The door is wooden and opening and closing does not seem to resolve the issue.
This sensor is currently about 10 ft from the hub.
I also changed out the battery and nothing.
That probably does indicate the sensor radio is dying/dead then.
I guess I’ll buy another. Any recommendations on door sensors?
The same model or any other compatible S-Line or PowerG sensor would work.
Sensors we sell compatible with that panel are filtered here:
I had a second premature failure of a sensor. any recommended troubleshooting?
What sensor is it, is it still programmed? What specific issue did you run into (low battery, malfunction, tamper, etc.)?
same sensor as before, however this time tampering with it seemed to resolve the malfunction. I’m hoping this isnt a common occurence as i have way to many sensors to replace on an annual basis.
same sensor as before
Do you mean the same location that had trouble originally in this thread and now on a new sensor? Was that sensor replaced as suggested above or still using the same one?
I just want to stress this, an Offline malfunction is a very common status. That status is caused whenever the panel misses the sensor’s supervision signal, the heartbeat status signal that the sensor sends at an interval to let the system know it is there and working.
Tampering the sensor immediately sends a tamper signal to the panel, this will resolve the offline status since a new signal was received.
If a particular sensor seems to be experiencing trouble, the best test would be to swap its location with a known working sensor of the same model.
So for example if you have another window sensor which has never malfunctioned, switch its location with the troublesome one.
Do you then start noticing offline malfunctions on the new sensor in the current trouble location? Or does the currently malfunctioning sensor continue malfunctioning in the new location? This is a good way of determining if the environment or the sensor/battery is more at fault.
The initial sensor that failed was replaced with a new sensor and has been working fine.
This sensor issue is a different sensor purchased around the same time as the initial sensor that failed.
Installed on a window instead of a door.
The missing heartbeats make sense but I’m surprised the unit stayed offline for 5-6 hours.
Does the sensor know if the message was received at the panel?
Does the sensor know if the message was received at the panel?
No, the sensor is a one way communication device which broadcasts its status to the panel. The panel decides when it is offline by whether or not the panel receives the heartbeat status.
When you send a signal from that zone manually, either by tampering or just opening/closing the window, the offline status will resolve if the panel gets the signal.
Usually the underlying trouble is a combination of environment and battery level. I would recommend trying the sensor swap test above to help determine what is going on.
A battery seems to have fixed it. but another one in a different room dropped off today.
I guess the battery only last about a year on these sensors? any idea why low battery messages are not emitted?
Battery levels sufficient for typical use will last longer than that, but a combination of factors can make it so borderline low battery, without actually reaching the threshold for reporting “low,” might impact signaling. Distance and environmental materials will impact that signal.
If you have a lot of sensors which start experiencing offline malfunctions I would investigate the panel location instead. If the panel is mounted to or near metal or masonry it can affect the overall RF signaling. I’ve seen a bundle of high voltage wiring directly behind the panel cause similar issues. Mounting in the kitchen or on the other side of a kitchen wall, etc.
the panel is located in the center of the house, all sensors that have malfunctioned are within 20-30 ft of the panel, the latest malfunction being in direct line of sight. i checked the sensor RSSI and it looks good on all of them.
Its not anywhere near anything that i would suspect would cause interference.
Keep an eye out for repeated offline events on the same sensor after replacing the battery. That would suggest something more specific to the sensor or panel location, or interference from other wireless bands.
We’ve had odd reports previously that Google mesh routers have comparatively extreme impacts on other RF signals for example.
Interesting I do have a google mesh router
If the panel is anywhere near the Google router, try separating those. A couple prior reports suggested the panel being nearby that model router was actually impacting RF unrelated to wifi, oddly.
I have the exact same sensor and it also now only works about 25% of the time. After a long break, it’s pretty much guaranteed not to work. It is on a door which is literally next to the panel. Has never had an issue until now. It is less than one year old.
I have the exact same sensor and it also now only works about 25% of the time. After a long break, it’s pretty much guaranteed not to work. It is on a door which is literally next to the panel. Has never had an issue until now. It is less than one year old.
This is a thread regarding Offline malfunctions on sensors, triggered by the heartbeat supervision signals from sensors.
Looking at your account, the only malfunctions I see occurring recently are Sonos devices.
So that we can be of assistance, can you describe the exact behavior you are seeing out of the sensor?
Are you saying when you open the door the sensor zone does not open on the panel? If so, can you post a photo of that sensor where it is installed in a closed position?
If you are checking based on Alarm.com status, be aware that there is a 3 minute delay between the same signal registering again for the same sensor for activity monitoring purposes. For example, if you open the door 20 times in 3 minutes, the first open event will show in history, followed by one additional event 3 minutes later.
The first sensor I had was doing exactly that. Battery did not resolve its issue I had to replace the sensor.
When I open the door, the panel doesn’t change to show the door opened. It still reports that the door is closed. When I do it again, it sometimes then shows open on the panel. Closing always seems to work. If I wait a bit longer, it normally never shows open after the first opening. Subsequent openings seem to trigger it. Maybe a different issue, but I just replaced the battery.