My back door sensor sent multiple “tamper” and “end of tamper” alerts last Sunday so I replaced the battery. I thought this solved the problem but I still did get 3 alerts this week. Any ideas?
What make/model is the sensor?
Do the tampers correspond with opening/closing the door or do they occur randomly?
I can’t say for certain from a photo of the cover, but it looks like a Honeywell 5816 sensor. There is a fairly large tamper switch inside, should be just above the battery on yours on the right side. Can you open the sensor and check that the tamper switch is not bent/bowed? If it is only being partially pressed down you could have intermittent tamper alerts.
Can you pop the cover off and take a pic of the inside? Including any stickers or labels that might have identifying info? You should also be able to see the tamper switch when the cover is off to look for any visible damage.
It’s just random alarms last week but none this week yet. The sensor is securely attaced to the door jamb and the tamper switch is not broken.
Was it much colder last week? Do you have a draft nearby that sensor? Cold temps approaching or beyond the low end of the operating temperature range might cause problems.
Being securely attached to the door frame wouldn’t stop certain physical causes. If the tampers are intermittent and resolve quickly, vibration from closing the door may be a potential cause. Typically this wouldn’t happen unless the switch or cover was loose/faulty.
Yes, it was very cold that week. I’ll check the door seals for any leak.
I’m back because I received a barrage of "tamper alert " from the back door sensor today after I went out and left the door open. Also, I got a “smoke detector is offline” alert last June 28. Any ideas? I may have to disable the back door sensor if I’m to set the alarm tonight.
“Offline” means sensor supervision failed to reach the panel. Supervision signals are a periodic heartbeat signal letting the panel know the device is functional.
Supervision errors typically suggest one or more of the following:
Low/Borderline Low battery
Range issue
Interference
Environmental attenuation
With some detectors, like certain models of smoke detector, supervision errors are also sent in conjunction with other issues, like a dirty sensing element, or being past its expiration date. What model of smoke detector is it?
If you are getting rapid fire tamper alerts from the sensor after movement of the door it suggests to me a damaged switch/tamper circuit. It might not be obvious damage to the switch, it could be a bad solder joint or other defect. I think I would just replace that wireless sensor.
Thanks for the quick response.
The heat smoke heat sensor is a 2GIG-SMKT3-345 and it is about 7 years old. No additional any alert received after that day.
The back door is the most used door in my house and the slamming of the storm door to the jamb creates a lot of vibration and may have triggered the tamper alarm. I will be replacing that sensor and make adjustments to that storm door closer.
Supervision errors don’t necessarily signal a major problem if they aren’t repeated. If you only saw it once and the device is operating fine now I would just consider replacing the batteries if you see it again.
How old is this sensor I wonder if the sensor might be at the end of its life depending on how long u have had the sensor what panel do u have installed
Is this question related to the same account as the prior posts? It looks like this may be a question unrelated to a Surety account, so just want to be sure.
Are you seeing Tamper alerts from a sensor? Depending on if the sensor is wired or wireless, tamper will mean different things, but in general it means what it sounds like, someone appears to be tampering with it. It is a state that the panel is not expecting.
So for example, if wireless, tamper doesn’t mean the sensor opened (as in pulled away from the magnet) it means that the cover of the sensor housing was removed or is loose.