Qolsys IQ Panel 4 NS (No-Screen) Alarm System - Programming With The IQ Installer App

Hey, guys. Hayden here again from Alarm System Store. And today I'm going over the new IQ panel from Qolsys. This is the IQ panel 4 NS. And what it stands for is no screen. And as you can see here's the system here. I got it powered up and plugged in. But it is just an IQ panel 4 structure with no screen on it. So pretty self-explanatory. And we just don't have a speaker. It can speak out to you if you press the button on the side here. It gives status readings for the alarm system in its current state. sensors that are in trouble, things like that. but as far as using the system, it is designed to work and it is a completely app based system. So, the programing is done through an IQ installer app, and that's actually what we're going to be going over today. I'm going to pull up the app and I'm going to screen record it and show it to you guys. But essentially, you program it through the IQ installer app, you get it all set up, get all your sensors enrolled, and the daily use side of it is supposed to be used with alarm.com services. So alarm.com, if you're unfamiliar with them, has an interactive plan for alarm systems where you get an app where you can arm and disarm, you get notifications, change user codes, things like that. and that is the intended, structure for like, daily use. you're meant to use alarm.com with it. Now, there is a way you can use it as a completely local system, but that requires you to get an additional keypad. Whether that be like an IQ remote, or you could get a DSC neo wireless LCD keypad, that would enroll on here as well. And you could use that as a way to arm and disarm the system. But, in that scenario, it would probably be better just to go with the IQ panel for because it is going to give you all of the touchscreen functionality, that the IQ panels feature.

So and that's generally the better option there. But if you want you're welcome to get this as a local system with an additional keypad. And that'll be how you interact with it. now on our site we are going to be selling this with alarm.com service. I'm sure we'll have a local option as well. we haven't worked out that yet. I'm recording this before we are actually adding it to the website, so, once I know more, I'm going to come back and do a daily use style video for this panel showing basically how you can interact with it through alarm.com, and how the different types of keypads you can use with it will interact with it as well. So if you're interested in that, should be in a more a couple weeks. I'll have something like that up. But as for today, the main goal I want to show you guys how to program the system. So the first thing I'm going to do, I'm just going to, default the system as is because I've been playing with it a little bit. Once it's defaulted, I'm going to pull up the app on my phone, I'm going to screen record it, and then I'm just going to talk you guys through the process. the only physical thing that I may do on here, I might show me enrolling the sensor. then I'm going to have, it's pretty straightforward. All power devices come with instruction manuals, and in that manual, it tells you exactly how to enroll the device. But, for demonstration purposes, I'll enroll one on here so that you guys can see what's up. But I'm going to get the app going and get set up, and I'll be right back.

All right I got the IQ4NS defaulted here. And I got the IQ installer app pulled up. And if you guys want to check it out, there's not much you can you could do without an IQ system to plug into this. But, if you just search up IQ installer on, Google Play Store or Apple Play Store, it should come up. But essentially this is what the front page looks like. It just says Welcome to Installer and it's going to start button. so whenever you hit the start button, that is where we're going to plug in the panel that we're working on. So up here at the top, you can see it says IQ4NS. And it's got a little picture of where to find the QR code. Now if you want to scan that, if you scroll to the right, you'll also see the IQ Pro because that is the two different systems that this app works with. So the IQ Pro is more of like a larger commercial sized hardwired wireless system, where it kind of incorporates both, the IQ4NS and the regular IQ 4 they're more designed for, wireless setups just to kind of be an easier, all in one sort of panel. Now, the, power G, wired or wireless translator does work with the IQ for S. so you don't have to have an IQ Pro to have hard wired accessories for it, but just know that it is by default in all wireless system. So, just like the IQ 4. So anyway, we're going to plug in, you can either type it in or scan the QR code. I'm going to scan it because it would take a minute to type in. So flip the device over here and here at the bottom. As you can see there is a QR code. You zoom in on that enough and it will pick up the system. And then you just click continue and then it will tell you what to do from there. So because this doesn't have a screen, we don't have a manual way. or like a normal way to put it into pairing mode so that you could get into it, but it's got a power button right here on the side.

