Need to disable sensor (Paradox Spectra 175x-RF)

Hi all,

I am a DIY'er needing information on the Paradox Spectra 175x-RF alarm.

I need to disable a sensor (I have a magnetic sensor on one door that is constantly false alarming and I just want to get rid of it as the area is adequately covered by other sensors).

The local alarm guys want an "arm and a leg" to play with these things so I would like to have a go at it myself.

I have the panel off and can see six cables coming in and I guess there is one for each sensor.

Can I just pull the wires out of the control board for each one until I find the door sensor by elimination?

Do I need to do any "programming" or is it just a matter of pulling the correct wires?

There is only one "zone" and the alarm is not connected to a monitoring company at the moment.

Regards Stuart, Auckland, New Zealand

(Please reply to the group as the email address used to log on to Google Groups is not a valid account at present).

Reply to
Cookie
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That's pretty easy to do. Remove the sensor from the wall and tape a magnet to the cover adjacent to the switch. Then, place the sensor on the shelf in the closet where the alarm's located. You will have to eventually change the battery. If the false alarms disappear then you know for sure it's an alignment problem between the switch and the magnet on the protected door/window. OTOH if you don't *need* the sensor, putting it in the closet as I've instructed will accomplish the same thing as unenrolling it from the control.

Frank Olson

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Reply to
Frank Olson

Thanks Frank!

Yes I think it is an alignment issue.

I had a sudden rush of blood to the head just now and pulled the sensor out of the door frame, cut the sensor off, and twisted the cable wires together. This has made the alarm think that the door is always closed.

I checked the alarm and it still works. No sparks or burning smells so that is great.

Thanks again. I feel stupid that in the end it was so easy. :-|

Regards Stuart

Reply to
Cookie

Not a problem. We all experience "tunnel vision" every now and then.

If this does happen to clear your problem, you might want to have another look at the alignment between the switch and the magnet. Sometimes doors can warp. I had one customer that called years ago to complain that his door contact no longer worked. It turns out that he had *replaced* the door and the contractor forgot to install the magnet from the old one. What's really amazing is that he waited three months to call us. He didn't want to incur the service charge either but decided (finally) that he should have the system fully functional for when he went on vacation. :-)

Reply to
Frank Olson

Can't ever seem to figure out why people feel that what an alarm company gets for a service call is lots of money but when the refrigerator or washing machine breaks down, they don't mind laying out a couple of hundred to get it working again. And some of the appliance repairmen get an up front fee even if they just show up and you decide you don't want it fixed.

Just doesn't compute.

Reply to
Jim

Heck, Jim, you *need* your refrigerator.

Reply to
Frank Olson

It's easy to see why they think they are entitled to free service. They pay a monthly monitoring fee and feel it is your responsibility to keep the equipment operating to earn your monitoring fee. I do charge for my service and my rates are reasonable. If I think the customer can't afford the service or is upset with the charge, I absorb it for the good will. Allan

Reply to
Allan Waghalter

By that logic they should expect the cable company to repair their TV when it conks out or the phone company to fix the phone, but they don't, I think the reason they expect so much from an alarm company is because as an industry we are too willing to give away our services in pursuit of recurring revenue. Someone only has to think about changing services and half the industry is ready to give away hundreds of dollars in time and materials that may take several years to recoup from the recurring revenue in order to keep the customer, the other half is ready to do the same in order to take the customer away, it doesn't make any sense to me, that said I'm not immune from occasionally falling into that trap.

Doug L

Reply to
Doug L

This is probably due in large part to the so-called "free" system deals that prevail in the trade today have devalued the systems themselves in the eyes of consumers. If the system is "free" and the only thing they have to buy is monitoring, it's a reasonable assumption for them that repairing the free system should also be free.

Good will can sometimes be worth more than the fee. A number of years ago when the country went through a major recession a lot of my customers lost their jobs. We got a number of monitoring service cancellations because families could not afford the fee (at the time we were charging less than $20 a month but when you have no job anything is expensive).

I responded to each one who cancelled that year by telling them that their service would be free for one year. "When you find work and can resume paying, let us know." I didn't ask to be paid up later -- just resumed billing.

We lost very few customers that year though some of our competitors lost as much as 20% of their RMR. When the economy turned around all but one or two resumed paying for service. A few insisted on paying for the service we had already given them. More importantly, word of what we had done got around and we got lots of new customers, most of them referrals from people we helped when they were hurting.

When you think about it, this sort of thing costs the alarm company very little. We had our own small central station so overhead remained the same whether we monitored 400 or 500 accounts. The value of the goodwill we received in return was far more than what we could have gotten if there never had been a recession in the first place.

Reply to
Robert L Bass

"So called free systems" aren't all that prevalent in the trade today.

Good point.

Reply to
Frank Olson

So much for that modicum of skills crapola. Someone like you mailed him an alarm system, and when he got into dutch he called a pro, but he decided the pro isn't entitled to earn a profit so he's back here looking for FREE advice. Where is the customer support for these half-assed Handy Dans?...... Non-existant as usual. Take the money and run but refer to those who answer these queries as monkeys.

Robert L Bass wrote:

Reply to
Everywhere Man

Good point.

