M1G, Wireless (Honeywell), supervision working?

[Linwood]

I put in a M1G a couple years ago, mostly wired, but I added a wireless controller (M1XRF2H) so we could have key fobs, and then did use two wireless transmitters, one a smoke detector in a garage, one a door contact.  Mostly did this to be a bit lazy and see how they work.
 
They worked fine.  
 
Then recently the door contact just stopped working.  Not sure why, not the battery (replaced), just no signal, even when taken to the wireless receiver.  While debugging, found one of the key fobs with the battery completely dead (replaced, works).
 
So I bought a new one (these were honeywell 5816's by the way).  It worked fine, enrolled, door is working again.
 
But all this got me thinking - where's my supervision?   Nothing showed up (except a continually open door) when it failed.  It took about a week to get a replacement, no errors (the time was set to 24 hours, and normal supervision).
 
And the keyfobs never gave a low battery -- they are set to no supervision (so they don't show missing), but shouldn't they still give low battery?  (I don't have their part number handy so this may not be an obvious question).
 
But the contact is the troubling one -- shouldn't it have given a trouble of some sort when it failed?    Showed up as missing at least?   As opposed to open?
 
I saw no message in the logs, and nothing was voiced (it is set to speak all troubles) and nothing was sent to the monitoring company.  It's set to enabled, type=02 (burglar/exit 2), supervised=1=normal, loop 2, type=0=eol/wireless.
 
Worries me as now I don't know if I trust it will notice if the battery runs low.  Or the smoke fails.
 
I like wired; I did the wireless for a bit of education, and maybe that's what I'm getting.  But.... any idea what I did wrong?   Or do I have incorrect expectations? 
 
 

 

[Linwood]

Anyone? 
 
Perhaps easier way to ask the question -- I have the transmitter set to normal supervision.  I just went and pulled the cover off. 
 
Where do I see the intrusion alert show up?   And/or how do I set it so it will show up?

 

[ano]

Your door contacts and smoke alarm should have given off a supervision error.  I don't have an MIG but rather an Omni Pro II and it definitely will tell you when it loses contact with a wireless sensor, which always seems to happen at 3AM in the morning.  It also is supposed to tell you low battery, but I have yet to ever see a low battery indication, and I have 25 wireless sensors that are going on 8 years old.
 
Keyfobs are NOT supervised devices, so you are on your on with those.  If you press the button and the LED is dim, then it needs a new battery.

 

[Linwood]

I need to experiment, I did find an indication that wireless zones in normal (type=0) only report trouble when armed.  I tried changing to 3 or 4 as suggested, but I need to do some testing.
 
My question is perhaps this -- let's assume it works.  WHERE does it report the trouble?  Should it voice announce (I have that turned on)?   Appear in the log?   Send a reporting code?  Is it only in the zone status if you actually look for it? 
 
System troubles like low batteries do voice announce, I've had that happen.  But I haven't had any zones.  I don't want to bother people tonight (wife, maybe neighbors as it's pretty loud) but tomorrow I may go pull an EOL resistor off a smoke as well as pulling the tamper and see what happens.   And if I get really ambituous will put a resistor in series and see if I can simulate a low battery.
 
Anyone know the appropriate size resistor that will allow it to see "low" without being so low it can't work? 

 

[Del91574]

You're not going to be able to really simulate a LB on a RF transmitter....a fob will never generate a LB or be supervised. You'd never be able to remove them from the house if that were the case.
 
The reporting should take place. You should see an indication at the keypad for normal zones not checking in. Check your times there.
 
I can't remember if you'll also see them in the log, but if you're monitored, the RC's should also exist. Since I don't have local M1's out there, it might also be a function of whether or not the RC's are enabled.

 

[Linwood]

You're not going to be able to really simulate a LB on a RF transmitter....a fob will never generate a LB or be supervised. You'd never be able to remove them from the house if that were the case.
 
The reporting should take place. You should see an indication at the keypad for normal zones not checking in. Check your times there.
 
I can't remember if you'll also see them in the log, but if you're monitored, the RC's should also exist. Since I don't have local M1's out there, it might also be a function of whether or not the RC's are enabled.

 
I'm not talking about the FOB's with respect to low battery, I have one wireless transmitted contact and one wireless heat detector.
 
Should I be able to simulate a low battery there? 

 

[Del91574]

No.
 
Lithium batteries maintain close to their rated voltage up until they are almost dead...then they taper off significantly. Part of the issue with attempting to meter them on service calls, they'll meter fine, but once placed under a load they taper.
 
Best way I can see is placing a lithium battery in the freezer overnight and give that a whirl.

 

[Linwood]

Well, I did some testing.
 
The good news is that a tamper switch activation on the (wireless) door contact causes a trouble notification when disarmed if the type is set to 4 (and I think 3) as opposed to zero.
 
The problem is there's no enunciation of this from the panel, and no reporting (at least that's visible).  I've written NextAlarm to find out how they interpret the reporting code set up (I think it should be sending 370 as CID code).  But there's no voice announcement, though the zone status shows trouble.
 
Under Globals G10 I have "Audible System Troubles" checked.
Under Voice G24 I have "Say Zone Trouble" checked, in fact all of G20-G25 are checked, and the arm/disarm are certainly working.
 
Is there something else that should be set to cause the trouble indication that the M1G is seeing to be voiced? 

 

[Del91574]

Wonder if there's a quirk of the firmwares out there....I know there were a few rounds when they brought the Honeywell receiver out.

 

[Linwood]

Wonder if there's a quirk of the firmwares out there....I know there were a few rounds when they brought the Honeywell receiver out.

 
Probably should have mentioned I updated the M1G yesterday before I started experimenting, and I don't see any updates for the Honeywell RF card (I'm on 0.9.8, which is a bit scary if that indicates they didn't hit release 1 .
 
But I'm trying to figure it out now in the M1G on regular zones -- I think I should be hearing a voiced trouble there, and I'm not.
 
At this point I need to also wait for business hours on NextAlarm, I had some really weird stuff happen (including them appear not to recognize my account when I called in when I thought it sent an alarm), so I'm not 100% sure they have the right account for me.  Which is scary.  I also tested my dialup and got an email that it was an unrecognized phone number (no I haven't changed that number from the very beginning).

 

[ano]

I don't know how an M1G works, but how GE wireless sensors work with an HAI is that every 55 minutes or so they transmit a "I'm O.K." signal. If the panel doesn't receive one of these "I'm O.K." signals at least every 5 or 6 hours, this causes a supervision problem, the keypads beep, NextAlarm gets notified, and I get a text on my phone. When the "I'm O.K." signal is received again, NextAlarm gets a signal saying the problem is fixed, and I get another text. You can turn this supervision on or off in the receiver for each wireless zone. 
 
If the signal is weak at the receiver, you can get these errors which you should not ignore.  From experience, you just can't just remove the battery from a sensor to "simulate" a missing receiver. At least for GE receiver, they still have enough power in them to send an alarm signal even when you pull the battery out. You may need to place it in a metal box so it can't transmit. 

 

[Del91574]

The quirk wouldn't be the receiver, it would be the M1.
 
Without knowing programming and other details...such as monitoring configuration, that would be what I would want to know about before stating there's an issue with the panel so far.