Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - PIR strange (?) behaviour

I have installed a dialling wireless system, consisting of a

Base Unit
4 X PIRs
1 internal screamer
1 wireless external screamer.

My problem is with the PIRs.

I will say this here. Everybody has jumped at "comms problem", or the "rest period" of the PIRs in wireless systems. Sorry. Please read on. <G>

Unless there is somethong I really don;t know about:
- This is not a comms problem. When the PIRs _did_ "catch" me in Working Mode, the Base Unit would respond _every time_.
- It is not caused by the 3-minute "rest" period, that the PIRs have to save batteries. I waited 4 minutes at each test before entering the room.

What happened:

I installed them by placing them on the walls using Blu-Tac, putting them in Test Mode, then walk-testing them to see where the best "catch" placement was.

They showed very good "catch" rates. So I installed them permanently.

However, when I then tried them in Working Mode, I found that they appeared to be a lot less sensitive, and slower to respond.

This was significant. they would indicate a "catch" in all parts of the room in Test Mode, thenh let me waltz about wheh in Working Mode.

The only thing I will say is that they did catch me in the end, but sometimes it took 15-20 seconds of quite extensive movement, and some areas of the room were missed completely, that had been "caught" in Test mode easily.

Is this common? Is it to prevent misfires and false alarms?

I have had a very poor response from the vendor about this. He has avoided the issue by telling me to move the Base Unit.

I would appreciate any advice on this. The system _works_, but not as described, will miss a lot of the room(s) and can be misleading if you set it up in Test Mode and assume it works.

What brand of PIRs/System do you have?
Some work better than others.

I will say this much, if you bought a cheap system (like X-10 or worse) - well, the adage "you get what you pay for" does come to mind.

If you have something like a GE or ITI or Ademco system, then you shouldn't be having these problems.

You say you have 4 PIRs - are all of them acting this way? Is it just one or two? What areas are they in? Are they facing windows? Heat vents? Reflective materials (mirrors, glass, hardwood floors even)?

If you have a model number of the motions, I will look into for you - I have access to most products and manufacturers out there. I'd be more than happy to intermediate for you (when I get some spare time, that is.)

Give us a little more info to work with and we'll help out if we can.

Thanks for the reply.

It did not seem cheap to me. It cost nearly Aud$900 for the system.

I was actually not naming names deliberately. But I can see why you may need it. If you are in the US you have probably never heard of it.

securepro.com.au

I did a bit of looking around before buying, but in Oz the wireless choices seem limited. Every time I look up "wireless security" etc I get this same company, hit after hit. They seem to have lots of happy customers, and are referred to by many sites. Unfortunately I found no independent reviews. I HAD to have an alarm system, fast. Monitored ones have a bad rep here. Third burg in a year, and we were not going to be there for christmas.

All PIRs do it. I set them up very carefully according to the instructions. As you say, not facing windows, heat sources etc.

Again, the "catch" is excellent...in Test Mode. In Workiing Mode, it seems to be nowhere nearly as good.

I do not know more about the PIRs. They just have "PIR2" on them. They have sensitivity adjustment (2 or 4 sector by jumper) an adjustable PC board for height, a tamper switch, and a Test swtich that puts them in Test mode for 3 minutes. They use Silver Oxide button cells.

The system Base Unit is called a LS 9001-A.