Rule not working as expected

[Ira]

I'm bench testing some rules for an overhead garage door in an attached garage. The idea is that I want to have "as long as it takes" to back out of the garage and close the overhead door without causing an alarm. The zone is defined as "Burglar Entry/Exit 2" and "bypassable". It is defined as "Normally Closed" because I don't have an EOL resistor in place. The garage door has a dedicated zone, but the door opening/closing is not controlled by the M1.

When leaving the house, I would set the system to "Alarm Away" before going into the garage from the house. Next, I would open the garage door, get in the car, start the car, back out of the garage at some point (maybe after the exit time had expired), then close the garage door. When the door is closed, I want it to treated as a "burglar zone", i.e., it will cause an alarm if it is subsequently opened and the M1 is not disarmed quickly enough.

The first rule is...

WHENEVER Area 1 IS ARMED AWAY
THEN BYPASS Zn 161

The idea for the above rule is to set the garage door zone to bypassed so it won't cause an alarm if it is not closed before the exit time expires. This seems to work. When I "arm away" the M1, RP shows the control as armed and the zone as "normal, bypassed". When I open the door while still in the exit time, RP shows the zone as "violated, bypassed", and stays that way after the exit time expires. It does not trigger an alarm.

The second rule is...

WHENEVER Zn 161 BECOMES SECURE
AND Zn 161 BYPASS STATE IS BYPASSED
THEN UNBYPASS Zn 161

The idea for this rule is that when the door is subsequently closed (either during the exit time or after it has expired), the door will become "active" again, and if opened, will trigger an alarm. However, when I close the door (during the exit time or after it has expired), RP shows "normal, bypassed".

Why is this not working the way I expected it to?

Thanks,
Ira

 

[RAL]

I'm not sure why your rule doesn't work. It might be that the rule is not detecting zone 161 becoming secure because it is bypassed and therefore does not cause an event that triggers the rule. Would be easy to test this theory on the bench by creating a rule that lights an F-key or beeps the keypad in response to the zone status changing while the zone has been bypassed.

But how about using the Force Arm attribute on the zone instead? Then no rules are needed.

From the M1 manual (pg 32):

Force Arm allows a violated zone to be temporarily bypassed upon arming. Prior to
arm, the READY light blinks if force arm zone(s) are the only zones violated. The keypad
will display READY FORCE. Force arm zone(s) automatically return to service if they
become normal while armed. CAUTION! Force arm operates uniquely on entry/exit
zones! - Entry/Exit zones that are also force armable can be violated during the exit delay
and still become force armed, allowing a user to arm, open a garage door, back out, and
close the door at their leisure, without creating a false alarm and without a long exit delay
time. As soon as the garage door is closed, it will return to service.

 

[Ira]

I thought I tried that, and it didn't work. I will try it again to be sure.

 

[Ira]

Tried Force arm again and it didn't work as documented (after "CAUTION!", the way I read it). At "Ready to arm", I pressed "Exit". That caused the exit countdown to start. I waited about five seconds, then opened the garage door. RP showed garage door as "violated". Countdown continued with no other indications. After exit time expired, keypad tone changed from beeps to steady tone and showed "Entrance = n", where "n" is the countdown number again. When it got to zero, keypad tone changed to a "3 beep" sequence and showed "Burglar alarm" and the garage door zone. RP still showed garage door as "violated". I closed garage door. RP continued "3 beep" tone sequence, and showed burglar alarm and garage door. RP showed garage door as normal.

The first scenario, when the garage door is opened before the control is armed, then a force arm is done, then the garage door is closed after the exit time has expired, does seem to work. During the time the door is open, RP shows "violated, force armed". When the door is closed after the exit time expired, RP shows "normal". if it is then opened again while armed, it trips the burglar alarm.

Unfortunately, I need it to do what the second scenario describes. Guess I will keep trying.

Thanks,
Ira

 

[RAL]

It would be worthwhile to try the test rules I suggested to see if the change in status of the garage door to Secure trigger the rule or not.

