Pairing the Qolsys IQ Remote With A Qolsys IQ Panel 2

[THUMP] Hey, DIYers. I'm Jorge from Alarm Grid. Today, we're going to be going over how to pair an IQ remote to an IQ 2 system. So we already have a video on pairing the IQ remote using the access point mode. But today, we're going to actually show you how to pair it using the Wi-Fi. So the first thing you need to do is make sure you got your remote right here.

On the back, you have your power cable that comes with the remote. So all you do is just plug it into the back. Now, one little thing about the remote is if it's not charged up to 10% or more, the keypad will not turn on. If you guys have it below 10%, you'll see it try powering on. It'll load the loading screen. It will have like the three penguins and the Qolsys sign. But then it'll turn back off. It's not that your keypad is bad, it's just that it needs to be charged a little bit more. So it's just something to keep in mind.

So after you've let your keypad charge up for a little bit, you're going to go ahead and press the little side button. It's on the right hand side, if you're looking at it from the front. And you're going to hold it down for three seconds, and then release. And then the keypad should start powering on. You see the-- sorry, it's four penguins. And then after the four penguins, it's going to go into a Qolsys loading screen. And then it'll bring up a screen where you can pair the keypad to the Wi-Fi.

So while that's powering on, I'm going to talk a little bit about what's needed in order for the remote and the IQ 2 system to actually pair. So before you do anything, your IQ 2 system does need to be on a firmware version 2.1.0 or higher. If your IQ 2 system is on a firmware version lower than 2.1.0, then you will brick the keypad and you will need to get a warranty replacement. So that's just something to keep in mind, that there is a required firmware version on the IQ 2. Now, if you bought the IQ 2 brand new, you more than likely are getting the IQ 2 with a brand new firmware version, so you don't have to worry about getting that done. If you do, you can always upgrade the firmware directly from the panel. Or you can ask your monitoring company to send it down from alarm.com.

Now as you see here, the IQ remote, it went to the Wi-Fi screen. So the first thing you want to do is make sure that if you're doing the Wi-Fi way of connecting, of pairing them both, you want to make sure that the IQ 2 system is actually paired to a Wi-Fi network.

Now, to do that, we also have an FAQ. I'm just going to go through it briefly. I'm going to go ahead and scroll down from the top, hit Settings. From Settings, we can go ahead and go into Advanced Settings. I'm going to enter in my dealer or installer code. So 1, 1, 1, 1, or 2, 2, 2, 2 will work.

Now, obviously, yours may be different if you or your monitoring company has changed it. So you want to make sure to use the correct codes. After you go into here, we're going to go ahead and go into Wi-Fi. And you'll see here it's already connected. Mine's already connected to Alarm Grid Wi-Fi. So I'm just going to go ahead and back out to the Home screen. Again, that was just to confirm that your panel's connected to a Wi-Fi network, so that you can make sure and verify which network it is connected to.

So on the remote, you can choose the same one. I'm going to go ahead a hit Alarm Grid. It's going to ask me for my Wi-Fi password, which-- let me see if I got this right. Hopefully that's the correct password. And it does seem like it's working, which is perfect. All right, so you want to make sure you enter in your network password when you're pairing the IQ remote. And then after you enter in the password, you just hit Connect, and it will connect to your Wi-Fi. And it will actually confirm right underneath the network name, it says Alarm Grid Connected.

Now we're going to leave the keypad as is. Now we have to do something on the IQ 2 remote, almost the same steps that we did to check what Wi-Fi it was connected to. I have to scroll down from the top. You can either swipe down or press the button, either one works. You can go ahead and hit Settings. Go to Advanced Settings. Again, your dealer or installer code.

