X10 Community Forum
🛡Home Security => Home Security General => Topic started by: tamatohi on January 28, 2005, 01:08:20 AM
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The zone lights on the console don't go out
making it impossible to arm the system
without using the bypass. And WHO wants to
do that?? This is causing marital stress
and frustration on my part. I am using
fresh batteries and signal repeaters.
Comeon, Guys and Gals, aren't we ALL having
this nasty problem??
What are your solutions??
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Yeah, I hate when that happens. Occasionally
the motion sensor reports "on" but not "off"
then it sticks. I just need to walk in front
of it. I really enjoyed this system until my
family stopped using it because they couldn't
get it to arm properly.
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To get the zone lights to go out after the
alarm has activated, you have to turn off
the security light with the remote control
that comes with the system.(or key remote)
Then you can re-arm without having to bypass
any zones.
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In order to get around the by-pass pass mode
X10 Support suggested that I unplug the
console and remove the battery and register
everything again. What a pain. I have 8
doors and 5 security motion sensors to do
each time. After having done this process
for the third time, I now have one zone
registering a low battery, which is a false
signal b/c I've changed out the batteries
twice with new and tested ones to insure
they are good. Now, I have an 5 ding sound
that fires off every 36 minutes for 6
cycles, goes to one after 21 minutes, then
back to the 36 minute cycle. I have simply
covered the console to muffle the sounds.
But, I'm not having to by-pass the blankety
blank thing anyway. It is amazing what it
does to the marital situation - my wife is
about to go sleep in a motel.
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See if you can get a different console.
That sure is not typical
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I have the same problem. I have had the
system for about two weeks and have had it
armed for a period of 24 straight hours,
only once during that time.
Do these things work at all? Has anyone had
one in service for a while without having
to reset over and over
I have been able to set it, when leaving
the house, only twice since I have had it.
most of the time I just turn it off because
there is at least one problem light on.
If I can't find a solution soon I guess the
only recourse will be to send it back for a
refund.
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Every now and then one of my motion sensors
gets stuck on, easily fixed when I walk in
front of it. Never had to resort to resetting
the whole thing.
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Like Joel, I once in a while have to walk
in front of a motion detector to get it to
check in with the console. Then after
getting out of view of the motion detector
for a few seconds it arms no problem. Make
sure you are not continuously tripping the
motion detector.
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Dick, I have asked for a new console,
forwarding my problem story to Support. No
word back as yet...will let you know. Thx
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Dick, if you have a console that doesn't have
station lights that don't go out, I WOULD
LOVE TO BUY IT!!
It would be great if X-10 tech support would
solve this problem for us. I would gladly
pay more for a better quality product.
Who ELSE has this problem????
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How come say, an ADT wireless system works
flawlessly but X10 has problems like this?
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I had the same problems, I finally unplugged
the console. System apperas to work fine
with door/window sensors, but definetly not
with motion detector. Obviously this device
is not reliable so i will return it. How con
you use a security system that doesn't work?!!
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my system works great with 2 motion sensors
and 7 door / window sendors and 2 lamp
modules and 2 horns
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I Think I have finally figured out the
problem with the system.
In the door/window sensors. the lower
contact for the battery on the left side
was loose and not making good contact. I
just took a small screw driver and pulled
up on the spring and now I have a good
contact and the system has worked ever
since, that is about a week so far. before
that, all I was able to get was four days
at the most.
I really like the system and what it will
do, for the price. so now only time will
tell, if the fix was sufficiant.
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Me to!
I put brand new batteries in the sensor. 4
days later ding ding freakin A. Happened
twice. I actually got my house broken into
when I thought for sure my house was armed.
They came in, no sirens, no dial out, and
lost an $8000 4wheeler!!!
Guess you get what you pay for ! You guys
have the right idea but you have to fine
tune it! Go back to the drawing board! you
have great ideas! Make them work! I'll pay
extra$$$
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Marc, What a bummer! I have been
considering contacting my insurance company
for a discount with my system, but this sure
doesn't give a very good endorsement. My
system seems to be working fine except I
still have a 5 ding report every 35 minutes.
Support has yet to answer my emails or
return my phone calls. Other than that I
can say that my sensor worked fine. A large
canvas fell over in my studio while I was in
another state. The motion sensor tripped the
alarm and it dialed my cell number and two
other numbers very repidly. Wish I could
eliminate the frequent ding ding ding ding
ding thing - but I am habituating - ignoring
it most of the time now.