I don't know if you guys can see it, but there's a little power button right there, just like the regular IQ for systems have you tap that twice power button, press pairing and then it will let you know what it's doing. So right now it is turning on the access point so that the app can find it. And right there just told me the access point was on. So we can click continue on here. and you do have to have your location settings on. So I'll turn those on and then repeat them. And then if you give it a minute here at the bottom where it says device to use with the IQ installer, go. And it will pop up with an IQ serial number, which is the internal Wi-Fi basically of this device. So it can take a little while. that took probably, what, 30s or so. I think the app, because it is so new, it's got a few hiccups here and there. Things are a little bit slow, but not a huge deal. as the app gets used more and, you know, they kind of progress it, I'm sure it will get better. All of this right now is still, technically in the, preorder stages. So, I mean, it's very fresh, very new. So it will get updates as time goes on. I'm sure it'll be much faster and more, useful. But, as for right now, the very first thing that you're going to see whenever you actually connect to the system is enter your access code. And what that is asking you for is either the master code, the installer code, or the dealer code. Now, and with the whatever one you type in, it does force you to change it right off the bat. So I'm going to use the dealer code. I would recommend probably doing the installer code, because the dealer code is generally, well, most people that sell them are going to lock out that dealer code or, you know, have the room set up for that, blah, blah, blah. But anyway, I'm going to type mine in, which is two, two, two, two. Completed. The system tells me that the pairing has been completed, and now the app is prompting me to change that installer code or the dealer code. So I'm just going to plug in, the, the DSC, installer code, which is just five, five, five, five, just some easy to remember for me.

And it says welcome. And it's going to run you through the installation wizard for the IQ4NS. Now, if you've ever messed with an IQ 4 system or watched any videos on it, especially about the install wizard, it is exactly the same process. You're just doing it from your app instead of doing it on the system itself. So we're going to click start. It's going to ask you if you want to pair Wi-Fi. So if you have a Wi-Fi network set up in your home, you can choose whichever one you want. I'm going to choose the IQ Wi-Fi here, and I'm going to enter the password for that, and then up here at the top right you'll see these two little arrows. And that is how you basically scroll through the different menus of the install wizard. So I'm going to scroll right. And it's going to do a system check. Basically it checks all the devices, all the modules inside the panel, make sure everything's working. the dual path test probably failed because I'm inside of a metal building, so I don't have very good cellular reception. I'm betting the cellular is probably going to fail as well. Oh. It didn't. Okay, so perfect scenario. if you have one of these, checks that fails for whatever reason, you can actually go back and force it to redo the test. So, whenever it's finally finished, I'll cut to the end of the download configuration set up.

Once it's done, I'm just going to click Dual Path and it's going to basically rerun that test. So I'll be right back. All right. So as you can see my dual path test failed and my download configuration failed. And the download configuration, I think that is going to fail every time unless you have an alarm.com account that's already supposed to be set up for this panel. So, because you can pre activate these and basically have an account ready for it. And when you plug in that IMEI, I think that is what it's supposed to do or supposed to connect to to download basically any preprogramed settings or anything like that. we don't have it activated. So this is just a local system for now that's failed every time I've run it. So I will find out more about that. And if I know more by the time I publish this video, I'll put a little thing down there so you guys can read about. But anyway, like I said, for the dual path test, since that failed, if you click on that, it will open it up and say dual path test failed. Dual path has not started yet, properly disabled or no internet. So basically that just means it didn't check positive whenever it checked the cellular in the wifi card. So we're just going to retry it. Or perhaps the internet is not plugged in at the moment. I'll have to check on that because the cellular side is good. So you might just be having trouble getting Wi-Fi out of that, IQ Wi-Fi setup I have over there. But anyway, if you need to retry the tests, just click on them, click retry, and that will tell you if that portion of your system is doing okay. So now that we've done that, I'm going to scroll to the right some more. It asks, are you ready to add sensors. So this is where you would add, wireless devices. So I'm going to grab one here. I have a recessed Howard G door contact. So this is a style that, sits inside the door frame like so, and then the door has a magnet on it, and that's how it actually is, the sensor. So if you haven't seen this sensor, that's what it looks like. but anyway, let's get this open and as you can see on the app, it says pressing and holding the roll button for five seconds on the power G devices.

