March 2022 Archives

ISC West, the security industry's largest trade show, was held this week in Las Vegas. This is the first year since the COVID-19 outbreak that the show is being held in person. We didn't attend the show this year, but based on what we've seen, JCI and Qolsys won the ISC West show in 2022.

Qolsys:

IQ Pro

Qolsys, Inc. which was acquired by Johnson Controls in 2020, premiered two brand new products, and reintroduced one more. The IQ Pro Panel is a hybrid wired and wireless system which targets large homes, and medium to large businesses. It combines the reliability of hardwired components with the range and versatility of the DSC PowerG Sensor lineup. The product is planned for release in Summer, 2022.

There is very little information available about the IQ Pro. The Press Release announcing the product, which was released by Johnson Controls, didn't even say for certain that it would be a Qolsys branded product, though with 'IQ' as a part of the name, we assume it will be. This panel will combine elements of the IQ Panel 4 with the DSC PowerSeries Neo, and a little bit of customer feedback thrown in. A couple of things we do know, the IQ Pro will offer the choice of either Ethernet or WIFI connectivity along with LTE. This panel has been designed with Alarm.com for Business in mind, to take advantage of all the extended features offered there.

IQ WIFI 6

The Qolsys IQ WIFI 6 was actually first introduced to us here at Alarm Grid last year. It is a product we thought was going to released then, but it was introduced at ISC West and should be available in Summer, along with the IQ Pro. The IQ WIFI 6 is is a router that uses 802.11 1/b/g/n/ac/ax WIFI-6 technology. It offers dual-end 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz MIMO mesh architecture on a Qualcomm Networking Pro 400 platform. It will integrate with Qolsys touchscreen panels, to allow a user to administer the network from there.

The IQ WIFI 6 will offer four (4) network partitions, including a Guest Network and a dedicated network for the end-user's WIFI devices. Both of these will switch automatically between 2.4 GHz and 5GHz for seamless optimization of WIFI performance. In addition to these partitions, there are two (2) private network partitions to be used by security and/or networking providers. By separating the security, surveillance, and smart home devices from the rest of the network, professional providers can cut down on disruptions caused by user error.

IQ Hub

The Qolsys IQ Hub has actually already been released, in a limited fashion within the last six (6) months or so. Presumably due to supply chain issues, Qolsys has tightly controlled how many of these panels are shipped, but now, based on a press release this week, it seems like they may be looking to perform a wider release. The IQ Hub differs from the IQ Panel 4 in several ways, one of which is that each panel will only support one RF product line. There is a PowerG version with either an AT&T or Verizon communicator. This is the only version that has been released at this time. Soon however, there will be a version that supports unencrypted, uni-directional Honeywell and 2GIG wireless sensors, one that supports unencrypted, uni-directional Interlogix and all Qolsys wireless sensors, and a version that supports uni-directional DSC 433 MHz wireless sensors.

Resideo:

Cellbounce

Resideo and Honeywell Home brought the Cellbounce to ISC West. This device will bridge communicators that work on the AT&T 3G network over to the AT&T LTE network, without having to replace the device. This is a plug-n-play device. It connects to an outlet within range, which is 25' (7.62m), of the existing AT&T 3G communicator, though be sure not to plug the Cellbounce in until it has been configured by your alarm dealer.

It syncs to the 3G communicator, then with the LTE network and any signals sent by the communicator will be picked up and transported via LTE. It even works with Total Connect 2.0, though it does not work with two-way voice. It also only works in the contiguous United States, so Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico residents, the Cellbounce is not for you. There are some other caveats and limitations, so be sure to read our product description carefully before purchasing.

2GIG, Nortek Control:

2GIG Edge

In October of 2021 Nortek Control, the parent company of 2GIG, was purchased by Nice. Nice originated in Italy, with Nice North America handling the US and Canadian segment of the business. This year at ISC West, Nice put their stamp on this relatively new acquisition. In addition to some commercial camera innovations by Linear, Nice/Nortek Control announced during ISC West that they will offer exclusive integration between the 2GIG Edge security panel and the ELAN Home Control platform. The Edge has been out for about a year now. You can read all about it here.

