I bought some new 2 gig pir1 motion detectors and set them up. Went through the walk test, but was still unsure, so I armed away and tried to trigger the alarm. I walked my whole house and different rooms for a good 5 minutes before I triggered a motion alarm which is a little concerning. Is there a delay between arming away and when the motion detectors will work? All of the motion detector status were active because I was walking around the house right before I armed away.
Thank you
All of the motion detector status were active because I was walking around the house right before I armed away.
There is no time-limit after the system is armed before motion detectors would be active. They won’t be active during the exit delay, but afterward, they are technically armed right away.
Now, what you’ve said above though is the likely reason. Wireless motion detectors do not endlessly report every movement in front of them, doing so would chew through batteries in short order. To conserve power, wireless motion detectors themselves have sort of a reset period and won’t be ready for another activation until a couple minutes after the last time they detected motion, and continual motion within range can extend that delay.
Walking around your house to test, then immediately attempting to trip them again would definitely cause a delay. The best way to test motion detectors in the home to determine they are functioning as expected is to arm the system away, wait 3 minutes out of range of any detector, then walk around the home tripping them. You could instead wait 3 minutes out of range of motion detectors, then arm the system away from your phone and walk through the home, tripping them.
thanks. I installed a motion detector in my bathroom facing my closet. Want to make sure nobody breaks a bathroom window and tries to access the closet. The closet door is a mirror. Will that be an issue for the pir motion detector?
Thanks
I installed a motion detector in my bathroom facing my closet. Want to make sure nobody breaks a bathroom window and tries to access the closet. The closet door is a mirror. Will that be an issue for the pir motion detector?
I would not recommend this, for different reasons.
Humidity can become a big problem, so depending on the size, layout, and how well your fan works, this may damage the sensor over time.
In a smaller room, heat levels from sources like floor/wall registers can cause false alarms for a PIR more easily as well.
For something like a bathroom window, it would in most cases be better to use a combined window/shock sensor. You can find all-in-one sensors, or you can make one. Though if you have condensation forming in the bathroom this would still cause problems. If you do get a lot of condensation an outdoor wireless sensor may be better.