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5 chimes, every hour or so, throughout the
day & night. Fresh batteries... I removed
individual components and I'm now just down
to a ds7000 consile and a door/window
sensor, console still chimes 5 times in
succession.
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Ok. I reset all the sensors and I am using
everything but the motion detectors. It
appears that the M.D. are cousing a problem.
(I did not return the unit because you only
have 30 days MBG) If anyone had problems with
the motions and figured how to fix it please
let us know. Thanks
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The 5 rings happens with a Motion Detector
or a Door Sensor. I beleive this is a defect
in the some of systems as a whole.
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Good thing I read this before offering to
sell and install these things with my
customers. I offer free system tweaking for
the life of the warranty and that would have
been a big hassle.
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Has anyuone found a fix for the 5 rign
issue. My console started doing this today
after several months of no problems. If it
is a sensor is there anyway to pinpoint
which one it is?
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John, I sure hope someone comes up with the
solution. I have simply covered my console
with a pad to buffer the tone. You will
habituate to it over time like having a
grandfather clock that gongs each hour - BUT
wouldn't it be nice to silence it correctly.
Since X-10 Tech Support doesn't respond to
their problem I seldom even look at their ads
any longer. Too bad.
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I have used an x-10 security system
successfully for over 7 years. One tip: if
you're having trouble with the sensors,
first, turn the motion detectors TOWARDS
the wall so that they aren't picking up any
motion; then remove all the sensor from the
module by putting the console on "install"
and pressing and holding Arm Home, Arm
Away, and Panic at the same time. Then,
one by one, re-install all the sensors,
being careful not to let them install twice
(hence turing the motion detectors to the
wall so they don't pick anything up).
After everything has been reinstalled, take
the console off "install" and fix the
pointing of the motion detectors. This has
worked on the few times things got off-
kilter.
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Well, Gus MY DING DONG PATTERN HAS INCREASED
TO EIGHT BELLS (sure miss the old 5
chimes)...and the sound has changed to a very
high pitched frequency that is hard to
ignore. Not sure why this has happened except
my ActiveHome Pro hookup was worthless so I
have tried to move back to my IBM Home
Director. The mystery goes on. X10 Grimlins
continue to play in my household!
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I just purchased the home security system.
One week after having it installed, I began
to the 5 bells. When I contacted the Tech
help, the guy said my battery was bad. No
way, it was brand new. So I unplugged the
console to erase all its memory. reinstalled
all the components. Well the bells stopped
but now the system wont arm. I agained
called Tech who said the console was bad. I
was told to return it and a new one will be
sent. Two weeks go by, no new concole. Call
tech, have to wait for them to put the old
on back in the system before a new one can
be sent. Great. All this money, a 30 day
warranty and 25 of those days I dont have a
complete system! SEND YOUR Console back! It
is defective.
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Pam, Welcome to the club of frustration.
Actually, I'd say MOST of the time my
security system works okay - but with some
chronic gliches to contend with.I have a
pretty expanded system with door/window
sensors, motion sensors everywhere, etc. - so
it is more prone to occassional quirks. My
console shows one of my door alarms as having
a low battery too - yet I have installed new
ones to no avail. It can be armed with a
by-pass command - yet sometimes it will arm
w/o doing that. In all, X-10 has some real
design problems or else has some built-in
gremlins. Sounds like you definitely have a
bad console. Maybe you can get a refund and
buy something from SmartHome instead. I'm
having to do that with my lousy ActiveHome
Pro - but I won't get a refund - instead I
just get a lesson in not believing X10s
fraudulent marketing.
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Thanks you guys, I just gave my credit card
information to become a reseller for my
webstore www.shoparooonline.com which has
tons of great stuff, but I refuse to sell
anything that has faults like you guys are
experiencing. Sorry to hear your dilemas on
the ding dong issue. I am not rubbing
anything in but I believe you always get
what you pay for when it comes to
electronics, and I almost dipped into my
VISA account for the grand daddy system. We
have high crime here and low lighting and
bad police surveillance to look after out
hamlet of 283 people in Canada here. I hate
to pay $1000's to have a peek at who broke
my window or tried to get into my garage,
the police just let the young kids go
without a hitch and we end up with higher
insurance bills!!! Maybe it's time to find
somewhere else to go......... good luck to
all, my condolences on the faulty capacitor
or shorting photocell, this is what I think
is happening, maybe a tech in your towns
can take a quick check and test them for a
faulty transistor, resistor, or capcitor.
