November 2024 Archives

Resideo’s recent MyWebTech Technical Notification #114 warns of potential range issues with certain 5800MINI transmitters. These units may have a poorly placed FCC sticker inside the cover, hindering their ability to communicate with the receiver. Both 5800MINI and 5800MINIBR are affected.

There are a number of circumstances that could cause range issues for a transmitter. Large metal objects such as appliances, duct work, and even some mirrors can affect the transmission path of a sensor. Even if the obstacle is not within a direct line-of-sight between the sensor and the receiver, the signal can be bounced away from the receiver. This may happen intermittently or consistently.

It's important to note that this issue is specific to a limited number of sensors. To identify affected units, you'll need to check the packaging. Look for a date code of 2429 or 2431 (YYWW format, indicating the year and week of manufacture). The packaging will also have the designation "Made in Taiwan." If your sensor matches these criteria, it may be impacted by this issue.

If you suspect your sensor is affected, it's crucial that you leave the metallic FCC sticker in place. Removing or tampering with the sticker is illegal and could void the warranty. Instead, you should contact your security system provider for further assistance.

If you are an Alarm Grid customer, send an email to support@alarmgrid.com. We will reach out to troubleshoot with you further and will perform a warranty replacement if we determine that the product is the issue. It is important that we perform regular troubleshooting, particularly if you no longer have the product packaging to verify the date and location of manufacture.

Our central station partner, CMS, recently notified us of an uptick in its operators receiving "Line Busy" messages when making outbound calls. This issue appears to be caused by calls being blocked by the carrier or the subscriber. Either way, there is little they can do about this issue.

If you're an Alarm Grid customer with full central station monitoring you should make sure that you are not blocking the number 800-432-1429. Once you verify that this number is not blocked on your phone, or on the phone of any member of your call list, then you might try a test.

To be one hundred percent sure you don't cause an unnecessary dispatch, contact the monitoring station by dialing 888-818-7728 and choosing Option 9. Once you have a central station operator on the phone, let them know you want to perform a test to be sure their calls are coming through properly to your phone. They can then instruct you on the best way to proceed.

This may involve you setting off an alarm, or they may simply be able to call you for verification. If the people on your call list have a different phone carrier than you, you may need to repeat this test for each of their phones. It's best to be sure now rather than risk a call not getting through during an alarm.

To further insure that you receive calls promptly from the monitoring station, we recommend that you add their number to your contacts in such a way that you'll know immediately when you receive a call from them. Name the contact "ALARM! CMS ALARM!" or whatever it takes to get your attention.

It's also a good idea to follow the instructions for your phone so that when your phone is in Do Not Disturb Mode, Sleep Mode, or any other Focus (iOS) Mode you still receive calls from the monitoring station.

On Android phones, go to Settings > Sound and Vibration > Do Not Disturb > Manage Exceptions. You can choose to allow any "Starred Contacts" to bypass DND. You can also select individual people/contacts that can bypass it. On iPhone, go to Settings > Focus > Select a Focus such as Do Not Disturb > Allow Calls From > Choose individual Contacts or Groups.

If you verify that you are able to receive these calls based on your phone settings, but still can't receiving their calls, then you need to contact your phone carrier and make sure that they are not blocking the monitoring station's number. This could happen because they believe the number be spam or some type of potential scam. This classification may come from automation on the part of the phone carrier, and the designation may have been applied to the monitoring station's number in error.

If you are a central station monitored customer it is very important that you can receive phone calls from the monitoring station. This prevents unnecessary dispatch of the authorities. Even if you aren't an Alarm Grid customer, you should be certain you are able to receive calls from your monitoring station. As a system, every portion of your alarm must work in order to be effective. That includes the monitoring station's ability to contact you.

Due to an anomaly with Qolsys IQ panels, this weekend's time change may cause panels to repeat the communicator test excessively. To prevent this, Alarm.com will move the test forward by three (3) hours. This will be a transparent change to customers but offers a unique learning opportunity.

Daylight Savings Time (DST) is one of those things that folks either love or hate. There are those who want to switch to DST permanently. Others think the whole process is a waste of time. Regardless of personal preference, the pervasive nature of DST reminders can serve as a helpful prompt for other important tasks.

For instance, fire departments often encourage people to test their smoke detectors during the time change. This is a convenient opportunity to ensure home safety. Interestingly, not all regions observe DST. Arizona, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands do not participate in the "Spring Forward/Fall Back" practice. We encourage residents of these locations and all others to test their smoke detectors this weekend!

The anomaly we mentioned above is fairly straightforward. Any Qolsys IQ Panel that is programmed to send a communication test between midnight and 2:00 am that falls on Saturday night/Sunday morning may send excessive reports when the automatic time change occurs this weekend. For this reason, Alarm.com will automatically move the communication test time for these customers forward by three (3) hours to prevent any issues.

That means if your system usually sends its communication test at 1:00 am, it will now send the report at 4:00 am this coming Sunday and each time the report is sent moving forward. This will be a transparent change for customers. When it comes to communication tests, you're only notified if they don't happen.

When we talk about a "communication test" we're talking about the equivalent of a "dialer test" on a panel that supports a phone line. Alarm systems supervise themselves in all sorts of ways. Individual wireless zones are supervised for check in and tamper, the panel itself has a cover tamper, and the cellular communicator has a supervision interval.

When we activate an account through Alarm.com, we set the communicator on the account for a supervision interval. If the Alarm.com server doesn't hear from the account for the specified supervision interval, a message is generated to the monitoring station and from them to us. We then reach out to the customer to see what's going on. Alarm Grid enables Daily cellular communicator supervision on all central station monitored accounts. Self-monitored accounts are inherently unsupervised.

The communication test that's programmed through the panel is a little different. This test is generated by the panel and helps to verify that the system itself is capable of sending a signal successfully, not just the communicator. By default, the communication test interval is set to weekly through panel programming. It can be set to daily, weekly, or monthly by going to Menu > Settings > Advanced Settings > Installation > Enter Installer Code (1111 by default) > Installer Settings > Communication Test and Communication Test Start Time.

This test, the one programmed through and sent by the panel, is the one that is affected by Daylight Savings Time. Chances are, you don't know whether or not your system is set to send this test. However, it's a good idea to configure it. It will help to verify that the panel is able to send signals through the communicator. As mentioned above, the default communicator test setting is Weekly.

If you don't program a time for the first test report, it will be randomized at the time the panel is either initially programmed at the factory, or when a Master Reset (factory default) occurs. Once the first test is sent, the panel will continue to send the test periodically, either daily, weekly, or monthly thereafter.

The takeaways from the time change are to remember to test your smoke detectors and any other life-safety devices you may have. You should test them at least twice a year, but Alarm Grid recommends monthly testing. And also, give some thought to checking your communication test settings in the Qolsys panel. This is a good automated test to ensure your system is working smoothly. Check out our FAQ on testing the IQ Panel 4.