The Motion Sensor is looking for a warm object moving across its field of view. A substantial amount of vibration would be required to cause a false alarm. Animals, insects and even wind is going to trip these devices. Anyway, I called the alarm company to ask if they had any insight to what happened. The tech on the phone thought the lack of audible alarm was odd and had me test the system and it seemed to be working fine (alarm sounded and everything). Motion sensors are also generally not recommended in areas frequented by pets bigger than 40 pounds—unless you have pet-friendly sensors that aren’t sensitive to creatures smaller than 80 pounds. Using any infrared motion sensor outdoors is going to be problematic. The problem can be fixed by cleaning off any dirt or residue that you see. Check behind and inside the PIR for insects and identify objects that can move or rapidly change temperature (e.g. The "Smart" mode will only trigger an alarm when the panel receives a signal from that sensor twice in a short amount of time. The dirt behaves like anything else that blocks the sensor. While most alarm triggers can be chalked up to user error, plenty of other conditions will also cause false alarms. This sensor detects emitted infrared energy from objects (humans and animals, but also cars) in the form of heat. A sensor, especially an outdoor one, can easily become dirty. Total Security systems include a Zone Setting called "Smart," which you can use to help prevent false alarms. Natural movement can be detected by the sensors and cause an alarm to sound. Birthday balloons are notorious for causing false alarms on oversensitive, out-of-date motion detectors when they float by. Have motion sensors, ring door bell, a bunch of contact sensors, base station, etc. I never get false positives off of my Honeywell hard wired motion detector in same closet (has opposite view). In this case motion is detected by means of the PIR sensor, a passive infrared sensor. No, normal vibration will not cause false alarms on a 5800PIR-RES motion detector. Those include pets, strong storms, HVAC or utility equipment, sunlight, vents, old batteries, loose-fitting doors and windows, and everything from large bugs to balloons. Improperly positioning a motion sensor to look in the general direction of a fireplace is not a good idea and causes false alarms when the motion sensor is armed. This can avoid false alarms are generated by spiders, ants and roaches crawling or flying across the lens of motion sensor, since bugs won't be crawling across both detectors'lenses at same time. Detecting False Movement. i get one or two false positives a week using irs version 2 motion sensors in my master bedroom closet. Some settings even allow your sensors to trigger an alarm when the system is disarmed. The second cause of false alarms is sudden infrared movement / heat changes in view of the detector. Never had a false alarm until today which was triggered by a motion sensor. Originally i was hesitant to have motion sensor triggering an alarm as i have 2 pets (27 lb dog and 10 lb cat). A third cause of false alarms is from burglar alarm components which are bad out of the box. This is because this type of motion sensor uses passive infrared technology in order to recognize movement within its field of view. If it detects movement and heat it will trigger an alarm. This installation method can eliminate bugs on just single PIR sending an false alarm. This is why people use multiple motion sensors (aimed differently) figuring there is less chance of both being affected by the same false positive. If you believe your Motion sensors alarm was a false alarm, please contact Customer Support for troubleshooting assistance. Causes of false motion detection alerts or PIR triggering Moobox cameras have a PIR sensor. Defective or damaged alarm parts can cause a false alarm. Two things: 1: The den motion sensor is a wireless unit, and 2: my neighbors did NOT hear the alarm go off! The third cause of false alarms is white light momentarily blinding the detector. closet contains two servers, network dvr, Honeywell alarm equipment, and safe. pets, vermin, fax, mailbox, radiator or boiler etc).