Bye all.
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So best thing. Unplug and remove batteries
from console. Go cover all motion sensors
with something heavy like a thick dish
towell. Replug in the console, put it on
install.
Press Arm Home on the remote and hear a
ding (repeat using arm on other remotes as
needed)
Now trigger a sensor (door/window or
motion) you should hear 1 ding. When doing
motion sensors reach under towell and press
button to send signal or uncover the sensor
and when you hear the ding cover right back
up.
Set the console from install to position 1.
Arm the console to test it. Use Arm Away
for all testing. Sometimes it wont arm the
first time you press. If this happens Press
Disarm Away, then Arm Away, then Disarm
Away then Arm Away again. Toggles console
out of confusion.
If its working with 1 or two sensors go
ahead and setup all the way. Sometimes you
have to reset it and set them all up from
the beginning in a row. The key is to be
very careful not to enter the same sensor
twice.
The console itself is fairly stable and in
most cases is not defective if it wont arm.
The random beeping thing is usually an
unfixable problem.
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So many posts in here WOW...
If the lights on the console are on then
YES the system will not arm except in
bypass mode. This is because there is a
defect in the sensor it thinks it is being
tripped.
Common issue is that a sensor was entered
into the console twice. The console is not
very smart so if you program it one day and
the next day someone puts it on install and
triggers a sensor of some sort you will get
an extra zone programmed. This will cause
all sorts of erratic behaviors.
A real common thing to cause this is the
motion sensors. When you are first setting
up the system when you have it on install
if the mostion sensor sees you twice it
will enter itself twice as zone 1 and zone
2 for example....console will not arm at
this point.
If your console is beeping multiple times
in a row in 1/2 hour increments or
something like that it is likely defective,
try resetting it but you need to get x10 to
exchange it for a new one is the likely
answer!
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Well, If so much needs to be done to make it
work properly who can trust in this device?
I cannot leave my home and think my system
has my place protected. I think they should
fix all these problems before putting out to
the market specially being a security
device.
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I may be wrong, but it seems that it is
great to have this forum to discuss our
problems with X10. I know at least 100 of
you under various subject headings have
expressed frustration over this console
problem. I am a new owner of a DS7000 and
am not a X10 employee. What occured to me
last night reading all the problems is that
most web sites don't have forums like this
so we never hear about product problems or
the number of returns. Have you ever had to
wait in those long return lines at WalMart
or Home Depot? With all the millions of X10
systems sold to have only 100 people
experiencing problems it seems like a very
low failure rate to me. My somewhat naive
suggestion is return the defective console
and get a new one. Too bad we don't have a
customer review section like Amazon.com so
we could get a better feel for how good the
product is. If we could see that 98% of
those purchasing a DS7000 gave it 4 stars or
greater then we all could have greater
confidence in the products.
art
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timflan6, I believe you are making some
statistical assumptions about only 100
unhappy customers and an equal number of
defective products. What I find more
interesting is that X10 support never reacts
to the forum grumbles nor attempted contacts
with them. Early on they had a great group of
tech support people, then it seems they fled
the coop. Now all efforts seem to be aiimed
at marketing and not fixing problems. If you
go way back on the forum you will see that
these are not new problems yet they keep
popping up. The fixes are ignored and the
sales continue. Check out some of the other
X10 forums and you will also learn that their
inattention to fixes is not limited to their
security system. I have a highly praised
ActiveHome Pro which I will gladly sell to
you half price and pay the shipping, too. The
high praises are on the marketing pages if
you care to explore. The dance goes on but
the customers are the ones getting their toes
stepped on. Your rating idea would be a good
thing to have. I was a great ambassador for
X10 but now I advise against purchases. Try
SmartHome - I'm not an employee of either.
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Well I have had the system also installed
for a week now, 16 Window Sensors, I have
been reading the forum and hoped I didn't
get the 5 ding dongs, but just got them
tonight out of one door sensor. What do you
all recommend in place of the ds7000, does
the Smarthome or Radio shack model allow all
the door sensors to work properly, and do
any of them offer a second console to put in
another room to see what zones are causing
the alarm?
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JerB, I went to smarthome website and found
that they sell 2 types of systems. a) The
same DS7000 that is on the X10 website and
b) a Securelinc security product that can
produce some limited X10 functionality. The
security sensors are not compatible with X10
and an interface box is needed to operate
X10 controls for lights. Did you suggest we
go to Smarthome because we would get better
tech support there or was it because the
Securelinc system is superior to X10?