Not all of them are exactly the same, but that is essentially, the most common method for activating these. you do have to plug in the battery first, so I'm going to go ahead and do that. Nope. And like this. In some cases all you have to do is plug in the battery and you can see it says sensor 1082738 is ready to pair. So, if you look on the case of the sensor itself, you just make sure that the serial number matches what it shows there. And it does. So we're going to click okay. I'm going to put this back in its housing sensor. Read it successfully. And the system will tell me if the sensor was added correctly or not. If it failed to connect it'll let you know and you can retry it, etc. but once it is enrolled, you can see down here it says new devices. Each new device that enrolls will just show up like this. It's just going to be it knows it's a door or a window contact. You actually have to go in and configure that item. So when you click on it it's going to notice. It's letting me know the door contact is open because I don't have the magnet next to it. So anyway, whenever you get in here, double check serial number, make sure it's showing the correct type of sensor. This is a door and window contact, so that is correct sensor name, you can update that. You can type in whatever name you want, or you can just use one of these pre-made values. I'm just going to select front door. Click the back button sensor group. Now this is where you'll need, the IQ manual to be able to see all the different, what each of these different definitions do. But this sensor group setting essentially controls how this sensor operates. So, entry exit means it is a door that will trigger the entry delay when you walk into it. if you set it as instant, it will always trigger the alarm. Period. Whenever the system is armed, away instant, there's follower delay. There's a bunch of different options. Look through the manual, see which one you want to use. I'm just going to set it as an entry exit with a normal delay. you can change the different, chime types if you want. Just like with the regular IQ, you can turn on and off voice prompts, and it will tell you that it is able, power source, which means it's a power sensor. So that is all correct. So we click save and successfully it'll let you know that it's been updated correctly. And then whenever you're done with sensors, this is the only one I got. you just click stop auto learn it asks you are you sure. Click yes and on this page it doesn't make it look like we've done anything. But at the bottom you can see this view sensor list option. If we go in there, we can see all of the devices that we added. If you need to add more, just press the plus down here at the bottom. It'll turn on the auto learn process and you can go from there. Once you're done click the right arrow again.

Now the next page is going to be Z-Wave devices. So if you have, Z-Wave that you want to hook up to your IQ panel, you can do it from this page. It is exactly like enrolling sensors, except for you are triggering the Z-Wave devices in the panel searches them out. So we're going to skip that because I don't have any Z-Wave devices to enroll. This is the IQ remote pairing. So even though this doesn't have a screen, if you want to get the IQ remote power G or, the wireless DSC neo keypads, you can enroll those, the DSC neo keypads, those are going to be done in the sensor section. The IQ remotes have their own setup, which you can see right here. It also has a test function for the IQ remote if you have one to pair. so if you need to just follow the instructions for that, the IQ remote will pretty much walk you through it. and now the next page is users. Now, this one you might want to take to stop and, check the user list, because there are some default codes plugged in here. And the only reason I can see all four of these default codes is because I use the dealer code to get in here. if I had just use the installer code, I would basically see from the installer code up. If I just use the master code, I would just see, the admin and the, the rest code. So depending on what level of access you sign into the system with using the app, that allows, some extra features. So like the dealer has the most features, installer has the second most options. And then master that is limited to only user side interactivity, like, changing the Wi-Fi password or I think you can test sensors and Z-Wave devices with it. But anyway, if you need to add user codes, you can press the little plus button down there, or you can go in and adjust any of the user codes that are already in here. So like, for example, if I wanted to change the dealer code again, you can plug in a name for it if you want to, but the user code currently is the 5555 that I plugged in. So if I wanted to like reset it back to the default, which is 2222, I can do that right there. Then click save up here at the top. There we go. Yeah. Once you're done and users feel free to just click the right arrow.

