It used to work all of the time but now it only reports the changed status about 5-10% of the time.
For instance, right now it is reporting that the door is closed, and it’s wide open. If open and close the door nothing changes.
But maybe one out of ten times the sensor actually picks it up.
Opening the sensor does seem to report a tamper.
Install should be fine as it’s worked for such a long time, and only recently stopped working.
That is the Qolsys Micro DW, and if I recall correctly the reed switch is on the other side. I think the magnet is on the wrong side of the sensor in that photo, which would cause problems.
There should be a little tick on the side of the sensor where the reed switch and magnet need to line up.
It has a 1 inch magnetic gap, which will sort of let it respond backward like that if the magnet is super close, but it will be inconsistent and the sensor should be rotated.
If I flip it doesn’t work at all and is stuck in door open.
I’m also not sure why it would have worked fine for so long without it being moved.
The manual shows the tick mark on the other side. Do you see the mark I am referencing on the side of the sensor housing? If it is on the side you had facing the magnet that would be fine.
The manual shows the opposite side having the switch, but the design may have changed or it may be a copy issue from another manual like the DW Mini.
Is that door metal?
If you take the magnet and sensor off the door, just hold it like a foot away from the door where it was and open/close it by bringing the magnet close, does the panel respond reliably then?
It makes more sense today. I guess the sensor is just bad. It lasted about a year. I purchased it on 8/6/22 it’s been giving me fits for a few weeks and died today.
RIP
The offline malfunction is common and does not necessarily mean a sensor has failed. It is a direct indication that the panel has missed supervision signals from the sensor.
This happens for a variety of causes, including lower battery levels and metal surfaces.
If it occurs and you cannot get it to resolve by moving the sensor closer and opening/closing it, the sensor may indeed have a failed radio.
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.
