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Blew $300 on a wireless panel that couldn't reach the back shed
Spent 3 hours mounting a fancy new wireless alarm panel only to find it had zero signal past the kitchen wall, had to rip it all out and run wires anyway. Any of you guys run into range issues with those newer wireless systems?
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leehall1mo ago
Yeah, the "wireless" part of wireless alarm panels is a straight up lie sometimes. I did the same thing with a $250 unit from a big box store, mounted it right in the living room, and the front door sensor wouldn't even chirp. Ended up drilling holes through the attic and running CAT5e just to get the kitchen window covered. My shed is a dead zone for anything that isn't plugged into the grid. I swear these things are tested in a cardboard box, not a real house with walls and insulation.
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christopherh791mo ago
That $300 panel you mentioned probably has a antenna the size of a grain of rice soldered onto the board. I read the same thing about the testing without the plastic case and it explains everything. My buddy has a old wired system from the 90s in his house and it never misses a beat but my wireless setup drops the back door sensor if somebody closes the microwave door. The metal in modern insulation and the foil backing on it turns your walls into a faraday cage basically. They should test these things in a 1950s brick ranch with aluminum siding because that's what half the country is living in.
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blairc901mo ago
Did you read that thing someone posted on r/homesecurity a while back about how some of these companies test their wireless range with just the circuit board and no actual case around it? I read that and it all made sense because the plastic casing and metal in the walls basically kill the signal before it even gets going. That $300 panel probably has a little tiny antenna in there that's designed for an open floor plan apartment, not a house with actual walls and a shed. I've heard people talk about putting the panel in the attic just to get decent coverage, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of it being wireless in the first place.
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