According to their press release, this integration will be supported by the ELAN SC-100 and ELAN SC-300 system controllers running ELAN 8.7 OS (which won't be available until April, 2022). The 2GIG Edge panel requires firmware version 3.1.1.0 or later. Firmware can be pushed through Alarm.com or downloaded. This panel firmware version is not available from 2GIG just yet, but once it is posted, our page will be updated. One of the more convenient features of this integration is the ELAN Control Auto Zone Detection feature. If the ELAN system is setup first, with zone names, once the 2GIG Edge is installed, it can download all zones and zone names directly from ELAN, without having to re-enter the information.

It's time for ISC West, and all the manufacturers are putting their best foot forward. Resideo now has Release 4 for the ProSeries panels on offer. This update adds Dealer Branding, Customized Voice Descriptors, a WIFI Access Point, 2-Way Voice per Partition, and an Easy Access Help Screen.

Dealer Branding

This can be a hot-button topic for our DIY customers. Many of them don't want dealer branding to mar the look of their touchscreen panel. Release 4 adds the ability to push Dealer Branding to the Honeywell Home PROA7, PROA7PLUS and Resideo PROA7C and PROA7PLUSC. We're not sure how we're going to treat this feature, so stay tuned for more information on this topic.

Customized Voice Descriptors

In the past, Honeywell and now Resideo, and Honeywell Home panels that have supported the voice chime feature were limited to speaking words from a pre-set vocabulary. If a custom voice descriptor was used, then the panel or keypad would just skip that word when speaking the descriptor, as though it didn't exist. With Release 4, this changes for the ProSeries panels. Using either AlarmNet360 or local programming, a custom word descriptor can be entered. It then goes through a text-to-speech process.

If text-to-speech processing occurs on the AlarmNet360 server, then if the custom voice descriptor is typed in by the alarm dealer through AlarmNet360, it will then have to be processed and downloaded to the panel. Then it's ready to be spoken for the zone in question. If the custom voice descriptor is typed in using local panel programming, that means the typed word has to be uploaded, processed, then downloaded again. If processing occurs at the panel, instead of AlarmNet360, then basically the same thing will happen, just in reverse. The point is, some processing and transferring of data must occur, so this kind of change can take a few minutes.

Another very important change comes with this update. In the past, the Device Type has always been spoken as a portion of the zone descriptor (with the exception of Device Type Other). If the Device Type was Window, and you wanted the voice descriptor to be "Front Window" then you only entered "Front" as Zone Descriptor 1 and left Zone Descriptor 2 blank. The panel would automatically say Window as the Device Type. Now, this has changed. The Device Type is no longer being spoken as part of the voice descriptor. So, for my office window, I used Zone Descriptor 1 - Julia, Zone Descriptor 2 - Side, and Device Type Window. However, now, in order to get the panel to actually say "Julia Side Window", I had to make Zone Descriptor 1 - "Julia Side", and Zone Descriptor 2 - "Window". This is a big difference, and may cause some issues, particularly for those with lots of zones. I look for this to possibly change in the near future.

WIFI Access Point

A WIFI Access Point has been added to the ProSeries panels. With this access point the Honeywell Home PROWLTOUCH or Resideo PROWLTOUCHC touchscreen keypad can still be added to a system where no WIFI connection normally exists. This is often an issue seen in second homes, or cabins, where it doesn't make sense to pay for an internet connection when the home is unoccupied. Up to eight (8) secondary keypads can be used per ProSeries panel. Using either the aforementioned touchscreen keypads or the Honeywell Home PROSIXLCDKP push button keypad. As a PROSIX Series Device, the PROSIXLCDKP doesn't require any type of internet connection. It communicates to the panel in the same manner as any PROSIX Series zone does.

