Trying To Extend Main House Alarm To Garage With Texecom Wireless PIR

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I am trying to secure my Garage with a Texecom Premier Elite DT-W (GBF-0001) PIR through a Texecom 8XP-W expander on a Premier Elite 48 panel.

Everything has been installed in the main house and PIR seems to be working fine inside the house eg. "Walk Test", "Triggering Siren" etc.

But when I move the PIR to the Garage, "Walk Test" and "Trigerring Siren" do not seem to work.

Is this an issue with Ricochet Mesh distance and kitchen brick wall ?

The Texecon 8XP-W is about 15 metres from the Garage through the kitchen and maybe 20 meters through the front door.

Panel Firmware: V5.02.01
Expander: Version 3.1.0
PIR Firmware: Version 1.0.4

Regards
 
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Should really be a seperate thread.

But hard to say is there a signal strength in Ricochet diagnostics against that device?.

Redo the mesh and tamper the device in the garage and replace the lid.

Wait 20 minutes take out of the mesh and check if there is a signal strength and check again in 15 minutes.

Before testing in walk test, but if no value in Ricochet diagnostics then it isn't going to work.
 
@secureiam yes there are 4 out of 5 bars of signal when moved to the garage and 5 out of 5 when inside the house.

See screenshot. I'll redo the mesh, and tamper the device in the Garage as suggested, take off the mesh and report back.

Also is it normal not to have the "walk test", "settings" and "+ & -" icons in Ricochet Monitor working ? They are all greyed out as you can see in the screenshot.

Regards
 

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I dont use walk test in ricochet monitor always place the panel in walk test from engineers code, engineer utils, the DT has to be woken up for the microwave element to work and to get an alarm signal.
 
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So I have done as you suggested tonight and still has not worked. The PIR's blinks only GREEN in walk test mode instead of GREEN and then RED afterwards.

I did try something last night: The PIR is able to register walk test when inside the house so whiles in walk test mode, I moved it to the garage and then restarted the walk test, which actually worked in the garage so I left it there. Upon tyring again this evening before starting with your suggestion and it didn't work like it did last night.

A few things I noticed (see screenshots attached):

1. It looks like the signal is only displayed when the 8XP-W is in commission mode.
2. Although ricochet monitor indicates the PIR has detected a walk test in progress, there is nothing registered aginst zone but all opther wired PIRs register the walk test.
3. Expander has no "supply voltage" reading in Ricochet Monitor but N"etwork Errors" shows 0056

Do I need another PIR preferabley an XT in the middle somewhere to strengthen the signal and security ?

Solution:
Hardwiring a PIR to the garage but how ?
1. My original alarm was an 8 zone but only 4 in use. Is there a chance the developer run extra wires for the exra 4 zones ? I'll need to check.
2. It will be a huge task removing panel and bringing in new wiring.
3. Can i somehow install a some sort of a box or splitter off any of the existing PIR's to extend wires to the garage ?

Quite disappointing really ! Ricochet Mesh sounds very convincing on paper but just looks impossible in the real world.

Regards
 

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Well a mesh requires more than 1 device, looks like the DT is the only wireless device available currently.

If you have a 48 panel then it should metal with the 8XPW wired into the panel?

A picture of the panel in its surroundings would be good along with a picture of the DT and its surroundings in the garage.

If your struggling still then you will need an installer to look at it to advise on best options.

You can post on the Texecom forum or try ringing technical, but need more information to get this resolved.

Do you have a smart com?
 
Fair point ! Mesh requires more than 1 device.

I have now purchased a Texecom Ricochet Premier Compact PW-W which will be located in the kitchen, closer to DT to hopefully give it a path and closer signal.

I can PM you images of the panel, 8XP-W and DT in the garage if you don't mind.

- Yes I do have the Metal 48 panel
- The 8XP-W is wired to the panel
- And I do have SmartCom connected to the panel

The 8XP-W is located about 50cm away from the panel as recommended by Texecom and my mains consumer unit in the same location.

Probably I'll wait for the PW-W to arrive, get that added and then if I'm still having issues, I'll get an installer or Texe involved.

Regards
 
the pw-w isnt a device i would use for hoping typically these devices get 20-25 lower signal than the there full size counter parts.
 
Does this apply for all the Compacts or just the PW-W's ? I have seen the XT-W Compacts too.

I just wanted something for testing before I jump in and buy an XT-W PIR.
 
I would move your pir away from the mains cable that’s running straight past it in the picture you provided in the first instance
 
I'll mount them on a beam or a temporary stand I have in there and test again.
 
Just a quick update on this one.

It turned out to be a faulty DT-W PIR.

The PW-W I purchased to test worked perfectly in the Garage. fully aware the PW-W's are not for the Garage environment, I have now purchased an XT-W for the Garage and awaiting delivery.

Thanks so much for help and support @secureiam
 
The XT-W isn't really designed for a garage either.

if its clean and tidy a QD is the minimum I would put in to be fair, the difference being XT is dual element, and the QD is quad element otherwise they are pretty similar.
 
I did stumble on a post on the Texe forum where some installers were having issue with DT-W's in a Garage setting. Texe support suggested the XT-W hence my decision to go for that.

I'll see how I get on with the XT-W and then upgrade if neccessary.

Another thing I noticed about the XT-W is, you can actually see the Garge room temperature on the Texecom Connect App which I didn't see with the DT-W.

Just a nice feature to have. Hopefully Texe can allow us leverage that info for recipes in the future.

I must mention, this is only aplicable to Texe 8XP-W and 32XP-W Expanders with firmware V3.06 and above.

Seee screenshot below:

upload_2021-2-10_17-40-9.png
 

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