IQ Panel 5 Battery Level Display, Chime Types, Temp Reporting, And More!

Hey guys. Hayden here again from Alarm System Store, and today I was playing around with the IQ5. I haven't had a lot of time to mess with it yet. However, I sat down with it for just a little bit, and there's a few neat features that Qolsys has added which basically allow users to kind of customize their experience with the system. So I thought I would go through and show some of those. One of these changes that I'm going to show you guys does require that you have the installer or dealer code for the system. However, the other ones can be accessed with just the master code. 

So now basically I'm going to show you guys how to enable the battery level reporting, which essentially shows the exact percentage of the battery as of the last moment that that sensor, you know, reported in. And the others are going to be related to, like, adjusting the sound levels, because now they've updated it so that you can actually adjust the sound level for each individual sound type. So chimes, voice, etc. So basically just a bunch of features they've added to allow people to kind of customize their IQ5 a little bit more.

So regarding the battery level reporting, that is only available to PowerG + devices. So what I've done is I've enrolled both a PGP9303, which is the PowerG + version, and then I also have the PG9303, which is the older style. And basically, just having both enrolled, whenever I enable this feature, you'll be able to see, you know, that the battery level is now reporting. But anyway, just keep that in mind: even if you turn this feature on, if your devices are not PowerG +, they won't be able to report that battery level anyway. To adjust that, what you're going to do is you're going to bring down your drop-down menu, click on settings, and then go into your advanced settings. Now for this change, you do need the installer or dealer code. So if you don't have the installer or dealer code for your system, if you have an Alarm.com dealer, you can actually reach out to them, and they should be able to turn this on for you remotely. However, if you do, basically just plug in either one of those, and then that will bring you into your advanced settings.

From there, we're going to go into the installation section, and then you're going to click on Dealer Settings, or if you're using the installer code, it's going to say Installer Settings. Basically, click on that, and you're going to scroll most of the way down to the bottom, not quite all the way. And you will find the two PowerG + features. So one of them is dealer lockdown. Most people aren't going to be messing with that unless you are a dealer. I wouldn't recommend turning it on if you're DIY. However, the PowerG display battery levels is what we are looking for. So you bring up this drop-down, and it brings up a new menu. You click enable. And now we've basically told the PowerG + devices. They are allowed to report their battery level. So if we go into our settings again and then we click on status, you can see here that the front door, which is our PowerG + device, now shows not only just normal under the battery level, but it actually gives you a percentage so that you can see exactly where your batteries are at. So that's very handy, especially for situations where, you know, obviously some of them get used more than others. And that'll kind of let you stay ahead of the game. You can buy batteries in preparation for when you know they're going to run out, etc., so it's just a handy feature to have. And that is probably one of the main things that people are going to want to be able to enable on their IQ5. However, that should also be available on the IQ4 now that they have updated it. I'll post the update version that's required to see that in the corner of the video. However, as long as your IQ4 panel is updated to a high enough firmware, then it can also display those battery levels.

Now going back to some of the other features I was talking about earlier. In the advanced settings, you can use master installer or dealer code. And what I wanted to show you was these sound profiles. So if you click on the sound option, it's going to give you a bunch of choices for toggling the different sounds of the panel. So by default, all voice settings are enabled. So voice is on, sensors, panel activity monitoring, etc., so you can enable or disable those as needed. So, whatever your personal preferences, you can also do the same with chimes. So there's a whole chime toggle. There's sensor chimes, panel chimes, etc.. And now the one that isn't on by default is trouble beeps. Now most people are going to have alarm.com with their IQ5. So a lot of the troubles that they're going to get are just going to show up on the app. And that makes it very simple. You can just get your notification and go about fixing it. Whatever the case might be. However, personally, I am used to other alarm systems that do have trouble beeps whenever there's an issue. So I turn this on. Basically, it just allows me to know anytime I walk by the panel if it's beeping at me, then there's something that I need to do. It creates a sense of urgency so that I can get my panel in working order. Not all troubles are going to stop the system from working. However, anything that may be going wrong does need to be addressed as soon as possible.