Now this dealer name phone in web generally you want to plug in your service providers information here. And the reason for that is because if there's ever a problem with a sensor or the system or the service or whatever, this gives you just a point of contact so that you can reach out to, whoever is providing your service. Now, if you're using a local system or we are your service provider, I would plug in our information here. So be alarm system store, and then our phone number, website, whatever. and basically that's just for you guys so that you have quick access to, somebody to contact if you ever need it. So once that's done, there's going to, it's going to ask if you want to check for updates. Now I would recommend doing this, but, as things currently are, every time I run this update page for this panel, for whatever reason, the app locks up and I have to back out of it and basically go all the way back into it. So I'm going to skip this for now, because there is another section that will get to where you can do those updates. So you can skip this, and come back to it later. But I would recommend highly recommend updating your panel to whatever the latest firmware is. So, just whenever you're finished with that, if you, if you run it, just click the arrow at the top and click finish. And then you're going to get taken to essentially the dashboard for the IQ installer app. Now as you can see, there's not a whole lot going on here. But that's because we don't have a whole lot on the system. So up here at the top, if you press this drop down arrow, it will tell you the status of the system. Pretty much, shows the current software version, shows where the battery status is at. Wi-Fi is not connected. So that must have been the issue with the dual path test. So I'll check on that here in a bit. so you look at it, we have one bar. And like I said, it's because we're in a metal building. So cellular was hard to get down here. and then it shows AC is connected, so it is plugged into the wall. It's it's charging the battery. down here at the bottom device is info. you can check on your devices. So power G right here shows the front door that we enrolled. If you go back, you can click on Wi-Fi devices. Now, because the Wi-Fi is not connected it's not going to show anything. And we don't have any Z-Wave devices. But if you did, it would show status for those devices in your connected Wi-Fi. Down here at the bottom. Now, if you need to adjust things further on the system, if you need to adjust settings, down here at the bottom left is config. Now that is where you're going to find the majority of the settings for the system. So I'm not going to go through everything here because there's a lot of different settings that you can change. ways you can alter how the panel works, things like that. I'm just going to kind of give an overview of the different sections.

So user management, that one's pretty simple. straightforward users you need to add or remove users. That's where you do it. installation is where you're going to find the bulk of the settings for how the panel operates. So there's you can change, the delay times for like the entry and exit normal and long delay. you can change siren settings. You can change, arming and disarming settings, all kinds of stuff. the about page that's going to show basically you can get status on battery level. You can check the software version of your panel. And when you click hardware, it gives you, a bunch of different serial numbers and stuff. So if for whatever reason, we have to get Ahold of, courses, this is the kind of information you would give them so that they can help you troubleshoot, so on and so forth, tells you about the panel now dealer branding. That is what you plugged in a few minutes ago. so you can plug in even more information here so you can go back and redo the dealer name and there's multiple taglines you can give, phone, email, website, the whole bit. you can reboot in power down the panel. Now, I will say whenever you go into these options, there's a checkbox here at the bottom. So don't forget to check that on to tell the system that yes, I'm sure this is the action I want to perform. And then click reboot. you can change the Wi-Fi settings sound settings. And this here is where you can upgrade the software. So whenever I've done it from this menu, it's worked every time. It's just that installer wizard menu again, by the time this video is out, if there's a fix for it or if I figured out how to do it properly, I'll put a little note down there at the bottom of the screen so you guys can see it, and then there's also a partitions button. So partitions you do have to enable them on IQ panels. Partitions basically just means you can have sections of your system, operate independently. So I can have ten sensors in that portion of my house, that arm and disarm separately from ten sensors that are on this side of my house. It basically just splits your system into multiple smaller systems. Most people won't mess with that, but that is where it is located if you need to. And that's pretty much it. As far as, what's available on the app for settings? the other settings would be changed via alarm.com if you have that set up, on your panel, this page that I'm on right now, if you go all the way to the left is events.

