Dual mode motion detectors are they always powered?

I am in the planning stages of implementing an HAI OmniPro II.

I am researching Dual mode motion detectors. I would like to know if the motion detectors are always powered on or are the only on when armed?

The reason for the question has to do with the dual mode. I'm not sure I care to be bombarded with microwaves all the time. Also, some of them appear to operate at the same frequency as other equipment. I have read about some problems with interference. However, if I'm not in the house I would not care.

Thanks,

PaulB said:

I am in the planning stages of implementing an HAI OmniPro II.

I am researching Dual mode motion detectors. I would like to know if the motion detectors are always powered on or are the only on when armed?

The reason for the question has to do with the dual mode. I'm not sure I care to be bombarded with microwaves all the time. Also, some of them appear to operate at the same frequency as other equipment. I have read about some problems with interference. However, if I'm not in the house I would not care.

Thanks,

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The detectors are energized all of the time and provide a closed loop contact in most cases (almost always an energized relay). If power to the device is removed the contact opens violating the zone. So if you are not armed and remove the power from the detectors then the zones will show viloated.

There are ways around this if you really wanted to. Run all of your power for your detectors through a relay so that when you disarm the relay drops out after you disarm. Then you will need to be able to re-energize your detectors before you arm so that the zone is no longer viloated.

If I remember correctly the frquency for most microwave categories is 10.5Ghz or 10.7 Ghz. While they are low power unecessary RF is something that it cant hurt to avoid.

If they are powered from the panel 12VDC, they are on all the time

Thanks for the replies.

If it doesn't draw too much current, you could power it from one of the OPII's auxiliary outputs. You'd need to write a couple of blocks of code that turn on the output when the alarm is armed in the mode(s) you want, and turn it off when the alarm is disarmed. Then you set the zone type to one of the "latching" types (e.g., latching night interior or latching away interior) so that the OPII will ignore its status during arming transitions. However, I think you will have to enable auto bypass in the system settings to make this trick work.