I tried running the communication test (*44) twice now, but I don’t think it worked. The alarm sounds, I let it go for about 20 seconds before turning it off. When I attempt to log into my alarm.com account, I get the following error:
Your control panel has not communicated with Alarm.com. Please make sure your control panel is powered on then try again. If you are still having trouble, please contact us.
I don’t have the installer code for my alarm box, so I can’t check the Location/Segment/Bit settings. I still have service with my current monitoring company (monitored using the POTS line). Do I need to contact them for the installer code before I can get any further with troubleshooting this?
The Cell module may be having trouble registering, and you may need to power cycle the panel/module and repeat the cell test in a case like this.
However, for this account specifically, I actually sent a ping and it started communicating and downloading the initial connection commands, so you should be good to go. Now that your panel has communicated with Alarm.com and confirmed its versioning, you will be able to log into Alarm.com. You may still need to power cycle and confirm the highest zone number in order for everything to sync.
If you need the installer code reset, you can submit a secure message requesting this from our team.
Thanks Jason. That post from ‘Dexter’ was created by the Customer Support team on my behalf.
I have confirmed that I am now able to log into my alarm.com account. I was also able to send an ‘arm’ command to my panel using the Android app, and that seemed to verify communication with my panel is working. It also looks like it identified the Master and Installer codes when it had me configure the users of the system, so I have those codes now - no need to reset them.
However, it does not see any of my sensors yet. I power-cycled the panel about 20 minutes ago, but when I refresh the alarm.com dashboard page it still says:
“You have no sensors programmed into your panel. Contact your dealer to setup additional sensors.”
You mentioned that I may need to confirm the highest zone number before it will sync. I wasn’t prompted to do that. Is that done in one of the configuration menus?
Equipment requests are still not showing any local sensors programmed into the panel.
There may be some conflict with the fact that existing account information is likely programmed into the panel if you still have land-line service at the moment, however we would need to verify that and test other avenues.
By default the highest zone number is set at 8, however we ave tried setting that at 64 and no devices are listed. Can you confirm the zone numbers used by your sensors?
Can you verify whether you can run a successful cell phone test at this time?
I do still have a monitoring contract, so the system is configured to call out using the POTS connection.
There are 24 zones, but I’m not sure how to confirm that the numbering starts at 1 (I’m reviewing the installer manual now to see how I determine that).
When the system connected with alarm.com two user codes were discovered that were previously unknown to me. I’ve determined one to be the Master code (I can perform functions like ,9,0 to look at the event log with it), but does not work for programming (,8 commands). I’m not sure what the other code is since it doesn’t work for either programming or master functions.
Without the installer code, I can’t confirm the Location 37 Segment 2 Bit 7 is enabled, which seems to be required for the cell test. (I also can’t turn off the bit 6 so the siren sounds each time I do a test!). I just ran a test, but don’t see any changes in the alarm.com dashboard.
Alright, we’ve gone ahead and sent that over. I’ve also sent a command to make sure the cell phone test is enabled, so you should be able to go ahead and try that now.
Thanks. I just ran a (brief) *44 test.Can you also disable the bell? (Location 37 Segment 2 Bit 6 should be disabled if you want to prevent the siren from sounding with a *44.)
I just tried doing it with the defaulted installer code, but it doesn’t seem like the bit change stuck, because the siren just went off again when I did a *44. Somebody’s going to end up calling the police if I have the alarm sound off much more (at least I hope my neighbors would call the police if the kept hearing my alarm…)
Certainly, you should be able to access that programming now locally, however we are of course happy to help! We’ve sent a command to disable the bell during cell tests. Please allow 5 minutes for that to take effect.
Thanks! This is a new frontier for me, so it’ll take a while before I get comfortable with the configuration settings through the keypad. I ~thought~ I changed bit 6 to off, but after the alarm sounded when * did the *44, I checked again and found it was still on, so somehow my change didn’t stick.
In order to troubleshoot the empty equipment list, you will want to fully power cycle your panel, AC first, then battery, leave them unplugged for 30 seconds, then power back up battery first.
Finally run another cell test from the panel. Does this populate the sensors?
When I turned off the AC power, the system switched to the battery. However, after disconnecting the battery (for about 2 minutes), then reconnecting it, the system did not power back on. I think the battery is dead. The system did come back on after I reconnected AC power.
I thought my alarm was supposed to periodically run a self-test on the battery… I guess I need to check that.
I’ll go steal a known-good battery from a UPS and install it in the alarm panel.
Still no sensors in the list after the most recent *44 test, but I do see the test run in the history list. I’m going to replace the battery now and try another *44.
I swapped out the battery, but I don’t think it was a battery problem that caused it to fail to power back up when I reconnect only the battery.
The master power switch in the panel is a Moose MPI-267. It is designed to cut battery power when it falls below a certain voltage threshold. I don’t think it is designed to restore power when only battery power is re-applied.
If it is really important that I have it run on battery power before AC power is resumed, I can wire the battery directly to the control board (bypassing the MPI-267) Would you like me to do this, or would it be irrelevant?