Subscriber Discussion

When Does Alarm.Com Send Alarm Signals To Central?

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
•Jul 08, 2018

When a panel goes into alarm, at what point does ADC send the signal to the Central Station? When testing, I have had the panel go into alarm, then cancel the alarm by entering the dis arm code about 15 seconds into the alarm. The central never receives this notification. If I let the alarm go longer, the central gets it, and the cancel.

 

So is there a specific time period before ADC forwards the signal to the Central? Can this be changed?

 

I looked on their knowledge base and didn't see an answer and was hoping to get an answer on a Sunday.

 

 

U
Undisclosed #2
•Jul 08, 2018
IPVMU Certified

Which panel do you have specifically?

Found this for the IQ Panel and alarm.com:

The IQ Panel by default has a Dialer Delay for all burglary alarm signals.

A dialer delay is a delay period between when an alarm is tripped and when the signal is forwarded to the central station. This is a way panels combat false alarm response by limiting unnecessary dispatch on accidental alarms.

If you take a look in your Alarm.com activity history, this event is listed as a Pending Alarm. Whenever you see the word “Pending” that means a signal was sent to ADC with dialer delay. ADC then forwards the signal when the dialer delay period ends. A second confirmed Alarm signal is actually sent to ADC from your panel, which gets sent to the central station.

In your case the panel was disarmed within the dialer delay, so no signal was forwarded. This is normal and expected. The central station would not see this event, but you would see the “Pending” event in Alarm.com activity.

The default time length for dialer delay is 30 seconds on the IQ Panel.

You can adjust dialer delay in your IQ Panel programming to between 15-45 seconds under Settings – Installation – Siren and Alarms.

 

(1)
UI
Undisclosed Integrator #3
•Jul 09, 2018

DSC, and many others, have a dialer delay. This is done by the panel and not the communicator

 

LT
Larry Tracy
•Jul 09, 2018

I set my Honeywell panels to a 30 second delay before transmission which cut down on a whole lotta user caused false alarms 

also dont use instant on any zones for the same reason. 

(1)
UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
•Jul 09, 2018
In reply to Larry Tracy

Larry, can you clarify? From my understanding, the primary entrance point would be set as a delay, and the other windows, doors would be set as instant. For example a there is no reason for a delay on a basement window.

 

So are you saying you set them all door/window contacts as delays?

 

Sorry for the basic questions, I had to terminate my only alarm tech and I am still looking for a replacement.

 

 

(1)
LT
Larry Tracy
•Jul 09, 2018
In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #1

I find that the homeowners forget and open things and they panic and don't turn the alarm off before transmission. Therefore I use delay on every zone.

back in the 90s one of the largest residential alarm companies did a indepth study of their false alarms and identified instant zones as one of the major causes. 

Good luck finding a tech it's not easy 

(1)
JH
John Honovich
•Jul 09, 2018
IPVM
In reply to Larry Tracy

Larry, thanks for sharing, very interesting!

What about the tradeoff? i.e., if it is a real intrusion and that delays response. How much of a concern is that? I totally see your point about homeowners forgetting things, I am just trying to understand any concern about the delay it adds, i.e., do you just do it or do you get the homeowner to agree to that delay explicitly? is it any legal concern?

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
•Jul 09, 2018
In reply to John Honovich

When I first read this, I thought the same thing, it will delay police response.

 

But is 30 - 60 seconds on top of a 45 minute response time a real issue? We tell clients police are probably not going to respond quickly and we are trying to push video verification.

 

(1)
JH
John Honovich
•Jul 09, 2018
IPVM
In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #1

But is 30 - 60 seconds on top of a 45 minute response time a real issue?

Well, a 45 minute response time :)

I don't know what typical response times are, but if it's 45 minutes why even have it centrally monitored at all? Everything / one would be long since stolen or killed at that point.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
•Jul 09, 2018
In reply to John Honovich

In our area, Atlanta, I do not think any agency is responding with lights and sirens blaring unless its a panic/ambush. We do NOT sell on emergency response, we promote the home automation, the ADC platform, having smoke/CO monitored, and video verification (though nobody has bitten on the video verification portion, close but not yet).

 

I do not think anyone can really expect a quick response on a typical front door open burglar alarm.

We are brand new and I have seen clients completely abuse police response. The very FIRST system we put in, the maintenance staff did not speak English (we just had a hard time training them) and set the alarm off at 8:50 AM on a weekday morning. The manager answered the call from the central and still had them dispatch the police. The maint shop was 200' from the office. 

 

Seeing what I have seen from such a small sampling of installed alarms, I see why places like Sandy Springs have had enough.

 

 

 

 

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