Yale HSA PIRs not detecting

I've got 3 PIRs on my Yale HSA system - not pointing at windows or fires, and all at a reasonable height.

If I do a walk test for a sensor by pressing the button on the front then it will detect movement perfectly every time after that for a period of time. But 30 mins or so after that with the alarm set for real I simply can't get any of the 3 to detect more that 1 time in 50.

I can literally spend 15 mins walking past/towards it, even get the wife to do a full aerobic workout and no detection at all.

Its not the sleep period - its almost as if its detuning itself to avoid false alarms to such a degree it become useless.

Are there any options to tweak this ?

Its a bit frustrating as the magnetic contacts work great.

RubberChicken, I'm sorry for this but I could not resist.

It looks as though you dropped a Clanger when buying this alarm

Can't help with the problem I'm afraid, good luck

It is extremely unlikely you have a problem with your sensors especially all 3 of them.
Firstly the optimum height for the sensors is 1.75 - 2.3 m .
Above 2.3m will reduce their sensitivity unless you angle them down slightly.
The problem you are experiencing though is more likely to be the following.
When the sensors go into sleep mode they will remain in this mode until they haven't detected movement for 1 minute.
So in effect if you are moving around in a room where the sensor has gone into sleep mode it will not come out of it as it will not have had a 1 minute movement free period. Hence your wifes aerobid activity not getting a response.

Just to clarify the sleep mode.
When the alarm is set and the sensors are active they will only go into sleep mode after they have detected movement. Therefore the sleep mode has no impact on the alarms ability to detect intruders as the alarm would have activated before sleep mode was entered.

As you know if you wake the sensor from sleep mode by pressing the learn button it will detect movement as expected.

After ensuring your sensors are at the right height or facing the right direction for optimal detection try the following.

Keep out of the areas covered by sensors to ensure they haven't been activated for 1 minute. Then test your system again.
It is also worth noting that there is about a 3 second delay from when your sensor detects movement and the message moves to the control panel and then onto the siren.

I certainly have never had a system that failed to work.

PS which system have you got?

Have you got them the correct way up?..

yaleguy3 said:

I certainly have never had a system that failed to work.

Click to expand...

OMG, what DiY shop can I get one of these perfect alarm systems from, or for that matter the perfect anything?

I like the word 'never', you should read some of the posts from the fast yaleguy from Yorkshire, not Algeria, he has had problems with detectors that HE had to replace!

Europlex said:

yaleguy3 said:

I certainly have never had a system that failed to work.

Click to expand...

OMG, what DiY shop can I get one of these perfect alarm systems from, or for that matter the perfect anything?

I like the word 'never', you should read some of the posts from the fast yaleguy from Yorkshire, not Algeria, he has had problems with detectors that HE had to replace!

Click to expand...

You are wrong but why let the truth get in the way of some droll trolling.

yaleguy3 said:

Europlex said:

yaleguy3 said:

I certainly have never had a system that failed to work.

Click to expand...

OMG, what DiY shop can I get one of these perfect alarm systems from, or for that matter the perfect anything?

I like the word 'never', you should read some of the posts from the fast yaleguy from Yorkshire, not Algeria, he has had problems with detectors that HE had to replace!

Click to expand...

You are wrong but why let the truth get in the way of some droll trolling.

Click to expand...

By ahdsh (one of your personas)

Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:48 am
Only two replacements made for faulty euipment and replaced under waranty. Siren box flashed LED continuosly , pir sensor intermittent in operation.

Can't be bothered to look for another, but there is.

Europlex said:

yaleguy3 said:

Europlex said:

yaleguy3 said:

I certainly have never had a system that failed to work.

Click to expand...

OMG, what DiY shop can I get one of these perfect alarm systems from, or for that matter the perfect anything?

I like the word 'never', you should read some of the posts from the fast yaleguy from Yorkshire, not Algeria, he has had problems with detectors that HE had to replace!

Click to expand...

You are wrong but why let the truth get in the way of some droll trolling.

Click to expand...

By ahdsh (one of your personas)


Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:48 am
Only two replacements made for faulty euipment and replaced under waranty. Siren box flashed LED continuosly , pir sensor intermittent in operation.

Can't be bothered to look for another, but there is.

Click to expand...

Hoop de fookin doo!

you really are a sad sad man

yaleguy,

i fully agree with your last post

go on then europlex, what do you have to say about me or any other engineer now?

In response to Europlex's sad post trawl let me just explain why his comments andd rush to find evidence was all in vain.

1. In the first line of my reply to the OP I said 'It was extremely unlikely for all three to fail'.
To qualify this remark I have installed near 1000 Yale pir sensors and as pointed out by Europlex I have had ONE sensor I replaced.
Therefore to make the assumption that the three sensors had failed or were faulty would have been a poor approach to solving the problem as previous evidence had proven their failure rate was very low.
2. My comment was I had never had a system fail to operate.
This still stands. The siren flashing an led indicated a battery low condition . However the system was still operational.
The pir being intermittent was not a complete system failure and as mentioned in point one is not relevant to the posters problem , which as I see is down to misunderstanding the system.
3. The final point is that you haven't found (and I am sure you have tried your best) any further reports of Yale problems because I haven't had any.

Search away if thats your thing

Hi Yaleguy,
I'm new here, but I am also facing the same problem with my HSA PIR's. They just would not work. They work only very rarely, regardless of the 1 minute no-movement rule.

I have 2 PIR's, the door sensors work great though. Any new ideas on how I can solve the non-working PIR issue?

sarled said:

Hi Yaleguy,
I'm new here, but I am also facing the same problem with my HSA PIR's. They just would not work. They work only very rarely, regardless of the 1 minute no-movement rule.

I have 2 PIR's, the door sensors work great though. Any new ideas on how I can solve the non-working PIR issue?

Click to expand...

Have you tried them in walk test mode or have you got a 6200 keypad system?

Make sure they aren't set too high as mentioned before.
Make sure that the batteries are getting a good connection.
When I install the PIRs I always use a small screwdriver to make sure the holder spring coils are definately centered and in good contact with the negative electrodes of the batteries. Sometimes if this is not done the connections can be lost when the PIR is fastened to the backplate.
It can mean that it works fine until you mount it and then stops.