Two-Way Voice Per Partition

Two-Way Voice is a feature that allows the central station operator to connect to the location that reported an alarm and either listen in, speak to persons on site, or carry on a two-way conversation. Those, "I've fallen, and I can't get up!" commercials of yesteryear are an early example of two-way voice.

The ProSeries panels have always supported up to four (4) partitions, however, earlier versions did not support two-way voice per partition. When a system with two-way voice enabled reports a burglary or panic signal, the monitoring station receives a special signal. They can then press a command on their end that begins the voice session. Once connected, they can press the 4-Key on their telephone keypad to toggle through up to four (4) touchscreen keypads on the system. Each of those touchscreens can be assigned to any of the partitions that are enabled.

Easy Access Help Screen

In Release 4, a user can go to the hamburger menu icon at the bottom center of the display on either the main panel, or any secondary touchscreen keypad. Once the menu comes up, scroll all the way to the bottom and press Help. A QR Code will be displayed. Scan the QR code with your smartphone or tablet, and then press "Youtube" and you'll be taken to the Resideo and Honeywell Home ProSeries channel on Youtube. You can then browse through the help topics for a video that addresses your issue.

Final Update: Per a restoral announcement, this issue was resolved by 11:45 AM

Update 10:56 AM: According to Resideo, these notifications are the result of "catch-up" notifications from the outage earlier this week. As the queue for these old messages clears out, the erroneous messages should taper off. In the meantime, actual disarm photos may be delayed.

Original Post: We've had multiple reports this morning of Honeywell Lyric users who are receiving disarm photos from their panels every few minutes. Even users who don't have notifications enabled for disarm photos are being bombarded via the activity log. If you are affected, ignore disarm photo notifications for now.

Initially, it was only Lyric users who were reporting this issue, but now we've received reports from users of the Pro Series panels as well. It seems to be Push Notifications that are being affected. To disable Push Notifications for now, do the following:

1. Log into Total Connect 2.0.
2. Go to More > Settings > Notifications.
3. Tap the toggle for Push Notifications so that it is disabled.

We'll provide more details as they become available.

Resideo sent out a notice on March 16 that the Lynx 3000 and the LynxTouch 7000, (aka the L3000 and the L7000) are discontinued. The Lynx Touch 5210 (L5210) is still being manufactured. This marks the end of an era for this product line as there is now no push-button panel option available.

Alarm Grid has already discontinued the L3000 panel because there are none in stock. There are some L7000 panels in inventory, so you can still purchase one of those panels, for now. However, as soon as stock is exhausted the L7000 will also be history. Speaking of history, the Lynx panel has had quite a run. The original Lynx panel was released in the 1990s and didn't even have a rechargeable battery.

The next iteration, the Lynx-R (R for Rechargeable), came along very soon after the Lynx (for obvious reasons). Then the LynxR-24, the LynxR-EN. There were so many different versions over the next 20 years. It used to be quite a job just figuring out which Lynx panel someone had when they needed support! It wasn't always a requirement that you know the version in order to solve the issue, but at times, the version information was crucial.

In the early 2010s the LynxTouch panels came along with the introduction of the LynxTouch L5000. That panel was missing some key features. It couldn't support any type of internet communication. It didn't have a back door into programming, so if you lost the Installer Code, well, that was too bad. So, pretty soon the L5100 was released with desirable features included that were missing in the L5000. We have an entire video devoted to discussing the versions of the LynxTouch panels, their differences, and how you can tell them apart.

Now, we're saying goodbye to the Lynx 3000, and the LynxTouch L7000. Since the first Lynx panel was introduced nearly 30 years ago, this is the first time there is no push-button version of a Lynx available. These panels have been very popular in apartments and dormitories, and I'm sure they will be missed. They are being replaced by the Honeywell Home PROA7, the Resideo PROA7C, the Honeywell Home PROA7PLUS, or the Resideo PROA7PLUSC.

