Converting from simplisafe, a few features I'm missing

[kinesiologist]

hey all,

I converted to surety from simplisafe, and generally speaking am very pleased with the quality of the hardware and the adc platform. however, there are a few minor things i’m noticing that I’m missing from simplisafe and i’m wondering if there are ways to accomplish what I want or if it’s just a deficiency. Fwiw i’m using an qolsys iq 4 panel.

1. the “3 minute delay” of sensor openings.

I greatly rely on the push notifications to let me know when a door is opened. I’m seeing that when a door is opened, I properly get a push notification. However, if the door is opened shortly after that, any push notifications are delayed for ~3 minutes (note that the IQ panel properly alerts when doors are opened but not the ADC platform). Is there anyway around this limitation? Perhaps a different panel? It’s incredibly frustrating because what often happens is 1) my family leaves the house, 2) i set the alarm, 3) i leave the house. and then 2-3 minutes later once we’ve left the house we all get notifications that the front door was opened.

2. Doors being bypassed when I set the alarm.

I can’t seem to quite figure it out but there’s been multiple times I’ve come home and my front door was “bypassed” and so the alarm never went off. You can imagine how scary these feels that I have my house alarmed but the front door is “bypassed.” It seems like if the front door is open when we arm the panel it will automatically be set to be bypassed. I’ve tried to get in the habit of this and I swear even once I armed it with the door closed, left the house, and even still the front door got bypassed. Is there anyway to turn off this bypass functionality entirely? i can’t imagine a scenario happening frequently where I’d want to turn off part of my alarm.

3. seeing the “alarm countdown” in app

in simplisafe, if an alarm was triggered, i could open the app and see the countdown from 60seconds to 0 before the alarm fired. in ADC, the alarm seems pretty “dumb” until the alarm actually fires. Is there a way to identify when the alarm was tripped in the app?

Thanks!

[jwcsurety (Jason)]

1. No, there is no way around this. The 3 minute delay is for like signals from the same sensor and part of the Alarm.com sensor activity monitoring setup. So for instance if someone opens and closes a window 10 times back to back you’ll see the first notification, then one more, 3 minutes later.

How do sensors report Sensor Activity Monitoring statuses?

Description of sensor statuses Status Description Sensor Types That Show This Status OK No alarm, error, or problem has been reported. If it is a door or window, it is closed. If it is a motion sensor, it has not been activated within the last 60 minutes. All Sensors Open The door or window is currently open. Door/Window contact sensors will only display one open/close event every 3 minutes in Alarm.com history for activity monitoring. Repeatedly opening the door will not repeatedly …

2. If a sensor is in an open state at the time you arm the system, the zone will be bypassed. You can turn off auto-bypass so the panel protests the arming instead until you shut the sensor. This is found under Settings > Advanced Settings > Installer Code > Installation > Security and Arming.

3. I am not sure if I fully follow this. Are you referencing the entry or exit delay countdown? It sounds more like you are referencing a Dialer delay countdown.

The purpose of dialer delay is to allow users local to the panel extra time to disarm the system before an alarm would be forwarded to the monitoring station and possibly cause dispatch. It is a false alarm reduction setting. It is optional and can be disabled.

You will see the first alarm trigger, before the countdown expires, listed in your Alarm.com activity page as a Pending alarm. You will then either see a disarm event or a confirmed alarm event if the dialer delay elapses before a disarm.

[kinesiologist]

@jwcsurety

1. No, there is no way around this. The 3 minute delay is for like signals from the same sensor and part of the Alarm.com sensor activity monitoring setup. So for instance if someone opens and closes a window 10 times back to back you’ll see the first notification, then one more, 3 minutes later.

Thanks Jason for the responses. Unfortunate it’s the case but that was my expectation. Regarding #1 above, please consider sending this feedback to whomever necessary if you can. It’s a very frustrating “feature”. Sensor activity for an alarm that is 3 minutes delayed is a huge problem for an alarm service IMO. It’s unfortunate because it seems like the panel is aware of the issues in real time. I guess this is a limitation of the ADC platform?

One other test I just did that I was surprised about: I opened my back door, got the appropriate notification, but when I checked the ADC app, the back door was still marked as “closed”. Should this update in real time as well?

I guess what I’m getting at is I’d love for the ADC app to be the ultimate source of truth as to what’s happening in my house, but it seems that it is not fully trustworthy / always accurate.

[jwcsurety (Jason)]

Happy to forward feedback, though on this particular aspect I would not expect change as it has been the fundamental way activity monitoring works for over a decade now. I can never say for certain what might be changed though, and we are happy to send requests.

Sensor activity for an alarm that is 3 minutes delayed is a huge problem for an alarm service IMO. It’s unfortunate because it seems like the panel is aware of the issues in real time. I guess this is a limitation of the ADC platform?

So one thing to keep in mind, this has no impact on alarm monitoring. If you arm your system and a sensor trips the alarm, sensor activity delays have no impact on that. The alarm signal will be immediately sent and processed in ADC.

Your panel controls the state of whether it is in alarm or not, and yes it will always have the current active state of the sensors. That is expected. If the panel does not reflect the current state of the sensor, that always means something is wrong.

Alarm.com is not deciding when an alarm occurs based on system data. The panel determines the alarm state and sends that to ADC. Alarm status is a completely separate status from Open or Closed or Activated or Idle, etc., which is sent by the panel to Alarm.com.

The activity monitoring delay (applying to open/close statuses while the system is disarmed) is purposeful, and will always be 3 minutes for door/window sensors.

One other test I just did that I was surprised about: I opened my back door, got the appropriate notification, but when I checked the ADC app, the back door was still marked as “closed”. Should this update in real time as well?

If the door was already opened and closed within 3 minutes prior, this would be expected. If you already had the app open and did not refresh the page, yeah that would be expected.

The brains of your system are in your alarm panel. The Alarm.com app is relaying information to you that the panel sends. Alarm.com adds additional data processing, notifications, integrated features, automation, etc.

[kinesiologist]

Makes sense. appreciate the info. I realize that the 3 minute thing may be a fundamental limitation of how the system was designed and my feedback will likely fall into the abyss somewhere, but i still contend it’s a poor user experience imo. Any other alarm system i’ve used (simplisafe, ring, etc) all give real time notifications of activity. the 3 minute delay causes confusion/frustration to both me and my whole family. hopefully at some point ADC can rearchitect around this limitation.

thanks again.

[jwcsurety (Jason)]

We love feedback on improving things, I’m sending this to ADC with the comparison of other services.