Setup and Installation Best Practices
Building materials, obstructions, distance, and general RF interference are highly variable across different environments and from time of day. It is for this reason that we highly suggest you adhere to the following guidelines to ensure that your wireless system operates to the best of its ability.
Adding your Wireless Hub to Command:
Take the cover off of your alarm hub and plug the device into a PoE Switch
Go to Devices > Add Device and select a site. This will be your Alarms site
Enter the 12 character serial number beginning with DQ6 located on the bottom of the device or on the box that was provided
After activating your hub, follow the setup flow to configure your Alarms site, if you added it to an existing Alarms site you can simply exit out of this flow
Navigate to the Alarms Devices tab and verify that your wireless hub is reporting online and the LED on the hub is solid blue
Adding your Wireless Sensors to Command:
Place your wireless sensors right next to the wireless hub. We will be verifying that all of your sensors are properly communicating with your hub and reporting events to Command prior to installing the sensors in their final locations.
You can add your wireless sensors to Command one of two ways:
Setting your Hub in Learning Mode (Recommended):
Navigate to your Alarms sites, and select the site that you want your wireless sensor(s) added to
Navigate to the Alarms Devices bubble and select "+" > Add Wireless sensor. When you see the Learning Mode Window, the hub(s) in your org will be in Learning Mode.
Adding your Wireless Sensors by SN:
Select the Devices page then select Add Device and select a site. This is the Alarms site that your wireless sensor will be associated with
Enter the 12 character serial number located on the sensor or on the box that was provided and select Activate
This will automatically associate the sensor to the Alarms site and the hub(s) in your organization will be in Learning Mode.
Learning Mode Window
Note: Wireless sensors and hubs do NOT have to exist in the same Alarms site. As long as the Learning Mode Window is open, the hub(s) in your organization will continue to actively add wireless sensors that have not been added to an organization.
Power ON your Wireless Sensors
When the sensors are first powered on, they will automatically try to join the closest hub that is in learning mode.
Pull the battery tabs from your sensor(s) to power on the device. The sensors should automatically show up in the Learning Mode Window. If the sensor is not reporting:
Power cycle the sensor by completely removing the batteries and re-adding the batteries to the sensor
Initiate trigger event(s) as detailed in the Wireless Deep Dive guide above for your particular sensor (door open/close, motion detected, button press, etc.)
Once the sensor(s) have communicated with your hub, the Learning Mode Window should display a green dot next to the unnamed sensor. From here you can:
Set the name of the sensor
Display the sensor type
Display the last event
Sensor serial number
Battery level
Signal strength
Attaching nearby camera(s) to the sensor
Validating Wireless Sensor Coverage
From this point, we should place the hub as close to the desired location as possible such as the center of the floor/building for maximum coverage.
The most recent sensor events will be time stamped in the Alarms site Devices tab. You can monitor this page to ensure that sensor events are being reported to Command and the sensors current signal strength
Relocate your wireless sensors to their desired install locations and send several trigger events (door open/close, motion detected, panic button press, glass break tester, and shorting the metal contacts on the water sensor)
If the events are being reported to Command, you can install the sensor in its final location and send one more event for good measure, otherwise:
If no events are being received, move closer to the hub to determine if the issue is related to signal coverage
If you find that events are being received when you move closer to the hub, perform a site walk to determine if there are any obstructions that could be dampening the signal
You can also choose to reposition the hub for better coverage and restart the testing
Finally, if the above fails you may want to consider purchasing an additional hub and license to fully cover your floor/building