So keep that in mind, especially for DIYers. You know, if you're handling the system on your own. Yeah, it's great to get those alarm.com notifications, but it's also just as easy to forget about them if you're, if you get it while you're at work, for example. So when I get home, I hear the beeps. I fix the problem. Anyway, I won't go too much more into that. There are also individual, you know, trouble settings, so you can decide which troubles do you want to show up, etc., etc.. Now, other sounds, you can turn on the touch sounds, which is basically just the sound that it makes when you press the screen and exit beeps. So that would essentially be your exit beeping whenever the system is arming. So generally when you arm, it beeps to count down to let you know, hey, this timer is still running, etc. You can turn that on and off if you would like. 

However, another neat thing that you've done is...you could adjust the chimes on the IQ4 in the older systems. However, the way they've done it here is they've actually given you a menu that lets you edit all of the sensors specifically for the chime. Before, you had to go into the installer menu and under the sensor programming, you would adjust the chime option there. However, they've made this accessible to users as well as installers and dealers. So even if you don't have the installer or dealer code, you can come in here and adjust your chime so that you know what sensor is going off. Now, by default, the voice is going to tell you what sensor is going off or open, whatever the case might be. Now, this can be really handy just because you can change the chime so that, you know, let's say your front door and your back door have different chimes. You know, when you hear that sound or which door is opening, now, by default it is going to have the voice announce what the sensor is. However, if you're a few rooms away and you can't really make out what the voice is saying, the sound of the chime is going to give you more of a clue as to, you know, which door is open, so that you can handle it as needed. 

However, the most useful feature is probably just under the volume section. So before, the IQ panels just had a singular volume option; it was basically...whatever you changed it to adjust all of the sounds on the system. However, they've separated that out. So now you can control the voice volume, the beeps and chimes, media volume if you have like Bluetooth connected and you're playing music, etc. And they've also added a doorbell camera chime volume, which, if you have alarm.com and a doorbell camera, you'll know that you can get your doorbell to report to the IQ panel so you can speak through it. So if you don't have a very loud doorbell chime, for example, you can turn this up a little bit. That way, when the button gets hit, you'll hear the IQ panel. You'll know that somebody is at your doorbell. You can go and answer it or whatever the case might be. However, having the voice and the chimes be separate volume levels is a very nice feature just because I've noticed in the past one is usually louder than the other. Chimes are generally louder than the voice. However, with 15 levels of voice volume, you can adjust that as needed, especially for those that may be a little bit hard of hearing.

Another nice thing you can do, even if you are just the user of the system, is enable a thermostat setting. So I'm still in here with the master user code. So we can click on Master Settings right here. And down at the bottom here is temperature reporting. So there are a number of power sensors that actually allow temperature reporting and have, you know, their own thermometer inside so they can report that. However, it does have to be enabled, and you have to select it. So basically you toggle that on. And then if you have both indoor and outdoor sensors, which most people are going to have outdoor sensors, but indoor sensors at least, you can select which sensor is going to report that to you. So if you want to keep an eye on a specific temperature of a given room or whatever the case might be, you can come in here and set that. And basically the IQ5 will show that up on the panel. The door contacts I have don't actually have that function, so I cannot enable that for you right now. However, I'll probably show that again in the future. Just because that's also an installer setting. 

But anyway, there will be more videos to come. I just haven't had a lot of time to sit down with one of these and actually check it out. These are just a few of the things that I picked up my first time, kind of messing around with one. So keep an eye out for more videos. But hopefully that info is useful to those out there that might have an IQ5 already. Just keep in mind there are a lot of adjustable things on this newer system that allow you to kind of customize your experience with it. So these modern panels are very cool. But anyway, that's going to do it for me. If you guys don't mind, leave a like and subscribe and I will catch you guys on the next one.