How do you install a door sensor? -- RWO Message Board

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Date Posted: 02:27:25 05/19/21 Wed
Author:

usensor
Subject: How do you install a door sensor?

Door sensors are a wonderful way to protect your home, relatively inexpensive and easy to install. Yet, they keep anyone from getting in without your knowledge. How exactly do they work, though, and can you use them on your sliding glass patio door? We’ve got all the answers, so read on.
In the simplest terms, door sensors let you know when someone has opened a door. By far, the most common type of door sensor is the contact sensor, which uses a magnet to control a circuit that triggers an alert or alarm. A second type, however, involves depressing a switch to accomplish the same basic function. Many homeowners use door sensors to protect entrances, but sensors work on other types of doors, as well. In fact, they are so versatile that they are becoming one of the most popular activity triggers in smart home design.
When you use them for their intended purpose, door sensors have two important functions:
Protect you from outsiders getting in: A door sensor lets you know if someone enters your house. You can also set it to emit an alarm that deters someone from entering.
Protect people in your house from getting out: Also, you can use a door sensor to keep an eye on anyone who’s in the house. That makes sure your three-year-old doesn’t go for a neighborhood stroll when you’re not looking.
Because they work on such a simple principle, you can put door sensors to a whole host of other uses, from guarding desk drawers to making sure no one steals your outdoor grill.
Contact sensors, the heart of most door sensors, have two distinct parts: a reed switch and a magnet.
Reed switch: A reed switch consists of two ferromagnetic blades inside a small glass capsule. Normally, a few microns separate the blades from one another. This means the circuit is open; in other words, electricity cannot flow freely through the switch.
Magnet: When a magnet is applied to a reed switch, the two blades come together, closing the circuit and allowing electricity to flow. When the magnet is removed again, the circuit is broken.
In the case of door sensors, normally you attach the reed switch to either the door frame or the door and then attach the magnet to the other side. You must align them so they are parallel to one another and close enough so the magnet can affect the reed switch. When someone opens the door, it breaks the circuit, sending a signal to a control box. You can set that signal to send you an alert that someone has opened your door. On the other hand, you can set that signal to trigger an audible alarm that can frighten potential burglars away.
Types of Door Sensors
Essentially, you can use a contact sensor with any type of door. Here are the options:
Surface-mount: With the most common type of door sensor, you attach a magnet to the door or the frame and attach a reed switch to the opposite side.
Rollerball: In this setup, you install rollerball sensors in the recessed parts of door frames. Closing the door causes the hinged edge to depress the ball, closing the circuit.
Overhead (garage door) sensors: Roll-up style garage door sensors are similar to surface-mount sensors. However, garage doors include larger magnets, since you must keep the reed switch and magnet further apart to prevent false alarms. Learn more about garage doors and how to make them smart.
Pull-apart sensors: Typically, you use a pull-apart sensor on an emergency door that is meant to remain closed most of the time. The sensor itself is a magnet at the end of wire, inserted into a hollow tube. When the door opens, it pulls the magnet out of the tube so that closing the door by itself won’t close the circuit.
Recessed sensors: You place these sensors inside doors or windows by drilling holes and inserting them. That way, the sensors can't be seen.
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