Power G range is horrible. Need help

I tried emailing but didn’t get a response so am posting here. I have a Qolsys IQ 4 panel with 3 Power G sensors. One is a PG 9303 contact sensor. This is on my front door about 30 feet from the panel with 3 drywall walls between it and the panel.

The second is a PG9936 hear and smoke. It’s next to the panel right now.

The third is a 9935 shock and contact sensor. It’s one floor directly below the panel and maybe 15 feet over horizontally.

The panel has a strong connection to the PG9936 but loses connection entirely if it moves more than 5 feet from the panel.

The PG 9303 has no connection.

The PG9935 alternates between no connection and sometimes gets a poor one.

I know Power G doesn’t go as far inside as the advertised range but this seems absurd. I specifically got Power G for the range (I have other sensors to put much further from the panel) but if these closest ones don’t work then I will need to just return everything and cancel. I’m ready to give up as the whole system has been nothing but issues (my alarm.com thermostat will not register the C wire no matter how many times I reconnect it/plug it in)… although even if it detected the wiring I fear the panel couldn’t see unless they were also 2 feet apart!

The Power G sensor passes the test on the panel and I have no issue adding devices so think it works. But maybe I have a fault panel?

Otherwise, absent any solution, please let me know how to return my equipment for a full refund

PowerG range on the IQ Panel is roughly 2000 feet open air. PowerG signals are expected to have roughly 3-4 times the range of other sensor types indoor or outdoor overall.

What you are describing is definitely aberrant. The first thing I would look for is a large source of metal close by. Metal can cause severe attenuation regardless of the effective range.

Is your panel mounted?

Where is the panel located? Can you message me a photo of the general area where the panel is now?

How long are you allowing devices to be tested at a new location? PowerG has adaptive battery power, which means the sensors will gauge the necessary output to effectively communicate with the panel. If you have a sensor near the panel for a while, then move it farther away, this may impact signaling for a short time.

Have you tried rebooting the panel to see if there are any changes to behavior?

(my alarm.com thermostat will not register the C wire no matter how many times I reconnect it/plug it in)… although even if it detected the wiring I fear the panel couldn’t see unless they were also 2 feet apart

The thermostat communicates via Z-wave, a different protocol. Does the thermostat power up if you remove the batteries and install it on the wall? If not, it is not receiving the 24VAC circuit, and C is likely disconnected at the HVAC.

I tried emailing but didn’t get a response so am posting here.

Support hours are M-F 9-5:30 EST. If it was sent after hours you would receive a reply the next business day.

Now I’m not even getting signal with the devices next to each other

I had the panel sitting on a thin metal table so hoped that was the issue. I have moved it to a wooden one though and am having the same problem. I will retry in a hour in case it is the adaptive battery (I paired each sensor next to the panel—thought this was required but pleas confirm?). Any thoughts?

The panel sitting on a metal table can definitely cause this kind of issue. I would expect signaling interruption in that case

Pairing PowerG devices does not need to be done right next to the panel. It can be, but more important is to pair them, install them in their location, then tamper or trip them to send signals.

Proximity to the panel is required for battery operated Z-wave devices, most importantly Z-wave door locks.

Let’s try powering off the panel for 20 minutes.

Settings > Advanced Settings > Power Down.

Later after booting back up, make sure it is away from metal and then try tampering or tripping the devices. Give it a short time to network those sensors, then check signaling and test them a bit. Has it improved?

Thanks. I will try powering down around 5pm when free but it never improved on the wood table earlier

Alright, and I would also try pulling power from those PowerG sensors, leaving them powered off for a couple minutes, then relearn them into the panel. After the panel power down. Just to make sure everything is square one and the networking isn’t hung up.

Here is a similar question on the PG9936 and how it was resolved:

I powered down but didn’t see an easy way to remove the battery from the panel (the shutdown instructions on screen said remove it) so left that in. Does that matter? It is shut off with ac disconnected. I took the batteries out of all the sensors too

I will power all back up around 5pm

Thanks

No need to disconnect power or battery from the panel, just use the Power Down option to turn it off and leave it off for a little while.

There is no improvement. I couldn’t network the front door without tampering it while the panel was next to it. It synced strong and no is no signal as soon as I return the panel to the other room (where pictured on wood desk before). And the smoke detector which was strong when next to the panel went to poor with panel by front door. Further, I can’t even network the basement window sensor with the panel on the first floor…

If I put the smoke detector on the wood floor where it was in the earlier picture (Ie <15 feet away from the panel with an open doorway between) signal drops from strong (1 door away on desk) to no signal again

I’m at a loss and beyond frustrated

*now is no signal and *1 foot away on desk

Alright thank you for testing. I am sending this info to Qolsys and I am going to upload your panel logs for them. My guess is that you may actually have a defect with the PowerG card/antenna on the panel. There is no expectation of having that many issues with all those devices.

Do you have other non-PowerG sensors to test? Any S-Line or other 319.5 sensors? If those do not see issues it is very likely an issue with the PowerG card.

I will follow up here ASAP with details from Qolsys.

The only other thing I have is an alarm.com thermostat

I’m hesitant to hook it up as it’s not detecting the C wire but could I pair with the panel off battery anyway? I’ll try that as think you said it’d be zwave

I also have a remote panel that I tried to cancel and plan to return so haven’t opened. Would that have its own card? If so I can try pairing to it instead of the main panel?

No, the remote connects to wifi in order to communicate with the panel. The remote does not have any sensor antenna in it.

Qolsys is suggesting that they have seen some loosening of the PowerG antenna in transit. Can you power down the panel, then open the back panel and make sure the black antenna on the daughter cards is firmly attached. You’ll have two cards that are visible as soon as you open the panel. The right one should be powerG. The card or the antenna may be loose.

I will try this now

Next I think we will want to try a Master Reset (Qolsys will recommend that) to see if that resolves the issue. If not, it very well may be defective.

Go to Settings > Advanced Settings > Dealer Code (default 2222) > Installation > Dealer Settings > Master Reset.

Okay I will try that now

This didn’t help. I still get no signal <15 feet away.

Can you express deliver a new panel to try?

Alright, thank you. I updated Qolsys on the Master Reset failing to resolve the issue and it looks like this is most likely a panel defect given your description.

I’ll send you a message with warranty info and options.

I have had terrible luck with PowerG sensor and the IQ4 panel as well. I know it isn’t always possible, but if you can, try turning the sensor 90 degrees and checking again. Then rotate 90 degrees and check again. Then rotate 90 degrees and check again. I found that the sensor antenna seems to be very sensitive to orientation…
Also I have yet to get the IQ4 to recognize state change on a PG9312, but tamper is instantly recognized. My guess is IQ4 code is not good.