If it doesn't trigger, perhaps this will do what you want:

Whenever Area 1 Is Armed Away
  Then Bypass Zone 161
  Then Set Garage Door Counter to 1         /* flag that Exiting has begun

Whenever every minute
  And Garage Door Counter is Equal to 1
  And Zone 161 is Not Secure                /* Wait until the door has been opened
     Then Set Garage Door Counter to 2      /* flag that condition

Whenever every minute
  And Garage Door Counter is Equal to 2     /* Once the door is open...
  And Zone 161 is Secure                    /* Wait for the door to close
     Then Unbypass Zone 161
     Then Set Garage Door Counter to 0

Whenever Area 1 is Disarmed
  Then Set Garage Door Counter to 0         /* Just to be sure the counter isn't left in a non-zero state

You might want to change the time delays to a shorter interval if it is possible to open and close the door in less than a minute.

 

[Ira]

Testing seems to verify RAL's theory that the unbypass rule isn't being triggered when the door is closed while bypassed. I will post on Elk's M1 support forum to see if they agree.

Another couple of rule's that seem to work...

WHENEVER Area 1 IS ARMED AWAY
THEN BYPASS Zn 161

WHENEVER Area 1 EXIT DELAY ENDS
THEN UNBYPASS Zn 161

This works in the several scenarios I tested... garage door never opened, garage door opened and closed during exit delay, and garage door opened during exit delay but not closed until after exit delay ends.

There's a thread on Elk's M1 Support Forum where someone is trying to use Force Arm the way I want to. Elk support basically responded "working as designed", but didn't address the "Caution" part of the doc. I have asked for a more thorough explanation.

Thanks,
Ira

 

[Ira]

To close this out, according to Elk M1 support... RAL was correct about zone state changes not triggering rules if the zone is in bypass state when the state change happens. Also according to Elk M1 support, the explanation about how FORCE ARM works when a force armable zone is violated during the exit delay (the part beginning with "Caution!" is incorrect. It does not work the way most people seem to interpret that part of the doc.

Rather than use FORCE ARMABLE on the zone, I will probably use the two rules I previously mentioned since they seem to work the way I thought force arm should work.

 

[RAL]

Thanks for the update on what Elk had to say about this.

It's a shame that Force Arm does not work as the manual would lead you to believe.

The only issue I see with your alternate rules is that you have to close the garage door before the exit delay expires. But with a sufficiently long exit delay, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. The Force Arm would have allowed unlimited time. I think the rules I suggested would also do that. At least that's what I was trying to accomplish with the multiple states.

 

[Ira]

My rules seem to work the way I hoped force arm work. The rule for setting the door zone as "bypassable" at the arm away event keeps the open door from causing an alarm condition, even after the exit delay is done. The rule for setting the door "unbypassed" at the exit delay expired ends event doesn't cause an alarm even though the door is open, but makes the door active.

RP shows garage door is normal. I arm away the control. RP shows door is normal/bypassed. Exit delay starts counting down. I open door. RP shows door is violated/bypassed, but alarm is not tripped and exit delay was not affected. After exit delay ends, all is quiet and no indication of burglar alarm. RP shows door as violated, but no longer bypassed. I close the door about 15 seconds after exit delay ends. RP shows door as normal. I open door again (simulating returning home). RP now shows door is violated. Entrance delay starts. I enter user code during entrance delay. Entrance delay ends. Control shows ready to arm.

 

[sic0048]

I did this for a while with my garage door and it was accomplished by setting the zone to bypassable. I know for a fact that there were no rules involved. Unfortunately I undid this a while ago because my garage door sensor became unreliable and so I simply set it to "not security" and I haven't taken the time to track down the real issue. I'm mentioning this because it has been awhile since I needed to bypass a zone on exit.......

That being said, I am 90% sure that to arm the home "away" and bypass the zones, you have to enter your code. I believe that simply pressing "away" does not bypass any zones. Pressing "1234" (whatever your code really is) will set the home to away AND bypass any allowable zones. If you need to set the home to "vacation" with bypass, then you enter your code and then press "away" which will set it to vacation mode (just like pressing "away" twice will without the bypass).