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[arizona480]

This is interesting....  So I used a carpet cleaner over the weekend an placed a metal frame (coated with paint) small dining room table about 3 feet from a DS-10A door sensor which is about 8 feet away from the second console and 12 feet from the primary console.   The table was not right in front of the sensor, but in the line of signal fire.  I was opening and closing the doors in combination with using the A/C to dry things out and I noticed the main console would show the door zone as open, but the second console would not several times.

When I started to open and close that zone many times to test it, the main console picked up the commands while the secondary one would get 1 out of 10.  When I moved the table back to it's home location which is out of the line of both consoles and the door sensor, they registered the open/close commands every time.
Anyone else experience this with objects that are not totally solid interfering with signals to your security consoles?

[dave w]

Pretty weird....and shouldn't be happening. Is the DS10 right at table height? The security sensors transmit at 310MHz. As long as they are not stuck directly to metal (like side of refrigerator) I don't understand the second console not receiving. If me I would replace DS10 batteries. And then just for giggles I would try moving the table about a foot in any direction and retest. See how far you have to move the table to get second console to trigger. You said metal frame table, not full metal(?).

[Brian H]

If it is a SC100 security console.
Its antenna is wrapped around the case in a slot between the top and bottom cover. That can alter its reception pattern. Maybe the metal frame is also altering the DS10 RF pattern.

There is a modification for SC1200 consoles here. To extend the antenna for better reception. As some have reported reception issues.

[LostDog88]

There is a modification for SC1200 consoles here. To extend the antenna for better reception. As some have reported reception issues.

Where?

[JeffVolp]

310MHz is pretty much line of sight.  Anything dense or metallic that gets directly between the transmitter and receiver can attenuate the signal.

Jeff

[Tuicemen]

Any metal close enough to the RF source can either attract or reflect the RF signal that is how a passive antenna mod works.
The larger the metal object the further it has to be away in order not to affect the signal.

[dhouston]

Metal must be extremely close to the RF source in order to act as a passive radiator. Jeff is probably correct that it's acting to block or deflect the line-of-sight signal.

[arizona480]

Pretty weird....and shouldn't be happening. Is the DS10 right at table height? The security sensors transmit at 310MHz. As long as they are not stuck directly to metal (like side of refrigerator) I don't understand the second console not receiving. If me I would replace DS10 batteries. And then just for giggles I would try moving the table about a foot in any direction and retest. See how far you have to move the table to get second console to trigger. You said metal frame table, not full metal(?).

The DS10 is just above the baseboard, so about 2-3 inches off of the ground.  I will grab a pic of the table, it's just a rounded metal frame with a glass top which was off when it was moved.

Here is the table in it's "home" location and then covered with a fresh Costco load with the #1 console in the background so you can see the console height.  Note it works fine here, but not when I moved it to clean.