Outdoor Gate Monitoring

I have a Honeywell 5816OD that I want to use to monitor if my driveway gate is closed. I have tested RF range and all is fine, however I am not sure what zone type to use. I thought type 23 was the answer but it appears that reports only to the central station, as opposed to the panel. What I am looking for is just an advisory that the zone is not ready, therefore if I get ready to alarm the panel and see the zone not ready I can elect to close it or ignore the advisory as I may want to leave the gate open. It appears as if type 23 is not the answer as I am not seeing anything on the panel when triggered. If I temporarily set it type 3 (perimeter) I do indeed see it. Zone type 5 looks like it for day, but is alarm at night. I can’t be the first one to need this. What am I doing wrong?

(23) No Response Type will be visible in Alarm.com and eligible for sensor activity notifications, but it will never create an alarm locally and will not cause the panel to protest arming, therefore it is not shown locally, just chimes.

You could instead use the Alarm.com app to view the open/close status of that sensor set to (23) No Response Type.

Do you want the sensor to actually trigger alarms? Typically you would not for that type of sensor. All other zone types will trigger alarms in some capacity and (23) No Response Type is what should be used.

There is no Zone Type which will be visible on the panel or protest arming and not cause alarm signals.

Thank you Jason, for your thorough explanation! Sounds like I am looking for a zone type that does not exist. I will just use type 23 and push notification from Alarm.com. Just not as convenient as being able to see the zone status on the panel screen at time of arming. I really can not think of a case where I would want an actual alarm signal.

I believe in the past when I had an HAI Omni Pro, that there was a zone type “trouble”. It was just a locally monitored zone, indicated on panel, but nothing beyond that, something like a low battery alert that shows on the panel, and I guess also at CS, but never an alarm.

Again, thank you for your response!

Some panels do have additional Zone Types, or even custom Zone type options, such as the Concord 4.

The GC2 (05) Day Zone option you mention functions the way you are describing, generating a trouble alert when triggered, but when the panel is armed it functions as a perimeter sensor and would generate alarms.

Thanks again for the explanation. I was curious about the definition of zone type 5 since it is called “trouble day/alarm night”, I was trying to figure out how to convince it that it should stay in day mode. Sounds like the fact is, it has nothing to do with night or day, but whether the panel is armed or not. Any way to set the gate zone as perimeter but auto bypass it when alarm is set? As a side note when I was setting up the voice descriptors, the word “gate” is not in the lexicon. Seemed odd.

Any way to set the gate zone as perimeter but auto bypass it when alarm is set?

Technically yes, but it would require a hardwired sensor instead of a wireless one. This video shows a similar concept. In place of using a keyfob, you would just program Q78 as (01) Activated When Armed.

This would physically short the sensor circuit at the panel whenever the panel is armed and not allow the circuit to open.

Keep in mind that means that while the panel is armed, you would not have any sensor activity from that sensor at all, unlike a (23) No Response Type which can be tracked in ADC.

The “Gate” descriptor was added in firmware 1.14 (at least for GC2 panels), and is #265.

The “Gate” descriptor was added in firmware 1.14 (at least for GC2 panels), and is #265.

Yep. At least as of 1.17 you can just scroll to “Gate” alphabetically with the left/right arrows as well.

Thanks to all for the help! It is now working as described with zone type 23. I do get the notification when it changes state from closed to open. I do not get any notification when it changes from an open state to a closed state, however I can see that on the web site. Glad I mentioned that I could not find “gate” in the lexicon. That inspired me to download the later one!