Two keypad questions

@rj31234​ 

1.  Again, sometimes for some people, there is no rational explanation.  If it isn't heat, I'm not sure what it is, and I do not think it is coincidental with your test signal (when SS3 rolled out in Jan 2018, there were a lot of people experiencing the keypad lighting up, and there was never an across-the-board explanation, so this has been going on for a long time).  For example, my keypad (and others) used to light up may times during a day or evening, with no correlation with the time of day the test signal was received.  It still does this occasionally, and if I recall, I think it has been less frequent since the latest firmware update.

2.  Mine is doing the same thing, and I notice it right away because when it happens, I too have just opened/closed the door and can see the keypad light up.  What alerts me to a problem (besides the keypad flashing) is that neither the door, nor the windows chimed when they were opened, but the keypad was trying 'to connect' to the base station.

I don't expect SS to have an answer until or unless a lot more people start having the same issue (so far, at least 4 people have experienced it and posted on the forum in the last week or so).  One person recently has had his base station recently replaced and is currently waiting for a replacement keypad to arrive, will see if he updates his post and if those two replacements resolved the issue.   

Hopefully, tomorrow, Davey_D (forum admin) will see your post and respond.

@davey_d​ 

The bedroom keypad is on an interior wall next to the bedroom door. Only the foot of the bed is exposed to the keypad, blocked from seeing the head of the bed due to a dresser. The keypad is approximately 10 feet from the bed and the bathroom door.  We had gone to bed approximately 10:30 PM. Due to our age we often go to the bathroom at approximately 2 AM, as my wife did the evening in question.  She was exiting the bathroom and at the edge of the bed when the keypad first turned on.  She wakened me and I looked at the keypad to see any messages (there were none).  I had to touch the keypad to turn it on.   I checked the app and also saw no messages.  I returned to bed.. Over the next 5 minutes the keypad turned on and off approximately 5 times.  I fell back asleep assuming it was system malfunction. The next morning was when I saw the timeline message that a system test occurred at 1:57.  We have seen no further errors.  Please note that we live in Florida and the heating system heatpump  rarely ever runs in the winter.  I do not plan to disable the keypad as it is a very useful feature and I expect the system to run as intended.  In my opinion you have a design or component problem. I am available to assist you in troubleshooting as needed.

Regarding the garage door keypad resetting itself, I had a second occurrence yesterday.  As I opened the garage door the keypad restarted flashing the top row of lights showing a message out of range and then immediately went back to normal operation.  This keypad is approximately 12 feet from the base station with one interior wall between.  There was no timeline entry regarding either the keypad or the garage door entry sensor.  My next step is to interchange the bedroom and garage door keypads to see if the problem follows the keypad.  Again, if there is any way I can assist in identifying the problem feel free to contact me.

I will continue to post any additional information I deem relevant. 

Hi @rj31234 ,

For the bedroom Keypad, you mention that you had to press a button to actually light up the keys, but then later it started spontaneously lighting up. It sounds to me like the proximity sensing was somehow delayed. I would recommend forcing a reboot by taking out one of the batteries, waiting 10 seconds, and reinserting.

I do want to clarify that the Power Savings feature doesn't turn off the Keypad entirely - only the proximity sensor that lights up the keys when you're nearby (it also turns the backlight off when you're far enough away). With the feature disabled, the Keypad will still light up when the system is triggered, and when you press a button.

And now that we have more detail, the garage Keypad seems to be having a totally separate issue. The "Keypad Out of Range" message means that it lost contact with the Base Station, most likely due to wireless interference.

Do you happen to have a garage door opener that can be operated by remote? Those units tend to work using the same radio frequency range that our system uses. And of course, that signal would be very strong, so it wouldn't be unusual for it to interrupt the security system signal.

There are two 17 year old Liftmaster garage door openers, one of which has been automated with a MyQ system.  At the time I opened the door to the garage neither door had been activated for hours. I will pay more attention to see if there may be a connection. Thanks for the information.

Last night the bedroom keypad flashed once at approximately 1AM as my wife walked into the bathroom at 1AM.  The automated system test did not occur until an hour later.  I feel confident that the blinking is not related to thectest signal.  How does the proximity sensor operate, capacitance or infra red?

The Keypad's proximity sensor works by infrared.