The Lynx lineup is not completely gone, though. The Resideo LynxTouch 5210 (L5210) is still being manufactured. This panel occupies the middle ground between the L3000 and the L7000. It has a touchscreen, though it is rather small at 4.3 inches. It offers nearly all the same features as the L7000, albeit fewer of them. This means fewer zones, and fewer users in addition to the smaller screen, but also a smaller price tag. Check out this comparison between the L7000 and the L5210. This comparison includes the Lyric in addition to the L5210 and the L7000.

What do you think about this discontinuation? Given the fact that they have continued to update communicators for the L3000 to include the LTE products, I thought the L3000 was going to be around forever. Are you surprised at this news? Drop us a line in the comments below and let us know what you think. We enjoy a spirited conversation!

I was able to speak with an industry insider familiar with the events at Resideo's data center on Sunday night into Monday evening. This person related to me that there was an HVAC failure at the primary data center. It was initially thought to be an easy fix, but that turned out to be false.

Things started to go wrong in Resideo's primary data center on Sunday night at around 7:00 PM Eastern Time. An HVAC failure allowed the temperature in the data center to climb to a dangerous level for the servers located there. The normal temperature is around 70℉ (21℃) but on Sunday it rose into the neighborhood of 130℉ (54.4℃). The servers are set to failsafe, so rather than continue running, and risk catastrophic damage, they began to shut down.

An automated system is in place which notifies engineering and other stakeholders when a serious event like this occurs. An HVAC technician responded. Initially, the technician believed this would be a quick and easy fix, so the decision was made not to switch to the secondary data center, which is located in the Chicago area. The switch takes a bit of time, somewhere around 20 minutes, and the thought was that it wouldn't be worthwhile at that point to make the switch.

However, the HVAC tech discovered that in order to implement a fix, he or she was going to require a part, which they didn't have and couldn't get at that time. So, at around 1:00 AM Eastern Time, the decision was made to switch things over to the secondary data center. By about 1:30 AM Eastern Time, the backup data center was in control.

At around daylight Monday morning the HVAC system in the primary data center had been fixed. Once it was fixed, there was a period of time where the temperature was coming down to an acceptable level. By approximately 11:00 AM Eastern Time, Resideo was ready to switch back to the primary data center. At this point, alarm signaling was back up and had been for some time. By around 2:00 PM AlarmNet360 was back up, and by about 6:00 PM Total Connect 2.0 was back online, though customers and our own testing show that it was somewhat sluggish at first.

This outage affected three (3) things. The most serious was alarm signaling. During the early hours of the outage, customer's systems were unable to send signals to the monitoring station, or to send notifications to the customers themselves. Total Connect 2.0, the customer-facing app and website for end-user remote control was also down. Lastly, AlarmNet360, the alarm dealer facing service used to create or cancel accounts and remotely troubleshoot issues was also affected. When things went wrong, the initial focus was on getting alarm signaling backup as quickly as possible. This was the focus when they initially switched to the Chicago area data center.

This is a fully redundant system, and it is tested regularly. According to my source, there were hourly notifications being sent to alarm dealers, but the database of email addresses for these notifications seems to be outdated. This is something they will address going forward. A root cause analysis will be completed in the coming days, and any processes or procedures that need to be updated will be dealt with at that time. The site at status.resideo.com doesn't have a section showing either AlarmNet360 or Total Connect 2.0 status. Hopefully, this is something that will change in the very near future as well. Finally, those dealers who did receive notification noted that the emails weren't flagged as containing particularly important information. This is also something that will be addressed in the future.

Update March 16, Post Outage: Alarm Grid has confirmed that the Lyric and Pro Series panels are not uploading Disarm photos to TC2 in the wake of the recent service outage. We can't be sure these two issues are related, but the customers we've spoken to indicate that this feature was working prior to the outage. The issue has been reported to Resideo.

Since the restoral: We have noticed that some panels with WIFI, such as the Lynx Touch panels, are not automatically reconnecting to WIFI. If this happens to you try a panel reboot. If that doesn't fix the problem, then go back through WIFI settings and rejoin the network.

