Shock Sensors for Windows and Doors: How the SHOCK-319 Works

What a shock sensor on a window actually catches

A plain contact watches a magnet, so it only reports once the sash has already moved, and that's the moment the Versa SHOCK-319 is built to beat on the same 319.5 MHz zone. By the time a contact trips, the opening is breached and whoever did it is on their way in. The shock half moves that trip point earlier, because the vibration-sensing element inside reacts to the force of the attempt rather than to the result.

So when somebody puts a bar under a window sash, kicks a door, hammers a frame or drills a lock, the vibration travels through the frame into the sensor and crosses the threshold you set. The SHOCK-319 then sends that over the air on 319.5 MHz as a supervised zone, with no wire run to the opening. The gap between those two moments - the attempt and the breach - is the whole reason you'd put one on a window.

Shock sensor, glassbreak detector or plain contact

People mix these three up constantly, and the Versa SHOCK-319 is really two of them in one 319.5 MHz housing. It's a shock sensor first, with a supervised reed contact alongside it, and the one it isn't is the glassbreak detector.

A shock sensor will often react when someone strikes glass, and that still isn't the same job an acoustic detector does, because it's listening from across the room for a sound that only happens once the pane lets go. The Versa SHOCK-319 is on the frame feeling the force, which means it can alarm on a pry attempt that never breaks anything at all. Plenty of jobs run both, and they're layers rather than substitutes.

Where the SHOCK-319 goes on a window

Placement is most of the job with a shock sensor, because the Versa SHOCK-319 only feels what the surface under it feels. Put the transmitter on the part that stays still, which is the frame, and the magnet on the part that moves, which is the sash or the door. Then run your panel's Go/No Go test from that exact spot before you peel the tape, since moving a loose sensor is a lot easier than moving a taped one.

• Frame or sash, never the pane. Windows with glass inserts are fine, and the Versa SHOCK-319 still goes on the frame around them.
• Watch the gap on metal. The magnet has to sit within 1 in. of the SHOCK-319 on wood, and that tightens to 1/4 in. once either part is on a steel door or an aluminum window, because metal pulls the field away.
• Let the blue LED answer it. Close the window and look for blue, which means the magnet is in range. It runs for 5 minutes after the battery goes in or the cover comes off, and sliding the cover off again gives you another 5.
• Stay off metal and foil. Keep the Versa SHOCK-319 and its magnet clear of metallic surfaces and foil wallpaper, and skip furnace and utility rooms, where the metal and the wiring soak up a 319.5 MHz signal.
• Keep it dry and indoors. The Versa SHOCK-319 is for dry, indoor locations, and the operating range is in the spec table below.

On an aluminum-framed window the gap rule is the one that catches people, and the fix is usually to shim the magnet off the metal or to move both parts onto the wooden casing. If the blue LED still won't light with the window shut, the magnet is either past the gap or sitting off the long edge of the transmitter, so line it up before you commit. The Bluefield LED exists so one person can settle that at the window instead of shouting at somebody standing at the panel.

The DIP switch decides when the shock half is live

There's one DIP switch on the Versa SHOCK-319 board, and it does more than turn the contact on and off. Here's what each position actually does:

Read that ON row again, because it's the one worth knowing before you climb the ladder. With the DIP ON you get both jobs on one zone, and the shock half of the Versa SHOCK-319 only arms itself while the window is shut. So on a kitchen window that stays open half the summer, you'd get the open and close reports all season while the shock detection sits idle whenever the sash is up.

With the DIP OFF you give up the contact on that zone, and in exchange the shock fires whether the window is open or closed. That's the setting for an opening you want watched in both states, and if you still need the open and close reported you put a MINI-319 on it as its own zone.

Tuning the sensitivity with your palm

Sensitivity on the Versa SHOCK-319 is a small screwdriver dial on the board, marked MIN and MAX, and you tune it on the mounted sensor rather than on the bench, because the frame, the fasteners and the glazing all change how vibration reaches the board. Get it mounted, then hit the surface gently with the palm of your hand and work up from there.

1. Mount it first, and close the opening

   Get the Versa SHOCK-319 taped where it's going to live, with the magnet set and the blue LED confirming the gap. If the DIP is ON, test with the window shut, because the shock half is asleep while the sash is up. Nothing happening with the window open is the DIP, not the dial.

2. Hit the surface with your palm

   Start gently and build up. Green flashes when an impact came close without crossing the line, and red lights when the shock alarm fires, so you can read the margin as you go.

3. Turn the dial a little at a time

   Clockwise with a small screwdriver, and stop when a deliberate strike alarms. Keep your hand off the glass and don't stress the frame while you're testing.

4. Then try to make it misbehave

   Open and close the window normally, let the blinds knock about, and check that nothing trips. That's where nuisance alarms come from, and the green LED is what lets you back the dial off with some idea of how much headroom you've left.

That green pre-shock flash is the part installers tend to like, because without it you're guessing between nothing and a full alarm. On the Versa SHOCK-319 it shows you where the threshold sits on that particular window, which is what makes a sensible setting repeatable from job to job.

Enrolling the SHOCK-319 on a 319.5 MHz panel

The Versa SHOCK-319 carries a built-in serial number and the panel learns it from one transmission, so the sequence is the same everywhere: start autolearn, make it transmit, name the zone, save. Both halves come in as one supervised zone.

On a Qolsys IQ Panel 2+, IQ Panel 4, IQ4 Hub or IQ Panel 5 the 319.5 MHz SRF card has to be in the slot first, because that card is what lets the panel hear the band at all. From there you put the panel into auto-learn through its sensor programming, open and close the magnet or tap the cover on the SHOCK-319, and the panel reads the serial. Name it, pick the group and the partition, and save. Our guide to 319.5 MHz sensors on the Qolsys IQ Panel 4 and 5 has the card part numbers and the menu path for each panel.

On a GE or Interlogix-class 319.5 MHz panel you do the same thing through that panel's sensor programming: pick the zone, put it in learn, then open and close the magnet once. Worth remembering on either family: none of the LEDs on the Versa SHOCK-319 tell you the panel heard anything. Blue is the magnet gap, green is a near-miss impact and red is a shock alarm, so open and close the window a couple of times after you enroll and watch the zone register each one at the panel.

SHOCK-319 specifications

Here are the Versa SHOCK-319 numbers you'll want on the job sheet. They match the spec table on the product page, so you can quote either one.

One thing to size into any UL-listed job: the shock detection option on the SHOCK-319 is not evaluated by UL. You can look the radio up yourself under FCC ID 2AD9XSHOCK319 on the FCC ID search, or through the ISED Certification and Engineering Bureau on the Canadian side.

Product in this articleSHOCK-319 - 319.5 MHz shock sensor and door/window contact

One device on one zone, for Qolsys IQ and GE/Interlogix panels.

View ProductWhere to buy

You'll find the rest of the range in our shock sensor collection and the plain contacts in door and window sensors. Dealers order the Versa line through WAVE Electronics and the SS&Si Dealer Network, and if you haven't tried one on a window yet we'll send you five free sensors to put on a job. The full SHOCK-319 installation manual has the figures and the printable PDF.