The most common reason for radio jamming problems when installing a Texecom Ricochet alarm system is from other Smart Home devices – which transmit across the same frequency, and therefore causing jamming issues.
The following are notes on best-practice for installing a Ricochet wireless alarm system to minimise / prevent radio-jamming:

• Make sure you power up the panel onsite (i.e. don’t power it up / programme in your office prior to installation).
• Once powered up, the panel (or expander) will sniff through the 868 Mhz frequency (Texecom use both 868.2 and 868.5 Mhz frequencies)
• On power-up you need to leave it for a minute or two to settle – to give it time to sniff through all the frequencies and understand which is the cleanest (i.e. has the least interference from other devices).  Importantly, during this time, go around the property pressing thermostat buttons and other RF-based devices / anything that might transmit frequencies (including some TV remote controls & remote-controlled window systems).  During this time, the Ricochet expander will automatically move to the quietest frequency.  Important to know that although Texecom use 2 frequencies, they also use 32 network numbers within those two frequencies – so there’s a lot to choose from (to minimise jamming opportunities).  N.B. if you’re using the Wintex software, you can see which number the system has chosen.
• At this point you need to ‘learn’ your devices onto the system and then create the ‘Ricochet Mesh’. 5) Once the Ricochet Mesh has been created, you can install the devices around the property.

Tips on how to prevent Ricochet radio-jamming

If you’re still having radio-jamming issues, having set up the Ricochet Mesh as per above, then here are some notes to check for further trouble-shooting:

1) If you’ve already installed / ‘learnt’ sensors on to the Ricochet network, you need to make sure you ‘unlearn’ them before you do your trouble-shooting – as the Expander listens to ‘noise’ when sniffing / trying to find the best frequency to work on, and will treat Ricochet devices as ‘noise’ – so you need to make sure the Expander is ‘device free’.

2) In the case where you’re using ‘Compact’ PIRs and ‘Micro contacts’ and it’s a large property or a property with thick walls / lots of steel, you may find that the device strength is too weak – and that you need to use devices with stronger aerials – for example, swapping a Compact PIR for an Elite PIR (which has a big coil aerial in-built).  Similarly, if you’re having trouble with micro contacts, you should change for the bigger Elite Impaq contact.

3) Check you haven’t put two expanders too close to each other, or that any wireless Ricochet device is next to another device or smart home device (like a thermostat etc.).  There should always be a 30cm rule here.

4) To check what’s happening with your Ricochet devices, you can click on the ‘expander icon’ in Wintex, which will open a window detailing Ricochet device status.

Still, need help?

If you still need help with your alarm, then get in contact with our team to see if we can help you >>

Or if you know you need an engineer then book an ‘on-site visit’ where one of our trained engineers comes out to your site to fix your problem.  Book an engineer visit here  or email us at help@smartsecurity.support