’s valid. E.g. insect, sudden temperature change. That’s why, at least until I add cameras, I’m using “no response type”.
My understanding is in other alarm setups, there are multiple motion detectors and normally an alarm event would be ignored unless more than one “zone” triggered. Perhaps I’m not thinking about this the right away.
How can I configure ADC to only report a notification if the system is armed “Away”?
Unfortunately you cannot do that currently. As a no response sensor, any activation will report to ADC and any one of those will generate a notification (with the previously mentioned delays to avoid excess signalling.)
You can also add another delay filter under “Notification Filtering” to only send notifications for a certain sensor every so often. That way, high traffic won’t equate to high volume.
My understanding is in other alarm setups, there are multiple motion detectors and normally an alarm event would be ignored unless more than one “zone” triggered. Perhaps I’m not thinking about this the right away.
Cross-zoning is an option with 2GIG, though it is specific to zones 47 and 48. If Cross-zoning is enabled, it treats sensors programmed into zone 47 and 48 the way you describe. Both must trip in an allotted period of time to register as an alarm.
This can be used in an area which causes false alarm concern, allowing two motion detectors to supervise each other for false positives.
See Programming Q33 to enable cross zoning, and Q34 to set the timeout period (10 to 120 seconds)