I just had a question when testing my system with central station? Does the operator have to come on the 2 way each time I send in a test signal? I hope I’m not annoying the operator by doing this when testing. I was also wondering if it’s possible for my system to have no abort window dialer delay? The only option I could choose was 15 seconds but is it even possible to program that to no delay?
You can call 855-348-0367 and ask the operator to put your account on test mode. Then send all your alarm signals. Then call back in and ask the operator to verify that each signal was received. If they were all received you can ask them to take your account off test mode.
In the main panel settings you are just specifying what you want the dialer delay to be IF a dialer delay is enabled for a particular sensor. In the individual sensor settings you specify whether or not dialer delay is enabled for each sensor. Disable it for every sensor.
Someone pointed out that I overlooked something here. The method I described above works for regular alarm communication. It does not work for Alarm.com 2-way voice because of the unique way that Alarm.com 2-way voice works. You would have to disable 2-way voice in System Configuration during testing as well as do what I described above to not annoy the dispatchers.
Thank you Ryan,
I was told it was central station policy to respond to every 2 way signal even while in test mode. So when I am testing first u would like to test the 2 way , then for all subsequent signals I would turn the 2 way off via question 13 in programming? As to not keep dispatchers tied up from responding to a real emergency correct?
Thank You
It’s not policy to respond to all 2-way voice situations, it’s that we don’t have much of a choice. The way Alarm.com 2-way voice works is different that normal alarm signals. Instead of the central station operator calling the control panel, the control panel calls the central station for a 2-way voice session. The only way to prevent that from happening is to disable 2-way voice in the panel. Yes, the process you described would work fine. Test all alarm signals with the account in test mode and 2-way voice disabled and test once with 2-way voice enabled.
Thank you,
In question 13 in programming can u tell me what option 1, 2 way voice stay on line , option 2 stay on line including c/o and fire alarms means ? Particularly the stay on line?? and 0 for disabled ,is this the correct programming option to disable the 2 way voice for testing , I tried option 0 but somehow they still responded when sending a panic signal
Thank you
Did they contact you through the 2-Way voice or did they call your phone? If they called your phone, your account is most likely not on test and will need to be put back on test in order to continue testing your sensors. Your panel should not make a 2-Way voice call out if you have the option set to 0.
Option 1 allows the panel to communicate out in the event of a burglary or panic alarm only, option 2 will allow the panel to call out in the event of a Fire or CO alarm as well.
Jay – Correct me if I’m wrong, and I may be because I picked up this idea on another forum, but if you select option 2, you may slow down response on a fire or CO alarm because the CS is going to wait for the 2-way to be completed and the attempt to reach you before dispatching. Is this correct? Because of having read that I selected option 1, because of a previous fire when no one was home, I have no desire to have any kind of delay in potential response.
Thanks for the info.
You are correct, option 2 will create a delay in the response time because they will try to communicate to you via 2-Way voice before dispatching the proper authorities. If you do not want that, then set it to option 1.
Q13(0) appears to not work. Disabling 2way voice doesn’t disable it, and the panel will still Initiate the call.
central station doesn’t know where the call originated on an on test system. You would think they would have a policy that any 2way voice calls without recipient, are to be treated as disregards.
Rive is correct about 0 not disabling the 2 way because when I tried it they still responded asking if I had an emergency , there must be a glitch in the panels?? I love my 2 way but I’m sure it annoys the operators having to continue to keep responding on the 2 way when they know you are testing. Also when i send in my fire alarms they still respond via 2 way even though I have option 1 selected, so I’m not sure why there is an option 2. I’m not sure why monitoring america has that policy to respond to all 2 ways while in test?? FYI Avantguard monitoring does not respond via 2 way while in test, but they are not as quick or fast
Is anyone addressing this situation? I don’t see any responses from the techs.
Personally, it doesn’t really bother me.
I call The system out, place it on test, and if central station comes over 2way, I simply say “system is on test”. I don’t provide any other info, and I ignore any further initiated calls over 2way.
The call comes in orphaned, and they don’t know where it originated. This should tell them the system that placed the 2way is in test mode, and to disregard. They need to initiate a test procedure/policy insofar as handling signals/2way calls on “Out Of Service/Disregard/test” systems just like every other central station that does 2GIG/2way voice.
As far as Q13(0) not actually disabling the 2way voice feature, that’s an issue with 2GIG/ADC. And they need to resolve that
Sorry, I didn’t see a response to this post. I must have accidentally turned my subscription to this thread off.
I just got off the phone with 2GIG and Monitoring America.
In order to completely stop a 2-way voice call from going out from your panel, it needs to be disabled on the panel as well as on your Alarm.com account. Currently, the only way to disable it on Alarm.com is through suretyDIY Dealer controls. Simply disabling it on the panel is not sufficient to stop the cell phone communicator from sending out the signal via Alarm.com.
It appears as though ADC account settings override the programming in Question 13. I’m checking on this issue now with Alarm.com.
Just ran a test at the office, it appears that the programming in Question 13 has no bearing on the two way voice call that is initiated. It leads me to believe that Question 13 is primarily used for systems that are using a POTS module to do land line communication, much in the way that adding a monitoring account number and CS number are. I’m looking into it with Alarm.com to see if it’s possible to have an option where the 2-Way doesn’t go out over CO and Fire alarms if someone doesn’t want it.
Additionally, Rive is correct. The 2-Way voice call comes into the central station as an orphaned call and they respond to it before they are able to verify where the call comes from. They are able to verify very quickly, but generally not before answering the call and coming across the 2-Way on your panel.
So I just heard back from a high level ADC engineer concerning this issue.
Q13 is in fact only used for a phone dialer with the 2GIG panel. However, we have the capacity on the ADC back end to disable 2-Way Voice for Fire and CO alarms. If you would like that to be disabled on your panel, you will need to contact us at customerservice@suretydiy.com.