I have a 2GIG system and I’m looking at adding some sensors to my garage doors. The Honeywell tilt sensors look like just the ticket. My dilemma is this - on the 2GIG system I can configure these with a separate entry delay of up to 240 seconds; great, that gives enough time to get out of the car and go in the house. The issue is arming the system - there doesn’t seem to be a way to configure a longer exit delay. 60 seconds would be really tight to arm the system, leave the house, start the car, and get the door closed. Add a getting a toddler into a car seat and it’s not going to happen.
Right now the only thing I can think of is that I would need to arm the system from the iPhone app - couldn’t “arm away” from the panel anymore (unless I first pull out the car, get out, go back in the house, arm the system, etc).
I wanted to get your take on it since there are some smart folks here!
The Resolution Product Honeywell/2GIG compatible tilt sensors were one of my favorite features on my system. I had them set up as “non-response” type and set up notifications for them. I knew when someone got home (and with activity monitoring saw if they forgot to close the door…). I’ve since upgraded to the new LiftMaster gateway and panel (888LM & 828LM) so I can now actually open and close remotely. Which is awesome. I especially like having it for if I need someone to drop by and let the dog out for me, or when a maintenance professional needs access to the garage while I’m gone.
That being said, I absolutely would not use anything on the overhead garage door as part of the alarm. Increasing the delay enough to give me time to mess with bags, my nieces in car seats, the dog, etc would give a bad guy a lot of leeway if that was their entry point preference. I’ve got the door from my garage to the house security monitored, and I use motion detectors as secondary protection for any one coming in through the garage. And I keep the delay as short as possible. (I usually turn off the alarm while I drive up, from my phone, but if not I turn it off before I put anything down when I walk in the door as habit, and that annoying beeping helps keep me from forgetting.)
I’ve left my tilts up, along with their notifications, so if someone has opened the over head door, I’m alerted to it. I usually know if someone should be coming home and if they are, they’re also going to turn off the alarm and go into the house. It’s not perfect, but I prefer that set up to the numerous false alarms I’ve seen when people use tilts as security alarm enabled.
Thanks for your quick response! Now I’m considering the LiftMaster too…does it integrate with the Alarm.com app, or is it a separate interface? Would I still need the tilts to get remote notifications when the doors open?
The equipment integrates with Alarm.com. (LiftMaster also has their own separate interface, but you can only have the equipment registered with one or the other, so I’d stay away from the stand alone.) And you can setup notifications for opening and closing with your Alarm.com powered account through the Garage feature, which saves you from adding the garage doors to your activity monitored sensor count.
The exit delay is configured in Q5. It can be set as high as 120 seconds.
Q5: Enter exit delay, in seconds (45-120)
I agree with Amanda, in most cases it’s a bad idea to let your overhead garage door trigger the security alarm because it’s very easy to not make it inside in time to disarm. Sometimes it makes sense though. For example, if you keep a significant amount of valuables in your garage or if you don’t park your car in your garage.
If you do decide to let your overhead garage door trigger the alarm then I recommend installing a mechanism for the entry countdown to beep in the garage and remind you to disarm. There are several ways to do this. The two most common are:
Install a wired 12V siren or piezo sounder in the garage and wire it between the programmable output (black wire) and +14VDC (red wire) on the back of the 2GIG panel. Then program Q78 to either "follows internal sounder" or "follows exit/entry beeps". The siren will chirp with the entry countdown. The RE116-U wireless siren might work well for this too but I haven't tried it yet. Sounds like an experiment is in order...
Install a TS1 in the garage. Just remember that the TS1 touchscreen might not work very well or at all in extreme cold. The TS1 datasheet says "The recommended storage temperature for all Touch Screens is 10°C to 60°C (14°F to 140°F). For optimal Touch Screen use, operational temperature is 0°C to 49°C (32°F to 120°F)."
If you do decide to let the overhead garage door trigger the alarm you will need a tilt sensor, Liftmaster products can not trigger an alarm. We have some customers that install both Liftmaster MyQ for remote control and an RE206 tilt sensor to trip the security alarm.
I have an RE206 mounted on my garage door. What’s the proper settings in the 2gig panel to have the RE206 NOT trigger the alarm? I would still like to receive notifications when the garage door has been opened/closed or left open.
Under response type in the programming, select “no response type”. Make sure you have the sensor selected for activity monitoring and that you’ve set up any notifications you want for the sensor.
