01/13/2016

Getting Started Tips

I have purchased one of these alarms.  I wanted an alarm that I could control and would alert direct to my smartphone that had a traditional external siren box and was suprised at the lack of choice that there was out there.

If you are thinking about getting this alarm

Pros

  • Wireless Install
  • Arm / Disarm via SmartPhone
  • App / email and SMS alerts
  • Number of different devices can be linked such as normal PIR, camera PIR, Smoke Dectors, Yale smart door locks, smart plugs
  • Not had any false alarms

Cons

  • Poor documentation
  • Limited technical customer support
  • Yale could potentially remove thier servers at any time rendering the smart functionality of this alam useless. 
  • Camera PIR low res 320×240 To give you an idea a 1 megapixel camera is 1280 x 720

Getting Started

First thing to do is to download the App and register an account with it. The app runs on IOS and android and is called Yale Home System. The app looks just to be a reskin of a website.  I did some tracing and found the website to be 

httpss://www.yalehomesystem.co.uk

This means that you can also log in and control the system from any web browser as well as a smartphone

The manual describes that you need to pair each device with the control system however I found that all the devices that I had ordered as part of the initial kit were already learnt and showing under Controller…Device List on the app.  The only device that wasn’t pre-paired was the camera PIR.  I had a few other PIRs that I had bought seperately and following the manual they were easy to pair.  I did struggle to get the camera PIR to pair and when I called Yale the person I had spoke to said she had quite a few people call with the same issue. She basically told me that I had to keep trying until it paired. If you have a similar issue then the following may help;

Issues pairing the camera PIR

Press and hold the learn button on the controller until it beeps and light 1 flashes

Press and hold the button on the camera PIR until the bright white light flashes on the camera PIR, keep it held down for 3 seconds longer.  Hopefully the control unit will beep to show its paired.  You can then press the learn button on the Learn button on the controller to complete the learn process.

If it doesnt work start the process again.  If you get to the point where the light never flashes then take the batteries out of the PIR and put them back in again and try again.  If you do take the batteries out you will need to put the cover back on to enable the tamper switch.  

Keep repeating the process until it learns.  Once it has learnt it should show on the Device List on the app.

Entry Zone

Once all the devices are setup you should define one of them as the entry zone.  Entry zone is the one that will give you time when you come into the house to enter your pin code into the keypad.  If they are set to burglar the alarm will go off instantly. To set up the zone on the app go into controller…..device list and then click on the edit button.  Look for the section call attribute and select Entry Zone.

Walk Tests

When considering where to place the sensors use the walk test function under the device list option.  Every time the sensor detects movement the controller will beep so you can work out the best place to place the sensory before drilling any holes. If the sensor isnt picking anything up press the button on the sensor to wake it up.

Other Information

Pet sensors

Yale do pet friendly PIRs.  I have a cat so thought these would be a good idea for some parts of the house.  After setting one up I got my daughter to grab the cat and put him on high surfaces in the room and with just the cat it didnt set anything off which was good however it also didnt seem to be picking up my daughter very well.  I got my daughter, who is 10 to walk round the room and it didnt pick her up until she started jumping and waving her arms.  The sensors do have a sensitivity jumper inside and even setting this to the most sensitive setting it didnt pick her up enough.  I took the pet sensors back and changed them for standard PIRs and positioned them in places where the cat couldnt get to any high surface that was near the sensor but they still covered the entry points.  The cat so far hasnt set them off.

Network Cable

Only a minor one but the network cable for the controler was hidden in a seperate part of the box and I missed it at first and just used a spare one I had.  Keep looking in the box for it, its in there somewhere.

External Siren

Dont rush to install the External Siren.  In the first few weeks while you are learning, testing and tweaking the system the alarm is going to go off.  The internal siren is loud enough for all of these tests so no need to annoy your neighbours yet.  Get the system in  and settled and then as a last job fit the external siren.

Smoke Alarms

There doesnt seem to be much to configure with these.  If the alarm detects smoke it will sound its internal siren, set off the house alarm and send an email.  I was hoping it was configurable so if the alarm wasnt set you could just get it to set of its own alarm much like a standard smoke detector and then if you are in away mode set off the external alarm. 

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