So this will tell you everything event wise that has happened on the system. So you can scroll up and down through that and check it out. But basically everything we did, we powered it up. We plug the AC in. That was over the weekend. So, it was ready for today and, not networked. That was probably this being enrolled. And then it connected, then it connected and it showed active front door sensor. Yep. And each of these events you can click on and get more information. So on and so forth. Pretty straightforward. Now going to the right here at the bottom is tests. So you can run all the different tests for the system, you can run a Wi-Fi test to make sure your Wi-Fi is connected, Cellular test, Z-Wave test if you do like the Z-Wave and the powered tests and things like that. Basically you choose what sensor you're going to check out. here, I'll just run run a room real quick. So this is the front door. You choose which zone you're going to run the test for. So if I run the front door, power G test, takes about a minute or so to complete, but basically it's just checking to make sure that there's nothing wrong with the sensor for one and for two, that they can still talk. So now once that's done, I'll be right back. All right. And as you saw, our front door test failed there. And that's most likely because I had everything so close together here. courses and power g is great for distance, but if you get stuff too close together, it can, basically, the signal just jumps right over what it's looking for. So, if you need to, if you're like, doing a bench setup like this and you have all your wireless devices splayed out and you want to run your tests, I would recommend taking the panel itself somewhere else. Just like ten feet away. Doesn't have to be far, but just give yourself some distance between the panel and all the different sensors, and that way it can. It has the room that it needs to to get all those signals back and forth. So, this is kind of taking a while, but basically it will tell you if it's getting a good signal or not. just be green or red. It'll be fairly obvious, straightforward. we do know that's connected though, because every time I interact with it, the panel's telling me that something's happening. So, you need to. There's a dual path Wi-Fi test. You can test all the data cards in the panel, which this one only has the power G. Like I said. So it would be, power G cell WiFi and Z-Wave. So it's still for tests that it needs to run, but still. then you can run a panel test. Which panel test just kind of goes through and checks status for all the different functions that the panel can do.

So you can run an arm and disarm test. You can run a battery test, LED test, which is the LEDs up here at the top. so on and so forth. But moving on here at the bottom right of the app again, there's a settings option and that is for this app. So you can change, the language, you can change the theme. I guess I have the dark theme on the temperature scale, whether it's Celsius, Fahrenheit, you can also get, this is also where you disconnect from the panel. Honestly, I just closed the app. That's a little bit quicker and easier for me, but if you want to, there's a disconnect button there at the bottom. Now, That is not what I meant to do. Although I did want to show you guys that. All right, so up here at the top, if you go to the dashboard, the icon on the top left doesn't do anything but the little, pencil looking thing with the sparkles around it. If you click on that, that actually runs your install wizard again. So if you're having trouble and you can't quite figure out in the settings what you want, where you need to be, but you just like need to enroll a center or something, you can go back into the the Wizard and you can actually, choose. Yeah, you can just scroll over. You can actually just scroll over to the portion of the install wizard that you need to set up. So, I'm just going to exit that wizard real quick. if you go to the tests option top right, it gives you a search so you can search through the different tests that you can run on the system. under config, same thing applies if you need to search for something in the app, like, you know, like delay times. If I want to change delay times. There. So as you can see, if I type in delay, it brings up all the options available for me to change in this page right here. So if I wanted to change the normal entry and exit delays, I could just click on that. It would let me adjust the values and then save it. And that's pretty much what every other page does except for the events page. This actually brings up a filter so that you can search for specific events. so you can go back, go through and, you know, if you just want to look for troubles, just check Mark the trouble, click apply. And the only trouble we had was that being tampered, because I had it out of its case and it gave a tampered condition.

So, but other than that, there's nothing really more to talk about. As far as the installer app goes, at this point, you would just go about using your system as normal or if you want to hook it up to alarm.com, that's where you're going to get a little bit more of the feature set. And like I said, we're going to come back and do a video on what the system looks like when you just use it locally, and then what it looks like when you use it with alarm.com. So once I do that, I'd say a couple weeks, give us some time to play around with it and get it set up properly and all that. But, we'll be back to do a video on that. but yeah, otherwise that is the IQ for it is, the system through the app. Like I said, if you use the alarm.com setup, you don't have to have a keypad at all. Now, that might be a little weird to some people. I personally think it's a little weird myself, but, I mean, the world is going to a more, app based life, essentially. So, I mean, if you're comfortable using two apps to one program and two use your system, the IQ4NS is a perfect panel for you. It's much cheaper than the IQ panel 4 with the touchscreen on it. so, you know, if you're just looking for a, a budget system that has the commercial capabilities of like an IQ panel or a DSC system, this is probably the way to go. hopefully there are some more updates and some more features that get brought out with this app and stuff. Now, like I said, they're still very new, but as things evolve and progress, we'll check it out. And anytime anything notable happens, we'll bring out a video like this on it. So, if you're interested in the IQ4NS, that should be live on our site by the time this video drops. So go check it out. And if you want one, by all means, get one ordered and we'll take care of you from there. And if you want to make sure that you don't miss any future videos on this IQ for system or any of the other videos that we do, click that subscribe button below and give us a like and a comment if there's anything you want to see. Otherwise I will catch you guys on the next one.