I'm just going to use my default 1, 1, 1, 1. After there, I'm going to go to the Installation. I'm going to go to Devices. I'm going to go to Wi-Fi Devices, right? Because this is a Wi-Fi device, the keypad. And from Wi-Fi Devices, I'm going to go to IQ Remote Devices. And I'm going to hit Pair. Once I hit Pair, it's going to go into a learning mode. So it's going to look for a keypad that's connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

So if I hit Pair on here, it's going to go into a learning mode. And then I'm going to hit Pair on the IQ remotes. And it's going to say Trying To Connect. Now this sometimes takes a little bit of time, so just be patient. You'll see here, it says Downloading Patch. So if there is any firmware that needs to be downloaded onto your keypad while the pair is happening, it will actually push that through automatically to your remote keypad, right? So the IQ remote right now is going to be loading. But if you look up at the closest screen up here, it already has learned in the IQ remote one.

So after you get that pairing process, this should load up to 100 pretty soon. After it's loaded up to 100, this is going to basically give you the same control that the IQ 2 has. Now you won't be able to do programming on the IQ remote. But you can arm and disarm. You can control your Z Wave devices. You can set off panic alarms. There's a lot of different things that you can do with the IQ remote, you just can't do any programming with it. Programming is at the actual panel locally itself.

Now, one little caveat. Remember, this is actually using your Wi-Fi to pair to each other, which means that if your Wi-Fi fails, the keypad is not going to be able, is not going to have any connection to the IQ 2 system. So if your Wi-Fi fails, your keypad will also go down. But as soon as your Wi-Fi restores, the keypad should come back up.

Now for those of you who are wondering, well, what if my Wi-Fi's not that strong in my house? Or let's say, you install the keypad in an area in your house where the Wi-Fi doesn't reach or it's spotty. One thing you can do is pair the keypad using the access point mode which we actually have a video for as well.

But now, keep in mind, if you do the access point mode, you're actually going to be disabling the Wi-Fi path on the IQ 2, which means the only communication path the IQ 2 will have will be the cellular. Now some people are fine with that. Cellular is basically 100% reliable, right? So some people don't necessarily need the Wi-Fi path. But again, just something to keep in mind if you guys do do the access point mode.

So as you see here, it's currently downloading the patch. It's at 7%. We'll go ahead and wait till it gets to 100, just so I can show you guys a quick arm and disarm and show you what the screen looks like on the IQ remote once it's actually paired. So as you guys see, it's at 95% now, so it should be done with downloading the patch file, which is just a firmware update for the system.

Once this is at 100%, it's going to verify the patch. Once it's done doing all the menus, it's going to reboot. And then it's going to go ahead and load back up with the actual screen so that we can arm the IQ 2. So what I'm going to do on the IQ 2 now that I know that it's officially paired, I'm just going to go ahead and back it out to the home screen. You can easily do that. There's a Home icon at the bottom of the screen. If you hit that, it will take you out to the main screen, all right?

The IQ remote is powering back up. So we've just got to give it a couple more seconds. Again, you've just got to be patient with it. And if it fails, just try doing the pair process again.

All right, so as you can see, a download sometimes does take a little bit of time. So when the panel rebooted, it lost connection to the Wi-Fi which is why you saw that loading screen right there. But like I said, if it's already connected and it powers off, once the power's back on, or even if the Wi-Fi goes down and comes back up, the panel reconnects to it. And it automatically brought us up to the main screen as it closes.

Now you'll see here, if I arm from the remote, it brings it up on the IQ 2 system as well. If I disarm from the remote-- there you go-- it also cancels the disarm. There's a Z Wave door lock, which you can control from the remote. If you have any lights, thermostats, plug modules, land modules, anything like that-- anything home automation that's Z Wave, you can also control from the remote.

If you guys have any cameras-- this is a garage door opener. I don't think I have any cameras on my IQ 2 system. But if you guys have any cameras, you should be able to view them from the remote as well. But again, that was just the pairing process for the Wi-Fi path, right? The access point video is a different video. So this is the Wi-Fi pairing of an IQ remote to the IQ 2. If you guys do have any questions, feel free to email us at support@alarmgrid.com. If you found the video helpful, make sure you hit Like underneath. Subscribe to the YouTube channel and enable the notifications, so whenever we upload new content, you guys are notified. Thank you guys. My name is Jorge. I'll see you guys next time.