I have an Qolsys IQ4 panel, which I installed last year, and one of my sensors is only working intermittently (well, it mostly doesn’t work at this point). If you’re looking at my account, I have two human-doors going from the outside into the garage; the “Garage Front” door is the one that’s not working. It worked mostly fine after installing it last year, but once in a blue moon it would occasionally “stick” open or closed. At some point earlier this year, I noticed it had stopped working entirely. For some reason I keep forgetting to get on here and ask for help.
If I tamper the sensor, I hear the panel announce that, then for some period of time afterward it will register events. But eventually it stops working again. Tonight is a good example. I went for a short walk and armed the system. When I got back, I went through the non-working door, but the alarm triggered only after entering the living space through another door at which point it started counting down. Afterward I pulled the cover off of the sensor and replaced it, and it started working again as expected.
I would estimate it’s about 25 feet from the panel. The line of sight from the panel to the sensor runs through my kitchen as well as the door itself, which is metal of some kind (though I don’t think it’s solid. I think the refrigerator would be in between them, and there’s a metal sink and aluminum window, which I assume wouldn’t be a problem. RF-wise my router is in the closet next to the panel.
I installed the system and all of the door sensors in the spring. I noticed the first issues with that sensor a few months later. It would just randomly stay open even though the door was closed. This happened on a handful of occasions and would kind of go away on its own with a few open/shut tries. Either late last year or early this year I started noticing that it would not register when the door was opened. If I tamper the sensor it will work for an while and then stop again. I tampered it yesterday afternoon and it worked a few times, but today it was back to not working.
That does sound like it could be a signaling issue with that particular sensor but it looks like it most recently reported good signal strength to the panel.
Do you have other sensors of the same model? One good test to help troubleshoot and identify when a sensor may be failing is to swap the location of that sensor with another of the same model which is known to be working.
If the problem continues on the same sensor, that suggests an issue with that particular sensor. If the problem occurs at the same location instead on the new sensor, that means there is something about that location or mounting orientation causing an issue.
If you don’t have any of the same sensor, just try bringing that sensor closer to the panel as a test. Open and close it a number of times just by holding it with a magnet. Does it quickly and reliably report open and close?