Adjusting Entry and Exit Delays On The DSC PowerSeries NEO

Now we're going to go into entry and exit delay times. So to do that we're going to go into programming *8 5555 and we're going to scroll over or type in 005 for system times. Now if we hit * on system times, it's going to bring up which is system area. Now this has a lot of different timer options, the first of which is the bell cut off timer, which is how long the siren sounds after the system has been in alarm. It's going to go to bell delay timer, which is going to delay your siren output after the alarm has gone off. If we scroll through that, then there's a bunch of other timers. Now these are all in your manual. We're not going to cover them in this video, but this is where all of your system area times are.

But what we're looking for is partition one. That's going to bring up our entry and exit delay timers for partition one, which, like I said, is where all of our stuff is set up. Now this first entry delay is the main entry delay. Any zone definition that says delay except for the one that says delay two uses this delay. Now this is how much time you have after you enter your home to get to your panel and shut the alarm off before it goes in to alarm state. So I usually set mine at about 45 seconds. So 00:45 and now it's going to go to entry delay two.

Now this is for delay two definition and this is for like a back door or some other sort of entry that you're going to be coming into your home and you want to give yourself a different amount of time. So if you wanted to set this one, the minimum for entry delays is 30 seconds. You can set it up to 255 seconds if you want. If I do use a delay 2, it depends on where it's at in the home, but I typically set up 120 seconds. That's 2 minutes. And then it's going to bring us to exit delay.

Now this is how much time you have to leave your home after the system is armed. So the first thing you have to take into account is that this is where 90% of false alarms come from. Anytime you forget something or have to go back into your home, you want to make sure you've given yourself enough time on your exit delay so that you don't accidentally set off an alarm reentering your home. I always set mine for at least 90 seconds. That way I have plenty of time and if I forget something then I can come back and turn the alarm off before I go grab it and then reset it, whatever the case may be. But you don't want to be limiting yourself on the way out the door because then you'll feel rushed, and that's when a lot of false alarms happen. That's going to bring us to settle delay.

Now, settle delay is another type of false alarm prevention timer. Basically what this does is it gives you an additional 10 seconds if you want it, that after the system is armed, the sensors will still be off. So leaving it at 0 is going to turn off the settle delay, basically. But you can set it for up to 10 seconds so that after your system is armed, your sensors will not set off the alarm for another 10 seconds.