9:18 pm Update: Our testing indicates that Total Connect 2.0 is fully restored. We've confirmed that both iOS and Android devices are now able to connect. Resideo has confirmed that Total Connect 2.0 is restored as well.

Dear Valued Customer,
Subject: The following AlarmNet Services are now Restored

Alarm Delivery/Signaling
AN360
Total Connect

Alarm Delivery/Signaling
Date:3/14/22
Restored Time:2:40 PM ET
AN360
Date: 3/14/22
Time: 2:40 PM ET

Total Connect
Date: 3/14/22
Restored Time: 7:30 PM ET
Thank you for your patience.

7:40 pm Update: It's unofficial, but it appears the TC2 website is now accessible. In addition, when logging in through the iOS App, Activity appears to now be logging correctly again. Now, when I bypass a sensor, then arm, TC2 and the panel status match. When I look in Activity, the proper events are showing up. What I see when I log into the webpage matches what I see in the app.

5:00 pm Update: Total Connect 2.0 Text notifications are beginning to be processed. Earlier in the day, only push notifications were coming through. In these notifications, you are likely to see some older events as the queued events are processed by the server.

The Total Connect 2.0 Website, it appears, is still unavailable. To our knowledge, Android users are still not able to log in via the app. Users on the iOS platform can log in, but TC2 seems to be having trouble knowing whether a command is processed or not. I was able to bypass a zone and arm my system successfully (I can tell because I'm sitting next to it) but TC2 thought the arming command failed, and showed my system disarmed.

Resideo put up an official notice on the AlarmNet360 site. It states:

IMPAIRED
Alarm Delivery and AN360 Restored / Total Connect is still impaired

Start:2022-03-13 07:00 PM
End: N/A

Dear Valued Customer,
Subject: The following AlarmNet Services are now Restored
Alarm Delivery/Signaling
AN360

Alarm Delivery/Signaling
Date: 3/14/22
Restored Time: 2:40 PM ET

AN360
Date: 3/14/22
Restored Time: 2:40 PM ET

2:00 pm Update: AlarmNet360 is now up and functioning. This means our ability to create new accounts and remotely troubleshoot existing accounts is restored. There could still be a few hiccups, so please be patient.

Total Connect 2.0 is still accessible via iOS device, but not via the website. Some activity and notifications have begun to come through via iOS. As far as we know, Android users are still unable to log into TC2 at all.

Please Note: As the service begins to come back up, there may be some events that TC2 has had queued since the service went down. When the connection is restored, you may receive some notifications for events that actually happened at an earlier time.

1:00 pm Update: To our knowledge, AlarmNet customers' alarm signals are being delivered, and have been since about 3:00 am this morning. We've done some signal testing, and currently our signals are coming through.

The AlarmNet360 website and the mobile app are still down. It is not currently possible to log in there.

Total Connect 2.0 appears to be partly up. You can log in through iOS devices and execute some commands, but the Activity Log appears not to be working, at least not with consistency. Android users of the App report they are still unable to log into Total Connect 2.0. If you have news to report on your status, you can do so in the comments below.

UPDATE 12:42 pm: If you have silenced your system after receiving an error message about a comm failure or other outage-related message, such as communication path failure, the system should not sound again unless the condition restores, then occurs again. In that case, it will sound again because the system sees it as a new event that it needs to make you aware of.

The website listed above, status.resideo.com is the site for Resideo Total Connect Comfort (thermostats). Though this isn't a site specifically for Total Connect 2.0, the issues seem to be mirroring one another, so it's a reasonable site to check for progress. Honeywell Home is not the same thing as Total Connect 2.0.

Original Post: Alarm Grid has received information that Total Connect 2.0, a service of AlarmNet, is currently down. During this outage, you will be unable to log into your Total Connect 2.0 account, and you will likely see an error, and hear beeping, from your system.

