Announcing Alarm.com Wellness Sensors
Posted By Michael GorisHi DIYers! We are happy to announce that we have some new wellness sensors available from Alarm.com. These are great for use with elderly or mobility challenged loved ones. There is an Alarm.com Bed Sensor and an Alarm.com Chair Sensor available on our website. Both operate at 319.5 MHz.
Having peace of mind in knowing that your elderly or mobility challenged loved one is alright can be very important. That is why Alarm.com created these new wellness sensors. They both work in a similar manner. The bed sensor will let you know when your loved one gets in and out of bed. The chair sensor will let you know when they sit down and get up from their usual chair. Both will activate upon sensing 50+ pounds of weight.
These wellness sensors are known as "occupancy sensors". We don't talk about these sensors fairly often, but they are relatively easy to understand. When your loved one is sitting down or in bed, the sensor will be in an "occupied" state. And when the bed or chair is empty, the sensor will enter a "vacant" state. Your system will announce whenever there is a change in status for the sensor.
But the real beauty in these sensors comes in their ability to be used with the Alarm.com platform. You can get text and/or email alerts regarding any sensor activity. It is also possible to configure notifications so that you only get alerts during certain times of day. This way you can set a schedule based around your loved one's usual activity.
The bed sensor is quite useful when paired with the "Sensor Left Open" notification. You might set up a notification to be sent if your loved one is out of bed for more than an hour. And you can also set a time frame so that notifications are only sent during periods when they are almost certainly in bed, say between midnight and 6am. That way, if your loved one gets out of bed in the middle of the night and suffers a fall and is unable to make it back, you will get an alert.
Even better is the new Alarm.com Wellness Platform that allows for even more detailed notifications. You might set up alerts to be sent if your loved one never gets out of bed in the morning, or if they have remained seated for an unusually long period of time. We hope to show-off the feature in greater detail sometime soon. For now, just be aware that it is available upon request for Alarm.com users. Remember, Alarm Grid customers need a Gold Plan or higher to use ADC.
At this time, we are only offering 319.5 MHz versions of the bed and chair sensors. You will need a compatible 319.5 MHz system to use them. Examples include the Qolsys IQ Panel 2 Plus w/ 319.5 MHz Daughtercard and the Interlogix Simon Alarm Panels. For the IQ2, we recommend using Sensor Group 25 - Local Safety Sensor and an Occupancy Sensor Type. For an Interlogix Panel, you should use either Sensor Group 40 (chime) or 27 (no chime).
We expect other wireless frequencies to be available sometime in the near future. We will let you know once we have them available. If you have any questions about these new sensors or the new Alarm.com Wellness Platform, please reach out to us! The best way to contact us is to email support@alarmgrid.com. We will check your email at our earliest convenience and reply back as soon as possible. We look forward to hearing from you!
In order to use this communicator, your 2GIG GC3 or 2GIG GC3e System must be running Firmware Version 3.2.3 or higher. This update can be pushed down to your panel from Alarm.com by your monitoring company for a small fee. Alarm Grid customers can contact us to do this. You can also apply the update locally at the panel using a USB drive. Updating locally is completely free. More information on how to apply the update locally can be found 
