Using the PG9944 Outdoors

Hi, DIYers. This is Michael from Alarm Grid. And today I'm going to answer the question of whether or not, you can use the DSE PG9944 image sensor outdoors. And the answer is yes, you can use the DSE-PG9944 in an outdoor environment. So I have the DSE-PG9944 right here. This is an outdoor image sensor. And when I say an image sensor, I mean it basically combines a motion detection sensor and a still motion camera into one device. When your system goes into alarm, the system that this is programmed with, it will capture images. And it will send them to the panel. And then the panel will forward them to alarm.com for viewing. And if you have a Qolsys IQ Panel 2 system on a high enough firmware, you can actually view the images from the panel itself. So I'm going to talk mostly about the outdoor conditions that this sensor can withstand today. It's perfectly suitable for an outdoor environment. It has protection against rain, snow, dust, heavy sunlight, and pretty much any other outdoor conditions. If there were a serious storm coming, such as a hurricane or maybe you were under a tornado warning, you might want to bring it inside. But in most situations, almost 99% of the time you can keep this outdoors safely, without worry. And it will work just fine. Although it is safe against rain, you do not want to submerge this into liquid. So don't dump it in water or something like that. Don't dump a bucket on it or anything like that. But if you're just leaving it outside in the rain or the snow, then you're not really going to have to worry about it. It's safe in temperatures ranging from negative 40 degrees to 158 degrees Fahrenheit. Again, that's negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit to 158 degrees Fahrenheit. So unless you're in Antarctica or you're on another planet or something, you're not going to have much trouble using this outdoors. It can withstand pretty much any outdoor temperature without worry. Now, this also offers night vision so it can capture images in the dark. It has an IR night vision rating of 33 feet. So it will capture images from a considerable distance. So you can be confident in that. If someone's in your backyard or something at night, then you won't have to worry about it. The sensor is also great for use in barns or garages where the temperature might get a little bit lower. So, really, any place that might have a little bit harsher conditions than just the inside of your home or your business you would want to use this outdoor sensor. The sensor does also offer pet immunity for up to 40 pounds. We recommend setting it on low sensitivity for pet immunity. And this is also good because if you have any critters in your backyard, maybe some rabbits or some squirrels running around, they won't activate this sensor unless they literally get right up on it. But if you have it mounted properly, then that shouldn't be an issue. Now I also do want to show you, we do have an indoor image sensor of pretty much the same model almost. I mean, it's a lot sleeker in design. But this is the DSE-PG9934P. If you're using an image sensor indoors, you're just setting it up in your home or your office, it's not going to be exposed to outdoor weather. It's not going to be used in a garage or a barn or something like that. This is probably the one you want to go with because it'll do the same thing as the PG9944. But it's just-- it's a little bit smaller. And it's just-- it's cheaper as well. It's less expensive. So this is a good option if you just intend to use your image sensor indoors. But if you do intend to use it in an outdoor environment, then this is the one to go with, the PG9944. And I do want to show you the images real quick. We have our Qolsys IQ Panel 2 Plus system right here. So when your system goes into alarm, it produces 10 images. And it forwards the images in a stop motion video to the IQ panel two plus system. And then the first of those images will be sent to alarm.com for viewing from the alarm.com website, or the alarm.com mobile app. And you can also trigger manual images if you just want to take a peek in at any point. But this only occurs during alarm events. So what we did earlier, we put our system into alarm. And we had the camera activate. We had our friend Dylan in the support room, we had him on the camera. And we got some images of him. So I'm just going to play the images right here. And you can see, they're pretty good quality. There's 10 of them right there. That's a stop motion video type of deal. And those are just individual images. And the first of those images will be forwarded to alarm.com for you to view as well. So that's just what that looks like. But rest assured, it will look great in an outdoor environment as well. We did this indoors, obviously. But it works great outdoors. You can adjust the image quality settings if you look at the instruction manual for the device to tailor it to your sunlight conditions or what have you in your environment around your house or your business. But anyway, that's the PG9944. Yes, it can be used outdoors. If you have any questions, please contact us at support@alarmgrid.com, and be sure to check out our website alarmgrid.com. We hope you enjoyed this video. Be sure to give it a thumbs up below and click the bell icon to subscribe to our channel and get notifications on future updates. Thanks. Have a great day.