I’ve hooked up about 15 passive magnetic door/window switches to the takeover kit. All except 5 of them seem to work. I hooked the remaining sensors up to the takeover across bus terminals 1 2 3 4 5 etc so I could check them individually to see if they can trip. I got up in the attic and the wiring appears normal and intact. I open the door, nothing. I try waving a magnet across the sensor, nothing. What would cause the sensor not to pass signal/current to the cable? Curiously, the majority of the doors that these faulty sensors are at also have old vivint wireless sensors. Is it possible the original installer disabled the reed switches somehow? Do they go bad ever?
Curiously, the majority of the doors that these faulty sensors are at also have old vivint wireless sensors. Is it possible the original installer disabled the reed switches somehow?
If wireless sensors were installed on the doors where the non-functional sensors are found, it is very likely that the sensors have not worked since around the time the wireless ones were added.
In general if you cannot get any activity out of them, the sensor wires may be shorted or damaged, the sensors could have corrosion, or the wires may have been accidentally cut at some point in the past. The old installer may have even just twisted the circuit wires together at the sensors to short the circuit.
Note that the wireless sensors on the doors should work fine with the GC3 if they are 345Mhz sensors.
If you have a multimeter to measure ohms you can check the resistance on the door circuits while the door is closed, then when it is opened.
When closed, the resistance should ready close to zero, or the resistance value of the resistor on that circuit if one exists.
When open, the meter should read infinite resistance (this can be shown in various ways, but it will look like when you just hold the leads apart from each other without touching anything.)