Why Are All Of My Lyric's SiX Series Sensors Showing a Trouble?

If the Lyric controller's RF channel changes, the SiX Sensors can lose their connection to it. Though it is rare, the Lyric, for an unknown reason, may not be able to communicate a channel change to the sensors. Once this occurs, there is no remedy, besides replacing ALL of the SiX Sensors.

The Lyric Controller was the first panel released with Honeywell's new SiX sensor technology. Honeywell's SiX technology brought the ability to see battery levels and signal strength for all sensors in near real-time. It also brought a longer transmitting range and end-to-end encryption. The full line of SiX sensors works using a 2.4GHz frequency. There are different channels within that frequency that the Lyric can use to communicate to its SiX sensors. This is all managed by the Lyric Controller automatically.

The Lyric selects the best available 2.4 GHz channel at the time of power-up, before programming in the first SiX Sensor. This channel (between 11 - 26, with 25, 15, 20, and 11 being preferred) cannot be changed manually. If the Lyric notices too much noise on its chosen channel after initial setup, it has a feature called 'frequency agility'. This feature allows the Lyric to jump to a clearer channel. When this occurs, the Lyric must reach out to every one of its SiX sensors to notify them that a channel change is happening, and which channel the system will be moving to. If it fails to move every sensor to the new channel, then the panel reverts everything back to the original channel. It will attempt to repeat the channel change at a later time.

Each SiX Sensor can only be paired with a single panel at any given time. Every sensor has a blinking green LED status light. When this LED light blinks fast, it indicates the sensor is not yet enrolled with a system. When the green LED blinks slowly, it indicates the sensor is, or at least thinks it is, paired with a panel. Once a SiX Sensor believes it is enrolled with a panel, it will not allow itself to be paired with a different panel until it either receives a signal releasing it from the existing panel or is set back to default.

There is a SiX device default procedure available to reset a sensor that either thinks it is paired with a panel or was paired with a panel in error. But this process only works if it is performed within 24 hours of initial sensor enrollment, or within 100 button presses if the device is a SIXFOB. Once the time limit or button press limit is exceeded, the sensor must be replaced if it cannot be removed from the panel it was initially enrolled with.

A channel change due to frequency agility is not a process that should take place often. If there are sensor communication issues, and you want to force the Lyric to select a better channel, you can delete every sensor manually. Verify that every sensor shows a fast flashing LED, then power down the Lyric. Upon powering up, the Lyric will again select the best channel available at that time, and sensors can be re-enrolled.

You can see what channel the panel is currently using by entering the Advanced Master User menu: Tools > Master Code (default is 1234) > Advanced > System Information > SiX AP Version. On this line, you will see the channel number. Unfortunately, there is no way to verify what channel the sensors are configured to use. If they are working, they are using the channel displayed on the Lyric, but if they are not working, there is a chance that there is a channel mismatch. In these situations, where one or more previously working SiX Sensors suddenly indicate an RF supervision failure, after exhausting all other troubleshooting measures, we may conclude that the panel has jumped channels and failed to take one or more sensors along with it.

If you run into a situation similar to this, check to see if the LEDs for the troubled sensors are slow or fast blinking. If the LEDs are blinking fast, then you can attempt to do a SiX Sensor Batch Enroll from zone programming. If the sensors have a status LED that is blinking slowly, then they think they are already enrolled and will not re-enroll. Unfortunately, this behavior requires any SiX Sensors that will longer communicate with the panel, and that have a slow-blinking status LED, to be replaced.