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Alarm Issue - How is this Possible

Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 8:18 am
by kradec
I am testing the EVL-3 and I am not onsite to check this out. I have a bedroom wired on glass break detector - the kind that detects the entire room. I have a Vista 20p and the system is armed in away mode so any activity will trip the alarm.

I received a message on the portal that I the bedroom alarm was tripped and then 6 minutes later I received a bedroom alarm restored message. The system is still armed away. No user code was put in to clear the condition or I would also see that activity. It is like the zone was tripped and now it is back to normal. Again the alarm is armed away and the zone is perimeter zone. How is this possible?

Re: Alarm Issue - How is this Possible

Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 10:14 am
by GrandWizard
That's how alarm systems work. At the end of BTO (Bell Time Out) the system goes back into the armed state. Otherwise your siren would go off for hours and you'd be getting a large fine from your police department not to mention a lynching from your neighbours.

Once you disarm the system will go into Alarm In Memory state showing you that an alarm happened while you were out.

Re: Alarm Issue - How is this Possible

Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 10:31 am
by kradec
Thank you / that makes sense. I obviously had a false alarm somehow as no other zones were triggered (i.e. motion sensors). I am going to need to look into this further. I had thought after an alarm that the system would no longer be armed. Thanks again.

Re: Alarm Issue - How is this Possible

Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 10:50 am
by GrandWizard
We had a customer a few years ago who had a similar concern. Prior to buying her Envisalink, she had gone for months having her bird set-off an interior PIR that caused an alarm while she was at work...daily. She never knew about it as when she got home she never noticed the "Alarm in Memory" icon on her DSC keypad.

She insisted that the Envisalink was wrong until she rushed home one day before the BTO and heard it for herself.

I figured she must have had very patient neighbours or maybe just deaf ones.

Re: Alarm Issue - How is this Possible

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 9:13 am
by dcuste
I never thought about this before and just assumed my Honeywell 20P would remain unarmed after an alarm condition times out. My question is about a zone that remains faulted. Say a door or window opens and stays open. The alarm goes off and eventually times out, will that zone then get automatically bypassed so the system can rearm?

Re: Alarm Issue - How is this Possible

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 10:52 am
by kradec
I had to actually reset my alarm.

Here is what all transpired.

1) The glass break went off and then restored about after 6 min. I received a text on both the alarm and then restoral.

2) When I logged in later in the day - my status said I was armed but showed "Exit Delay" rather than Armed Away. I still don't understand why the status just sits at Exit Delay yet shows my Vista 20p as armed.

3) I had to then disarm and re-arm to Away. Now my status correctly shows Armed Away again.


First thing I need to figure out is why did my glass break go off. I guess it is possible that a bird hit the window. But the window in question is small and I have never seen a bird strike it. I am going to need to be back on site to check out the issue.

Second, when the glass break went off and then restored 6 min later; I can not understand why I see a status Exit Delay rather than the Vista 20p resetting itself to Armed Away. I had key in my user code as noted in 3 above and re-arm the system to get the Armed Away status message.

It seems like I have something funky going on......wiring issue maybe, option set wrong....not sure.