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Sorry. My SmartHome suggestion was not from
my experience with it. I was generalizing
based on an earlier posting about ActiveHome
Pro, which also is a bigger problem for me in
terms of my overall home automation. I have
copy/pasted that posting. It offers a wider
view of X10s design problems and lack of
fixes. Go to that subject to verify.
Here tis:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Short note of advice to all X10 users. Don't
buy ActiveHomePro.
If you own it, dump it. Switch to SmartHome
controller and antena, you will save yourself
many frustrating hours. I was an
ActiveHomePro advocate for many months. I
contributed to their forums and fixed many a
problem for them. I finaly got tired of one
problem after another with no fix in site.
The last straw was software registration,
re-installing AHP would not let me register
my software on their site, this went on for
over a week without being fixed. Their
hardware is shacky, their software is
terrible, their marketing practices are bad,
and their service is pittifull. I switched to
SmartHome products. Everything worked right
out of the box, has been working error free
for over 3 weeks now. I could only get AHP to
run error free for a week or so. I have the
same dream everyone has that gets into X10
home automation - I want the lights on when I
program them to be on. When the system fails
I do not want excuses, I want to come home to
a warm / lighted home, not a dark cold one.
Advice summary - Buy X10 AHP bundles, they
have good prices on bundles of equipment,
most of their switches / modules / etc. work
well.
Do not use AHP software or the controller if
purchased as part of a bundle. You will have
problems with your PC after installing their
software. The RF range limitation on their
controller will drive you nuts and the CM15A
they ship is bad (unless you get the newer
one - diagnostic controller).
Buy SmartHome's controller and antena, more
expensive but well worth the few extra bucks.
The antena range is around 150 feet and the
USB controller works as advertised - no major
problems.
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I think I will just stay up and watch for
trespassers with my flash light. LOL and
then some......
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Just posting that I too have the 5 ding
problem with my DS7000. It's gone on long
enough, but my wife and I have grown tired of
the noise it makes (especially when we're
talking on the phone). I wish X10 actually
cared about their customers...
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Greg, When you are on the phone and the
annoying 5 ding sounds, just tell your
callers that you have expanded your business
and they are hearing the forklift operator
backing up nearby. Gotta laugh...X-10 does
at us! Jer
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Just got off the phone with tech support
because I too just started having the 5
ding problem. Here is what he said. The
system is reporting a (NO COMMUNICATION
PROBLEM). It could be due to a battery
problem or interferance from other
signals. I am able to arm the system and
it is not reporting a problem. He
recommended the following. Clear the memory
and re-register all sensors. I have 9
door/window and 2 motion sensors. If
problem persist it will do so in about 1/2
an hour after re-registering. No other
solution was givin if it happens again. By
the way my system is new and barely a month
old when this started today. Any solutions
welcomed.
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Here is an update and hope it helps. What I
have been doing after the 5 ding dongs is
hold the bypass button down, everytime I do
this zone 3 would flash slowly. I thought
that this may be an indication that zone 3
is the cause of the problem. I re-
registered all my zones and replaced the
batteries on zone 3. The problem did not
go away. It then thought that this could
be zone 11 that is causing the problem.
(BTW, when was the last upgrade to this
system, why cant they just put 16 led's)
Anyway I re-registered all my zones except
zone 11. Since then the system has not
dinged/donged us. One more thing. When I
got my system and 1st started setting it up
I had a problem with this zone 11
door/window sensor. The led was very dim,
I played with the batteries and contacts
and was able to get it to function. It
acted up a few days later and again I was
able to get it going. After that I had no
problems until it started dinging on me. I
am going to leave this zone out for about a
week to see if problem returns. Will get
back to you. Has anyone else held down the
bypass button as an indication of what zone
is causing the problem like mine.
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I love X-10 for certain things but it is
CHEAP. Buy a professionally installed
quality system and bypass the problems. I
even have X-10 stuff tied into my HAI
system and they work fine. I would never
rely on X-10 as my main security system.
Kind of like buying a $10 gun to go to off
to war.
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I agree with Jim. But it's too bad, because
x10 has some cool ideas, they just
manufacture it badily, rendering it useless.
IF you're going to install for a customer,
who wants to hear "This may ding every hour,
here's how to reset it everytime..."
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Has anyone tried the 49-1000 from
RadioShack? Does it work with X10 modules?
(I read it is made by X10 for RS)