To silence the beeping, simply disarm your system twice, or if you have a touchscreen, acknowledge the error by entering your normal arm/disarm code when prompted. Once the error is silenced, it should not sound again*, though it will continue to display on the keypad until the issue is resolved. Once the problem is resolved, another disarm (or two) may be required. You can check the status of this outage at status.resideo.com.

This outage has also affected the ability of the system to deliver signals to the central station and to Total Connect 2.0. We apologize for this inconvenience, rest assured that Resideo is working diligently to resolve the issue. We'll follow up with more information as it becomes available.

In addition to Total Connect 2.0 being unavailable, AlarmNet360 is also down. This means that we are unable to activate accounts using this service, and we are unable to remotely troubleshoot systems that communicate through AlarmNet.

ConEd

As we've reported before, Alarm.com partners with electrical power providers all over the country in a demand response program called Give Back Get Back. In exchange for allowing your participating provider to adjust your thermostat slightly during peak demand hours, you receive a bonus.

According to Alarm.com, there are typically between six (6) and ten (10) peak events per summer season. Customers who opt into this program in their area will receive advance notice of any adjustment that is planned for their location. They have the ability to opt-out of a particular event, or the entire program, at any time. The most recent additions to the Give Back Get Back program are:

AEP PSO of Oklahoma

AEP PSO calls this program PSO's Power Hours program. In order to be eligible, you must be a PSO residential customer and the electric service must be in your name. You must have an eligible internet-connected smart thermostat controlling your central air conditioning. And you must agree to allow PSO to make brief, small adjustments to your thermostat during Peak Events on high demand days.

As an incentive, you will receive a $50 e-gift card per eligible device, once you have successfully enrolled that device into the program. This e-gift card will arrive within 60 days of your acceptance in the program. It will be sent to the email address used to register for the program so be sure you enter your email address correctly when signing up! At the end of the summer season, starting in 2022, you will receive a $25 e-gift card per participating thermostat. If you are enrolled in AEP PSO Oklahoma's Time-of-Day (TOD) rate option, you can also participate in the Power Hours Program.

Qualifying Thermostats:

ConEd

By enrolling in ConEd's program in 2022, customers earn a chance to win a $5,000 prize. ConEd calls their program Power Savers. To be eligible to participate, you must be a resident of New York with an electric utility account, you must use your thermostat to control central air conditioning, and you must have installed an eligible thermostat. Note that the list of eligible thermostats is quite a bit smaller for ConEd.

Qualifying Thermostats:

AEP ApCo Virginia

With AEP ApCo, Appalachian Power Virginia, enrolled customers receive a $50 e-gift card upon enrollment and acceptance into the program. In addition, customers can earn up to $25 in e-gift cards at the end of the season ($5 for each summer month of participation from May - September).

To be eligible to enroll, you must be an Appalachian Power, VA residential electric customer, and the electrical service must be in your name. Once you install an eligible inter-connected smart thermostat for your central air conditioning system and sign up to allow Appalachian Power to make brief, small adjustments to your thermostat on days of high energy demand, you will receive your e-gift card. It should arrive within 60 days of being accepted into the program. The e-gift card will be sent to the email address used to register your thermostat, so be sure you enter your email address correctly, then be on the lookout for your gift card!

Qualifying Thermostats:

If you're an Alarm Grid customer and you use an Alarm.com compatible panel with a Z-Wave or WIFI Smart Thermostat, you may be eligible to enroll in the same type of program in your area. To find out, you can go to enrollmythermostat.com, enter your Zip Code in the space supplied, and find out if your electrical, and in some cases gas company participates in the Give Back Get Back Program. As the old saying goes, every little bit helps!

Have a security-related topic you'd like to hear more about? Drop a comment in the space below and we'll research and post relevant information. What do you think about the Give Back Get Back Program? Are you in an area where you can take advantage of this feature? If not, contact your utilities provider, maybe they're unaware of this incentive program.