Figured out my zone mapping was a total mess after a client's dog kept setting off the wrong sensor

Been installing for about two years now. Had this house in Tacoma with a big, open floor plan. I put a motion sensor in the living room, labeled it 'Zone 1' in the panel. Put a glass break sensor in the kitchen, called it 'Zone 2'. Seemed fine. For six months, the client kept calling about false alarms, always when their big dog was roaming. I kept checking the living room sensor, thinking it was a pet immunity thing. Last week, I was there for another issue and saw the dog jump on the kitchen counter. The glass break sensor went off, but the panel showed 'Zone 1 Alarm'. Turns out I had crossed the wires in the main box when I first set it up. The kitchen sensor was wired to the living room zone label the whole time. Felt like a real dummy. Anyone else ever mix up their zone wiring like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

parker_price6d agoMost Upvoted

Used to think zone labels were just for my own notes. That job taught me they're the first thing to check when the system acts weird. Saved me a lot of callbacks since.

jamesf415d ago

Yeah, thinking zone labels are just notes is a classic move. I once spent a whole day trying to fix a sensor that was just wired to the wrong zone name.

val_williams6d ago

My first year, I had three zones backwards for a whole month.