Chased a ghost for 3 hours because of a bad wireless receiver

Man I still get mad thinking about this. Last summer I put in a Vista 20p at a house in Austin and spent like 3 hours troubleshooting a zone that kept going into trouble randomly. Checked all the wiring, swapped the sensor, even ran a new wire. Turned out the wireless receiver was mounted too close to a metal duct in the attic and it was just dropping the signal. Cost me a whole afternoon and I had to eat the labor on a Saturday. I lost about $400 in time I could have spent on another job. Has anyone else had issues with receiver placement like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

terry_mitchell16d ago

Just rip that receiver out of the attic and mount it somewhere open with a clear line of sight to the sensors. I learned this the hard way too after a similar nightmare with a metal beam in a warehouse. Those wireless receivers are super picky about being near any kind of metal or ductwork and it'll drop signals like crazy. Another trick I picked up is to avoid putting them right next to the panel or any big electronics like a router because the interference will mess with it. You should also test the signal strength before you finalize the mount by walking around with the receiver in hand and seeing where it actually works best. Saved me a ton of time ever since I started doing that.

tyler82216d ago

Man that's a solid tip about testing signal strength by walking around, @terry_mitchell! A buddy of mine had the same issue with a receiver in his garage and he spent a whole weekend moving it around before figuring out the perfect spot by just holding it up in different places.