Reply to
Jim

Hopefully, he didn't disable an alarm zone on a monitored system without notifying the alarmco that he did so. If I were the alarmco I'd be concerned abt potential liability issue on this one.

| > > Yes I think it is an alignment issue. | > >

| > > I had a sudden rush of blood to the head just now and pulled the sensor | > > out of the door frame, cut the sensor off, and twisted the cable wires | > > together. This has made the alarm think that the door is always | > > closed. | > >

| > > I checked the alarm and it still works. No sparks or burning smells so | > > that is great. | > >

| > > Thanks again. I feel stupid that in the end it was so easy. :-| | > >

| > > Regards | > > Stuart | > >

| >

| >

| > Not a problem. We all experience "tunnel vision" every now and then. | >

| > If this does happen to clear your problem, you might want to have | > another look at the alignment between the switch and the magnet. | > Sometimes doors can warp. I had one customer that called years ago to | > complain that his door contact no longer worked. It turns out that he | > had *replaced* the door and the contractor forgot to install the magnet | > from the old one. What's really amazing is that he waited three months | > to call us. He didn't want to incur the service charge either but | > decided (finally) that he should have the system fully functional for | > when he went on vacation. :-) | | | Can't ever seem to figure out why people feel that what an alarm | company gets for a service call is lots of money but when the | refrigerator or washing machine breaks down, they don't mind laying out | a couple of hundred to get it working again. And some of the appliance | repairmen get an up front fee even if they just show up and you decide | you don't want it fixed. | | Just doesn't compute. |

Reply to
Crash Gordon

I have two service rates one for monitored clients, one for locals...the local rate is MUCH higher. However, I frequently make generous allowances for folks on fixed income, disabled clients, retired and current service persons (cops, fire, etc).

I try not to give anything away though! I figure if I make a little here..a little there it adds up :-)...but losing a little here and a little there does NOT - actually it does add up but its RED.

| >> Frank Olson wrote: | >>> Cookie wrote: | >>> > Thanks Frank! | >>> >

| >>> > Yes I think it is an alignment issue. | >>> >

| >>> > I had a sudden rush of blood to the head just now and pulled the | >>> > sensor | >>> > out of the door frame, cut the sensor off, and twisted the cable wires | >>> > together. This has made the alarm think that the door is always | >>> > closed. | >>> >

| >>> > I checked the alarm and it still works. No sparks or burning smells | >>> > so | >>> > that is great. | >>> >

| >>> > Thanks again. I feel stupid that in the end it was so easy. :-| | >>> >

| >>> > Regards | >>> > Stuart | >>> >

| >>>

| >>>

| >>> Not a problem. We all experience "tunnel vision" every now and then. | >>>

| >>> If this does happen to clear your problem, you might want to have | >>> another look at the alignment between the switch and the magnet. | >>> Sometimes doors can warp. I had one customer that called years ago to | >>> complain that his door contact no longer worked. It turns out that he | >>> had *replaced* the door and the contractor forgot to install the magnet | >>> from the old one. What's really amazing is that he waited three months | >>> to call us. He didn't want to incur the service charge either but | >>> decided (finally) that he should have the system fully functional for | >>> when he went on vacation. :-) | >>

| >>

| >> Can't ever seem to figure out why people feel that what an alarm | >> company gets for a service call is lots of money but when the | >> refrigerator or washing machine breaks down, they don't mind laying out | >> a couple of hundred to get it working again. And some of the appliance | >> repairmen get an up front fee even if they just show up and you decide | >> you don't want it fixed. | >>

| >> Just doesn't compute. | >>

| >

| >

| |

Reply to
Crash Gordon

You're right there!...check out ADT's pricing on the web....Service call (if you don't opt for the maintence agreement) is 175 bucks plus parts.

Reply to
Crash Gordon

I try to keep things simple. We have one service rate and everyone we deal with (both local and monitored clients) are happy with that (and our service). Seniors get a 10% discount on all service (except the monitoring fees which are already pretty darn low in comparison to everyone else). I do offer people a nice incentive for referrals. They get 3 months of free monitoring and so does the new client. If they pay annually (instead of quarterly), I give 'em two months off.

Reply to
Frank Olson

I don't think you'd need to worry too much. First of all, if you test every point and document everything, including all service calls, it's not too difficult to substantiate that you weren't responsible for a failure.

Second, carefully worded installation, maintenance and monitoring agreements make it really difficult for a customer to sue his alarm company -- even if the alarm company actually was at fault. From the things you've said over the years (is it already years?) that you've been posting here, I must assume you've got a solid contract.

Reply to
Robert L Bass

I always charged the same for monitored customers as non-monitored. However, when we reached the point that RMR became a more important revenue source than sales and service I made the decision not to accept new sales of non-monitored burglar alarms. We still did a few commercial fire alarms, monitored or local, but most of them went with monitoring service. At that point I decided not to accept service calls for non-monitored systems unless we had done the installation or if we had previously serviced the system.

We also would decline all service to a system if the customer had previously defaulted on their monitoring contract with us or with certain other local dealers who agreed to do the same for us. Since there were only three companies in our immediate vicinity who worked with Napco that helped avoid dealing with deadbeats. :^)

I've since sold the alarm installation company and built a modestly successful online alarm and home automation store. The situation is now completely reversed. The vast majority of my new customers are non-monitored. Those who request monitoring I refer to NextAlarm for the service and I provide the hardware. Occasionally I refer a client to one of the dealers I know online if they want a local monitoring company and there's someone near them who I believe will treat them well.

Reply to
Robert L Bass

Reply to
Everywhere Man

In this case, I guess "lick and stick" refers to the postage stamp on the box the parts came in.

Reply to
Nomen Nescio

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