Just following up with Ryan’s suggestion that the RE116-U would work as a sounder. He is correct, I just setup a test unit and it worked like a charm when wired into the Open Collector output and was programmed to follow Entry/Exit Beeps.
Thanks Amanda. I changed it to no response type and open and shutting the door no longer sets off the alarm. Is there way to get the me if my garage door is open or shut? The system status indicates it’s “Idle”.
You can have the panel chime to let you know the garage door is opened, you can see the status on Alarm.com of whether the garage door is opened or closed and you can have Alarm.com send you a notification when the garage door is opened.
If it says the status is idle then Alarm.com thinks the sensor is a motion detector instead of a contact. Change the sensor “equipment type” field in 2GIG programming from (2) motion to (1) contact and then it should show as open/closed instead of idle/activated.
I dont use a garage door opener, so I went a different route with my garage door sensor…I don’t use a tilt sensor at all I use a waterproof magnetic reed switch, and a dw10 set for loop 1
My interior garage door into house also has a sensor (dw20)
The reed switch is $20 on eBay…And a dw10 is around $15
I really love this thread…
have visited here multiple times…
and finally have a question around this.
I currently have the following setup in my 3-car garage, all running off of a 2gig system.
(2 lift doors, one 2-car lift door, and one 1-car lift door):
2 motion detectors (cover the entire garage)
Open/close sensor on garage door into home
RE116-U (To remind my wife to disarm)
I currently have the motion detectors set to (10) interior with delay.
Upon returning home, the motion sensors trigger once the garage doors begin to open…
and we have the delay set long enough to allow time to get inside and turn it off…
but short enough to not allow much time for someone that happens to get into the garage.
(although if they’re “gone in 60 seconds”…well then they can take whatever they want.)
I now realize that we won’t know if we’ve left w/ the garage doors (lifts) open…although if anyone enters the garage…
We’ll know about it shortly after.
and I’d now rather not even tempt someone to see an open garage & enter at all…
(No cameras in there either - yet)
So what are the pros & cons of both methods listed from Amanda & from riven above?
(I’m thinking - Amanda’s - I need extra apps/control panels?
and with riven’s - Our garage is always open prior to us leaving, wouldn’t the system complain of an open sensor when trying to arm it?)
PS - Side question…what other options,
aside from the RE116-U,
can we put on the open collector and follow the entry countdown?
(The RE116-U is quite abrasive…
a nice “beep” would be optimal over it’s “warble”)
As always…thank ALL of you for your input…I LOVE this forum!!
So what are the pros & cons of both methods listed from Amanda & from riven above?
(I’m thinking – Amanda’s – I need extra apps/control panels?
and with riven’s – Our garage is always open prior to us leaving, wouldn’t the system complain of an open sensor when trying to arm it?)
Are you asking to compare the Alarm.com Liftmaster integration with the wired garage door sensor or to compare the Resolution Products garage door tilt sensor with the wired garage door sensor? My opinion is:
Alarm.com Liftmaster integration: The most useful. You can get an alert when you leave your garage door open and you can actually close it remotely.
Wired garage door sensor: The most reliable. It’s more expensive and more work to install than a tilt sensor but if you install it well it will probably never false alarm. If you use a 2GIG-DW10-345 as the transmitter then I recommend putting it inside in the AC/heat instead of out in the garage.
Garage door tilt sensor: The cheapest and easiest to install. They have been known to false alarm more than a magnetic reed switch sensor so we recommend it just be used for “garage door left open” notifications and checking status - not for triggering the security alarm.
what other options,
aside from the RE116-U,
can we put on the open collector and follow the entry countdown?
(The RE116-U is quite abrasive…
a nice “beep” would be optimal over it’s “warble”)
Anything that makes noise when triggered by 12 volts or a NO sensor input should work. I agree, the RE116-U can really wake you up when you walk in and hear it. It’s the best wireless solution I’ve found for this so I just deal with the loudness. I’d love to hear other ideas.
We are contemplating adding the garage door tilt sensors to our alarm. We would be setting these as non responsive. When we arm the alarm would the keypad main screen status bar show these as open/closed?
We basically just want an easy visual as we arm the system at night that the garages are not open since we have left them open many times.
As a non-reporting sensor, no it would not show that status on the top bar, nor would it affect the security button color as those sensors needn’t be closed to arm the system. It would be something you would use Activity Monitoring and your ADC App to check status.
