Zone Follower Or Something Else

[willmw]

When we built this house we had several caged birds in a room with a motion sensor. After a couple of false alarms from that room which we were assured by the installer 'could NOT have been the birds' as they were too small, we had the sensor replaced. Well, after another false we just started always bypassing that zone when arming. We've done this for years. The last bird has died, so we're wanting to stop having to bypass but we're a bit gun shy to do so, obviously. My questions:
1. How likely is it that the birds were triggering the motion sensor (we always wondered if it was light changes in the room or something else)?
2. Is there a way to set the motion sensor as a zone follower only when system is armed for a while so we can reassure ourselves?
3. Is there another/better way to accomplish this? Such as, if the zone is bypassed will the app still show me if something is picked up in that room?

[GrandWizard]

1. Possibly, if the birds were close to the PIR. The sensor detects changes in heat in it's field-of-view, birds are pretty small and pretty insulated. That being said, even a spider crawling over a sensor has been known to trip a PIR.

2. Yes, you could change the sensor's definition to monitor-zone (platform dependent), and use your zone-follower but...

3. Your best bet is to just change the zone in the panel to monitor zone and you can always look at your zone status to see if it tripped in the last 72 hours.

[willmw]

2. Yes, you could change the sensor's definition to monitor-zone (platform dependent), and use your zone-follower but...

3. Your best bet is to just change the zone in the panel to monitor zone and you can always look at your zone status to see if it tripped in the last 72 hours.

It's a DSC system.
So, would 2 above only report when the system was armed? If so, this might be best because if we go in that room wouldn't this reset the status if using 3 above? I'm perfectly happy to go with 3 otherwise.

Does a bypassed zone report on the zone status info?

[GrandWizard]

DSC systems report zones to your Envisalink regardless of partition state, so it doesn't matter if the system is armed or not, it will still show up on the zone grid.

If you don't want the zone to report an alarm to the station you would program it to zone definition 26 (24Hour Non-Alarm). You will still see zone activity but it won't send an alarm to the station, nor put the panel into alarm.

While you could put a zone follower on this zone, you are not allowed to put a zone follower on a motion zone as part of our T&C (acceptable use).

[willmw]

Thanks for the info. I have just set that zone for bypass and tested it to verify that the zone does indeed update the app/portal with motion activity in that state. That will do what I need to do without further steps. I just have to check the status when I'm away (and/or before I return) to verify that the sensor is not registering motion when there is none.

Thanks again!

[willmw]

Help me understand what I'm seeing here. I am attaching screenshots from the app over the course of several hours.
I bypassed Zone 1 - LR Motion when I left home. images represent what I saw on the app when I looked at it from just after noon until just before 4:00 PM. Is this normal for a DSC system with a zone bypassed or is it indicative of a problem with my system or maybe even a bug of some sort? (multiple messages to include all attachments follow)

12:09:56 PM

Screenshot_20221003-120956_EyezON.jpg (80.43 KiB) Viewed 13151 times

10:10:51 PM

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12:10:59 PM

Screenshot_20221003-121059_EyezON.jpg (70.72 KiB) Viewed 13151 times

[willmw]

12:11:45 PM

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12:12:20 PM

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3:57:04 PM

Screenshot_20221003-155704_EyezON.jpg (67.37 KiB) Viewed 13151 times

[willmw]

3:59:59 PM

Screenshot_20221003-155959_EyezON.jpg (75.68 KiB) Viewed 13151 times

So I'm seeing the zone supposedly open several times but the age of the motion doesn't seem to be resetting (as I would have expected if the zone was actually open) and continued to increment until I arrived home 8 hours later.

[GrandWizard]

Submit a tech support request from your Eyezon portal.