The GC3 panel at an out of town property has started to periodically (ok, it’s happened twice") show the fault “Panel Not Responding” on Alarm.com and the mobile app. The first time, this fault lasted for several day; then mysteriously cleared itself. Currently, the fault has lasted about a day. No power failure is shown. When I get a chance to drive down and check on this, what should I look for? Is this likely to be a cell sled going bad (it is less than 6 months old)? Can you tell anything from the back end?
The signal strength that has been reported recently is exceptionally low. Roughly 1 bar of service, which is not enough for maintained performance expectations. Did this panel change position earlier this year or was any work done to the panel? It looks like signal strength saw an abrupt drop in January or Feb. Prior to that the signal strength was quite high consistently, at least for a couple months (as far back as it shows).
No change in position or to the panel at all. However, there is a tremendous amount of construction work going on in the area, as this was essentially ground zero for hurricane Harvey. There could certainly be ongoing work being done to cell towers, which were all destroyed in the storm.
That would be likely. You can force the Panel module to reconnect and possibly find a better signal by powering down the entire system fully for at least two minutes. Then power up, wait a few minutes and run a cell test.
Does this improve signal strength? If not do you have wifi at the location? The GC3 has built in dual path capability which should be used if the local infrastructure is still spotty.
Powered it off, powered it back up. Pulled out the cell sled, replaced it. Cried “why” into the unfeeling night. Still only 1/6 signal strength. Oddly, my cellphone, also on Verizon, shows full bars.
Powered it off, powered it back up. Pulled out the cell sled, replaced it. Cried “why” into the unfeeling night. Still only 1/6 signal strength. Oddly, my cellphone, also on Verizon, shows full bars.
The panel module in this case is CDMA, which will not have an identical service area to LTE.
I did connect it to the WiFi. I am honestly not sure what that does for the panel.
With the firmware the panel is currently on wifi wouldn’t help, however if you update to 3.1 or later you would be able to use dual path signaling, so the panel could communicate with ADC through both cell and internet.
You can find links to GC3 firmware here. Firmware is updated via usb thumb drive. The usb port is on the top of the panel. Make sure nothing else is on the usb drive.
Swapping to a different module type may help, yes. I wouldn’t try another CDMA. In our store, you can find the Verizon LTE and the AT&T HSPA cell sleds.
The LTE module shows as a recommended module for your area.
I can’t say whether or not LTE is possibly affected by any ongoing construction efforts of course, but it is worth a shot. Products through suretyDIY have a 30 day return policy.
If you wish to swap modules on your panel, let us know when you have the module and you are ready to go by sending the module communication SN to our team and request the number on your account be swapped in a secure message here.