I was under the impression that there were no dialer delays programmed into any of the SuretyCAM equipment in order to defend against “crash and smash” attacks. Upon digging into the settings on my Qolsys panel, I found a setting called “Dialer delay” that’s set to 15 seconds and can’t be set lower than that or turned off apparently. That would seem to counter every statement to the contrary that’s been posted here.
Explanation?
suretyDIY disables Dialer Delay on all 2GIG panels programmed and shipped out. The delay can be enabled/disabled on a per sensor basis.
The Qolsys IQ Panel comes with a mandatory global dialer delay with a minimum value. (GE panels carry this same limitation.)
Qolsys IQ Panel comes with a mandatory global dialer delay with a minimum value
Wow. Did not know that, so essentially if an intruder can find and destroy the main panel within the initial 15 sec delay, you are SOL? No signal has been sent and ADC crash and Smash can be rendered useless.
Ouch.
No, no, no. The pending alarm signal is sent immediately to ADC. It works similar to Crash and Smash where a disarm or final alarm signal needs to register. It only functions to give you an extra 15 seconds after your siren sounds to disarm before the Central Station will act.
Crash and Smash works the same as on 2GIG. Your entry sensor has already sent its signal.
Jason, that’s reassuring; imagine my surprise when I saw that. I’m very glad there’s an explanation for it. It might make sense to put that in a FAQ somewhere unless I’m the first one to ever ask about it 
Rive: That would have been a big ouch indeed. Thankfully that’s not the case.
Rive: That would have been a big ouch indeed. Thankfully that’s not the case.
That is surprising, because I don’t think 2GIG works that way. If the zone/sensor is delayed, then my understanding is the panel doesn’t even send the signal out until that delay is up… that is why it is called a “DAILER DELAY” (though it is possible this may apply only to phone, and not cellular communication).
It definitely deserves prominent placement. As was mentioned above it is actually more common than not. GE panels make up the majority of Alarm.com compatible system choices and all of them operate with the minimum dialer delay, at least I can’t think of one that doesn’t.
There is such a glut of operational choices and settings interaction with these systems that a FAQ could have many hundreds of bullet points. We are working to make the info more easily searchable.
Test it.
Disconnect/remove the panel battery, so it is just on AC, arm your system away, then open door, wait exactly 10 seconds, then remove the AC power from the outlet to simulate crash and smash.
See what happens. See if you get a call, or notification…
Try it twice one with no entry delay, one with delay
…
Edited post to not create an alarm event, and instead simulate a true “Crash and Smash” event, when panel goes offline during delay entry/15 sec default dialer delay, and before it can alarm.
That is surprising, because I don’t think 2GIG works that way
That is precisely the way 2GIG Dialer Delay works as well.
Pending Alarm signals generate notifications as well separately. They simply haven’t been forwarded to the central station.
Ok. I will test it on 2GIG. I will add a 15sec dialer delay to an armed “no delay” door sensor, and power down panel after 10sec before it can alarm, and see…
Alarm occurs locally on Dialer Delay sensor - signal immediately sent as a pending alarm - communication loss - no signal either confirming alarm or disarming system - Alarm.com registers a suspected Alarm Crash and Smash - this is forwarded to CS, generates notification.
Pending alarm signals are visible in your ADC history.
In general, Dialer Delay only slows down CS response. This is why to recommend disabling or shortening as much as possible.
This is the same for Crash and Smash generated from an entry delay sensor, even if it has Dialer Delay activated.
In general the Crash and Smash signal will be slightly delayed with regard to a standard Alarm signal.
Confirmed.
It is as Jason describes.
Fire & Security System: POSSIBLE CRASH & SMASH. The Front Door reported a Suspected Alarm at 2:56 pm on Tuesday, June 23 2015.
What is a “Suspected Alarm” event?
As soon as your system reports a “PENDING Alarm” event, the offsite operations center will expect to receive either a Disarm event or an Alarm event from your system within a certain period of time. If neither of these events are reported by your system within the designated timeframe, that means that the main control panel of your system may have been smashed or otherwise disabled during the Dialer Delay, before the system had the opportunity to report the Alarm event. The operations center will escalate the Pending Alarm to full Alarm status and issue a “Suspected Alarm” event, and will handle the alarm following standard alarm reporting procedures for your account. For example: If your Basement Window is tripped, a “PENDING Alarm” will immediately be sent to the offsite operations center from your system. If the intruder locates your security control panel and destroys it within the Dialer Delay period, your system will not be able to send a confirmed Alarm signal to the operations center. After several minutes pass without hearing from your system, the operations center will suspect that a crash and smash occurred, and will treat the original Basement Window “PENDING Alarm” as a real alarm. If someone had disarmed your system immediately after tripping the Basement Window, your system would report this Disarm event to the operations center and the “PENDING Alarm” would be cancelled.
Thanks to both of you for the additional detail and confirmations. I’m at work so wouldn’t have been able to test these scenarios until later today.
Great info here. I immediately lowered my dialer delay set point on my Qolsys to the minimum 15 seconds. I would not have known about this without this thread. Thank you. And it is reassuring to know that the cops will eventually be sent (might be about 7 minutes later) if someone makes a bee-line for the panel during a delay entry countdown period and destroys the panel.
reassuring to know that the cops will eventually be sent (might be about 7 minutes later) if someone makes a bee-line for the panel during a delay entry countdown period and destroys the panel.
Do not assume that. Many jurisdictions will NOT respond to any unverified alarm event. A suspected crash and smash event is not a verified event. Cams and IS’ allow you to verify the alarm event.
Contact your local police for their policy regarding response to unverified burglar alarms
Fairly rare still but yes, IS and Video Cameras give you quick verification methods should they be required and can fall somewhere between very useful and essential depending on your location.
As posted in the other thread, there is one glaring problem with using Image sensors for verification of a crash and smash event…
Alarm AND Arming Event captures should upload to gallery (but Arming events do not, and this is what a delay entry capture is categorized as)
Arming Event captures may be the only verification you get in the event of a crash and smash. You can’t very well manually upload a delay entry arming event capture to verify if someone is indeed in your home or not, if the panel has been destroyed/damaged…
If, on the other hand, that arming event capture uploaded to gallery, you could quickly verify, and have a dispatch for a confirmed alarm event.
J.P. I just wanted to let you know I was able to lower my Qolsys dialer delay to 5 seconds by going to “Security Account”, and disabling “SIA Limits”. This also allows you to have an entry delay less than 30 seconds. Hope this helps.
Nice find Cope 
I can confirm that’s possible with your instructions.
My reading shows that the SIA limits are to try to minimize false alarms and therefor false dispatches of emergency response personnel. Since the panel isn’t dialing LE dispatch directly but rather the central station which will try to verify the alarm prior to dispatching, I don’t see any downside to this at all.
J.P.
Please disregard below. I see answered above.
Is there a way to make the dialer delay less than 15 seconds on an iq panel? It seems that if my system is alarmed “on stay instant” I would want an immediate response from central station and not wait 15 seconds. A lot can happen in 15 seconds during a home invasion in the middle of the night.