I recently moved to a new house and had an IQ2 panel at my old place. I was dealing with the infamous ghosting on the screen to the point I couldn’t even read anything or add/delete sensors anymore. So, I decided to buy another panel from eBay and set up a new account for my new house. Everything went fine setting it up, but now I’m having trouble with my sensors. I can’t get them to work—auto learn won’t function like it did before. I managed to get the panel to recognize one sensor, but it doesn’t register when it opens or closes. I’ve tried resetting the panel, removing batteries from both the sensors and panel, but nothing seems to help. The system tests show the panel works fine, though. I’m wondering, since this is a brand-new panel, and my old one wouldn’t let me erase the sensors, could they still be programmed to the old panel? Do I need to buy new sensors for my new house?
No, you don’t need to delete the sensors from the old panel to reuse them, but there are different RF versions for the IQ2 panel—319.5MHz, 345MHz, and 433MHz. Some panels also support PowerG sensors. Your sensors could be any of those types, and the new panel needs to support the same RF frequency to work properly.
Can you check the model number on the back of the panel? And what’s the model of some of your sensors?
@Reese
I’ve got the S Line encrypted sensors from Qolsys. My new panel has this part number:
QS9201-5208-840.
I’m starting to think I might need new sensors, but I find it odd that the panel recognized one sensor, but it wouldn’t register if it was opened or closed.
@Mai
The S-Line Qolsys sensors use the 319.5MHz frequency.
The QS9201-5208-840 panel model uses 345MHz, which is meant for 2GIG or Honeywell 5800 series sensors. So, your S-Line sensors won’t work with this panel.
@Reese
Okay, I thought so. It’s just strange that it paired with one of the sensors, but it wouldn’t detect whether the contact was opened or closed. The pairing took a while too. Any idea why that would happen?
@Mai
It could be a different type of sensor, maybe PowerG. Another possibility is that there’s an old 345MHz motion sensor from a previous system somewhere nearby that you walked by while trying to pair the devices. Or it could be that a neighbor’s 345MHz sensor signal got picked up while you were trying to pair.
Just to clarify, a 319.5MHz IQ sensor won’t work with a 345MHz panel like yours. You have a few options: you can swap the sensors, swap the panel, or use a wireless translator like the RE524X. But unless you get a 319.5MHz panel, you’ll lose the encryption benefits of your sensors with the other two options.