Visonic Powermax Pro Zones question

[Chris Herald]

I've had my Visonic Powermax Pro for many years. It's broadly fine but does have some quirks.

The main one I have never cracked is setting up the zones how I would like.

There are three modes the system can be in - disarmed, home and away.

This is how I want it arranged....
Disarmed - everything is accessible
Home - I am at home and I just want the outbuildings alarmed. These are not that visible from the house so could be broken into whilst at home.
Away - all house sensors to be set as well as outbuildings

I have my sensors arranged into just two types of zone:-
Perimeter - My outbuilding sensors
Interior - My house sensors

This works fine. When in Home mode the outbuildings are alarmed and swapping to AWAY alarms everything when we're out or at night.

The issue is the front door. We have to be outside the house to disarm - there is no delay on the front door sensor and I can't see how to configure it to put one on. So opening the front door in AWAY mode causes an immediate alarm.

Put it in a delay zone I hear you cry - but all delay zones are perimeter zones meaning we could not open the front door when the alarm is in HOME mode (which is most of the time).

Set it as a Home/Delay Zone also sounds good, but this means in HOME mode it will have a delay on it when answering the front door (not good for the postman) and perimeter follower zone when in AWAY.

How can I get it so that it's in an Interior Zone when in HOME mode (i.e. not armed at all) and a Delay Zone when in AWAY mode.

Thanks

Chris

 

[secureiam]

so you want the front door to be Entry, entry exit or final door or something like that.

Not sure without checking the manual the exact terminology used by visonic.

 

[Chris Herald]

Thanks for your reply.

When armed in HOME mode (or disarmed) I want the front door to do nothing.
When you arm AWAY the alarm beeps for 30 secs. It calls this the exit delay in the manual. Similarly when you move from AWAY to either HOME or DISARM you get the same bleeps. The manual calls this the entry delay.

So when DISARMED or in HOME mode and I move to arming AWAY I want to be able to open and close the front door during the exit delay (as I leave the property).
When in AWAY mode I want the opening of the front door to trigger the delay, during which time I must either DISARM or arm HOME (as I come back in). Failure to DISARM (or arm HOME) during the delay period must of course cause an alarm.

All other alarms seem to work like this, but having the outbuildings alarmed all the time seems to prevent the Powermax Pro being set up in such a way. If I didn't need the outbuildings alarmed constantly I could set everything to the Interior zone except the front door which would be a delay zone. Then I would switch between DISARM and arming AWAY and forget about HOME completely. This would fix the delay on the front door but everything would get nicked from the shed whilst I'm having dinner!

 

[secureiam]

didn't follow that.

basically you want to have a perimeter set and a normal house full and part set?

 

[Chris Herald]

I want to have three modes.

1) Everything disarmed
2) Shed alarmed on it's own - everything else disarmed
3) Everything armed, but with entry and exit delay on the front door.

I have it set up like that, except for the entry and exit delay on the front door. Opening the door sets the alarm off immediately so you have to disarm from outside the front door and it's difficult to hear whether it's worked or not.

 

[secureiam]

I would have to look at the manual, I don't I install these just maintain a few.


your saying the front door changes to to something else when shed only armed?

 

[Chris Herald]

I pored the manual for around 7 years now and can't work it out.

When the shed only is alarmed I don't want the front door to do anything - I want to be able to open it without setting off the alarm or having to disarm.

 

[secureiam]

7 years?

going to have a look now

 

[secureiam]

Home / Delay sounds like a possible, have to admit found it hard reading

 

[Chris Herald]

It is hard reading.

The trouble is that it will act as a delay zone when in HOME mode. I can try it, but I think this will mean I will have to disarm every time I answer the door to the postman, which is not what I want.

 

[secureiam]

The issue is you want the system set, but to be able to open the door without having anything to do except when your away from the house.

so if the perimeter partition isn't used on the door, does the perimeter remain armed and allow you to open the door, when full set(away) then it would start the entry delay?

don't know how you have it programmed per partition and how its behaving, from that it would help in interpretation of the manual.