What is the best sensor group to use for the following situation?
I have a front gate that I recently added a sensor to so I can know when it is opened/closed.
It is currently setup as Group 25 (local safety sensor) on my IQ Panel 2, the Panel sees it fine and announces when it is opened & closed. I now want to have an alarm.com notification pushed to me whenever that gate is opened but I do not want the notifications to trigger anything at the central station. From what I understand, I am not getting notifications now because those activities triggered by a Group25 sensor is not being logged to alarm.com, even though I have an notification setup for it.
From what I understand, I am not getting notifications now because those activities triggered by a Group25 sensor is not being logged to alarm.com, even though I have an notification setup for it.
Sensor Group 25 is the group you should use if you want Alarm.com notifications but no alarms. This group can be selected for activity monitoring but does not report to the Central Station or trigger alarms.
There would likely be a separate issue regarding the notification if you are not receiving them.
I do see a notification created for sensor activity on that gate. I see two push recipients and a text message recipient. Are any of these working? Note that yesterday there was an operations notice regarding notification delays
If none are working, try deleting and recreating the rule. Does this resolve the issue? I do see some sensor left open notifications having been triggered by the gates previously. Did the failure begin recently?
Hi thanks for the suggestions but still not working.
So when I set the sensors up about a 2 weeks back I did see notifications go thru but recently (within the past week) I noticed that I was not getting those gate sensor notifications. I did just try deleting the rule and recreating but that did not work. On the Panel itself I see all of the activity of the gate sensors so the panel is capturing the activity, I just don’t see them getting to alarm.com.
There was a recent operations notice regarding notifications which may be relevant. However, to clarify, do you have that zone chosen as having activity monitoring enabled?
Do you not see any activity at all in Alarm.com history for that zone?
As a test, if you change the zone sensor group to 10, does that cause open/close activity to show up?
Strangely, I am seeing that zone showing as sensor group 25 in the equipment list, but group 31 in the advanced programming menu, so there may be something awry there as I don’t recall that being a valid GE group.
After testing the sensor group change, try switching back to 25 and rebooting the panel after. Wait a few minutes then test. Any luck getting an event showing in Activity history in Alarm.com?
OK so I changed the sensor zone group to 10, tripped the sensor. Panel voiced the sensor activity, logged it in its history, but there is no activity logged at alarm.com. I also tried to rebooting the panel and retrying same thing. Interestingly though you say you see sensor in group 31 in advanced programming menu because 31 is the actual sensor number on the panel. Does it make sense for me to try to delete and re-add the sensor to the Panel?
So I experimented a little. I deleted and rea-dded the sensor. It took about 15 minutes for sensor to fully register on alarm.com and came in named “NA”. I then named the sensor and updated the original notification. I tested the sensor and finally got my push message. So I will do the same with the other sensor and I should be good. Thanks for the help Jason.
You may be right because the alarm.com has again stopped sending notifications for those two sensors. So it looks like it worked once then stopped. This is strange.
As for the Entry/Exit settings, I have fixed those thanks.
Hrm, maybe we look at the devices themselves, what is the model number of the sensor(s) being used for the gate?
How far away are the gates? Are the sensors just mounted to the gate exposed to the elements outside? Are these wired sensors connected back to a wireless transmitter like the RE101?
Both are Honeywell 5816OD wireless sensors transmitting to panel via RE524X. The sensors are specifically designed to work in harsh elements. One is already physically installed on gate and the was still being tested inside so distance to the transmitter is should not be an issue.
The gate that the wireless sensor is installed on is about 15 ft from Front door…Maybe 40 ft from 524X transmitter. I mention the front door because it has a standard HW5816 on it.
Yes, the Honeywell Outdoor sensors are what we suggest to use in those circumstances for 345mhz panels.
I am seeing one instance, as you said, of open/close reported for the gates.
Can you check the local programming for the Gate zones. In the bottom right of the edit sensor page, do you have Security RF 319.5 selected? Or does it say S-Line?
If S-Line, switch it to just the Security RF 319.5.
Both sensors are set to Security RF319.5. And just to note, I do see in the local panel history log where the 2 sensors shows a “31” in parenthesis. Im thinking that the group number problem you were speaking of before? Every sensor activity for both sensors are logged in the panel.
Well the way the group is reporting as 31 in the back-end is the same in my own tests. The good news/bad news is that I do not see the same response out of a group 25 sensor. All activity events (with the normal 3 minute delay in between) post to Alarm.com history as an event.
Just in case, did you test these sensors anytime after the first open/close in history? Were all the subsequent opens within a couple minutes of the first? They may not have registered simply due to the activity delay in ADC.
If you haven’t tried beyond that time, please test opening and closing the sensors now.
OK I just tried opening a closing the sensor to but not luck. it is seen on panel (Zone 31, Group 25)) However I just logged onto alarm.com com and additional sensor activity that I would have expected to have activity (i.e the a door open/close to get to the gate) was not logged either. I know you have mentioned some delays before could that be happening now?
Hmm, it is possible you may have an intermittent signaling issue, but signal strength and command reception at the moment looks good.
What times are listed on your panel for the door sensor opening that you expected to see? What zone # is that? That will help us match to what ADC has received.
Hmm, ok something else is amiss here. Many zones are intermittently not updating status with ADC and communication is good.
Looking at the firmware of your system, it is original limited release firmware. In looking through the patch notes for production firmware versions, the first update 2.0.2 fixed a bug which causes incorrect back-end activity tracking. This is almost certainly the problem in this case.
To update to the latest firmware and resolve:
1- Swipe down from the top of the screen and touch “Settings"
2- Touch “Advanced Settings”
3- Enter a valid installer code (default is 1111)
4- Touch “Upgrade Software”
5 -Touch “Patch Tag” and enter the patch iqpanel2.0.6 then touch OK
6- Touch “Upgrade Using Network” (panel must be connected to Wi-Fi). Update will download and install
7- Once complete touch “OK” to reboot the panel. DO NOT TOUCH THE SCREEN. The update process will take
approximately 5 minutes. After the panel reboots the home screen will appear and the LED will turn green.
OK so I have applied the patch and so far things are looking better. I tested the gate sensors and they are pushing alerts to me. The response from the time the sensor is triggered to when I get the push is fairly quick so it looks like problem is solved. I will keep you posted. Thank you.