Security Sales & Integration April 2021 - 49

Konnected states its products provide. In a
similar vein, the majority of these professional
products have been tested by nationally recognized testing laboratories and have been specifically designed to connect to listed household
and commercial alarm control units.
Yet another troublesome technical directive
on the company's website concerns the potential for a malfunctioning board:
If your device is not responsive
and feels hot to the touch, it
needs to be replaced. Sometimes this
is caused by a short circuit or a voltage
spike, but other times the board is
just bad.

In other words if the Konnected alarm panel fails, unless you are touching the circuit
board when it is hot, you will not know that it
failed. Additionally, once this board fails, everything connected to the Konnected board is
no longer functional.
A short circuit should not blow a circuit board
on an alarm system or on any device which is
being connected to an alarm system. The fault
on the board can also negatively effect other
mission-critical functions of the host security
system control panel. Not surprisingly, Konnected products do not provide any automatic way
to warn consumers of a failure on their unlisted product line, and since they are required to
connect to the auxiliary output (data bus) of the
host control unit, a short from the Konnected
equipment will shut down the host panel.
The built-in switch/relay on
the Konnected Alarm Board
can accommodate a siren up to
1.4A or 15W. When the siren exceeds this
specification, or when wires are shorted
across the switch, it can become fused in
an on or off position. When this happens,
you will not be able to either turn your siren on or off depending on how it's stuck.

Here Konnected is using its nonlisted equipment as the portal to activate the system's sirens with the caveat of what can happen without any warning whatsoever to the consumer.
Self-evidently, not only is the siren(s) not electronically supervised like the rest of the design
doctrine of Konnected products, but it can become fused without warning and end up in a
securitysales.com

SS2104 pp46-49 Konnected.indd 49

sustained off position.
Woefully deficient, the Konnected product
line does not detect this material change of
state and remains silent just like all of the connected sirens. Thereafter, if the siren is fused in
the " off " position, there will be no onsite audible alarm when an emergency is detected. This
design flaw has a high propensity of negatively
effecting other crucial functions of the security
system without any onsite and/or remote warning being provided to consumers.
Concurrently, if there is a fire and/or CO
emergency event in the premises, and the siren
output is locked in the off position, the system
will not audibly sound.

Any professional
alarm company
that installs
the Konnected
alarm panel risks
unmitigated
liability.

Advice to Pro Installers
Should a " professional " alarm company install
Konnected products? My emphatic answer to
this question is no.
Any professional alarm company that installs the Konnected alarm panel risks unmitigated liability. These claims can include but are
not limited to violation of codes, standards, requirements of authorities having jurisdiction,
failure to comply with adopted building and
fire codes, and alarm contractor licensing laws.
Stated differently, if the Konnected product fails - and as a result there is a loss - the
focus will be on the unlisted Konnected product, which the dealer company installed. Most
states prohibit an alarm company from installing
equipment that is not listed by a NRTL. And
these violations against the alarm company continue if the contractor does anything to endanger
the health, welfare and safety of the public. SSI
JEFFREY ZWIRN, CPP, CFPS, CFE, SET,
FASI&T, CHPA-IV, MBAT, NFPA 3000(PS), is
president of IDS Research and Development,
an alarm and security consultation, forensic expert witness and training authority
providing nationwide services on all issues
related to alarm and security matters.
He can be reached at (800)-353-0733.

FIND IT ON THE WEB:

The online version of this article includes
additional forensic analysis, false claims, as well as
a suggestion for manufacturers to hold Konnected
legally responsible for claiming its products can
be safely connected to professional alarm control
panels. Visit securitysales.com/konnected.

APRIL 2021 Security Sales & Integration

3/22/21 10:36 AM

http://www.securitysales.com/konnected http://www.securitysales.com

Security Sales & Integration April 2021

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