Motion Detectors Active All The Time?

Is there (or can a sensor be set to do this) a motion sensor that can be set to be in an ‘alarm’ setting. i.e. can I have a sensor behave as if the system were armed regardless of the arming status of the whole system?

You can program a motion detector to be a 24HR Auxiliary alarm. That would have it armed 24/7 regardless of the arm/disarm status of the alarm system. However, I’m not sure that it would be a good option. You can and most likely will run into a number of false alarms if anything triggers that motion detector.

It also means that there would be no difference between stay/away arming modes, and you will be setting your alarms off even when panel is disarmed as the motions will function just like smoke detectors…

Or you can just selectively arm away, and disable those sensors you want off…for example, say you have a 2 story home, and want motions on first floor active at night, but disabled on sleeping areas, or upper floor… I wonder if the GC3 has a ‘night’ mode?

In my opinion, the best option is to either use an Image Sensor (infared night vision motion detection still camera, approx $90 new on eBay) set to’23 no response’ (it will take snap shots, even infared if motion is detected, regardless of panel arming state, and send alerts, and doesn’t require you to have video package on plan), or an IP camera set to record motion detection (it will alert you via email/texts, and without blaring alarms or false dispatch, and you can see what triggered the camera. You can get a pan/tilt V610PT for less than $100 on eBay BTW)

As I said, both the Image Sensor and V610PT are inexpensive, and both have built in motion detection, both can be configured to send alerts with images/video of what triggered it

If you want to see Image quality, then look here:

Image sensor:
http://www.2gigforum.com/threads/60-Alarm-com-Image-Sensors-night-vision-fixed-cameras

V610PT(pan and tilt camera):
http://www.2gigforum.com/threads/51-Indoor-V610PT-pan-tilt-camera

Here is video on selective arming…Selectively arming a 2GIG system for night: