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Home Alarm System
I have searched online for a GSM home alarm system and Visonic, Yale, Infinite Prime and CommPact seems to be the most popular ones, what are your thoughts and which one you suggest me to purchase?
Also I'm not good at DIY so I will get a professional to install it for me.
Thanks
Also I'm not good at DIY so I will get a professional to install it for me.
Thanks
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Visonic for me , reliable and calls mobile if triggered
The installer will program all for you. It's wireless and you get two key fobs
I use two buttons on it . On and off
Visonic Alarm
Is GSM more reliable than using telephone to contact you when alarm is triggered?
Also my house has all the alarm wires fitted when the house was built, should I go for a wired or wireless system?
If I tell you about Texecom because that's the one I know, there are three options you would be looking at.
Veritas - basic panel, wire up your sensors, there are LED's on the panel that tell you what's happening and you can get key fobs to turn on/off. Similar to some Honeywell/ADE home systems and the panel style may look familiar if you've had a fairly mainstream type alarm installed in a home in the past, these are solid units that are favourites for home use because they are cheaper but still effective, not that flexible though.
Elite wired - advanced panel, it can do anything the Veritas can do but gives you a full display not LED's so you can read what's happening on screen, it times events so you can see when something has happened, can be configured to tailor pretty much any setting by having anything from a couple of sensors up to hundreds of sensors, it's a type of alarm a business would have. Can be fitted with com-ip, com-gsm or com-2400 modules to communicate to either you personally by a smartphone app (com-ip), text messages (com-gsm) or by a computer terminal (com-2400); or to communicate via an alarm monitoring centre.
Elite Ricochet - similar to Elite wired but the Ricochet sensors communicate via radio not wires. Wireless has pros and cons, the biggest pro is no wiring obviously, the two biggest cons are batteries have to be replaced from time to time (you'll get a warning before time is up though) and the signal can be interrupted triggering false alarms. This is one area where the Ricochet excels because it creates a mesh network between devices, so if one device loses contact with the control panel but can still talk to another nearby device, the nearby device effectively passes the message on.
An installer can test the existing cabling to see if it's suitable, it may be okay but it may need replacing depending on its age and capabilities. I would personally go wired every time but the Ricochet gives a lot more system reliability compared to the first generation wireless alarms.
You'll pay a premium for Texecom gear as I have but when you use it on a daily basis for its ease, reliability and durability you'll soon see why they're considered one of the best brands you can get.
Also there's a port on the GSM device, what connects to it?
http://www.ultraimg.com/images/PFxL.jpg
That's for the aerial to give best possible signal strength rather than have a poorer strength built in aerial. The installation manual is here http://82.135.143.25/DOKUMENTAI/texecom/manuals-Premier-Elite-ComGSM%5B1%5D.pdf and you get a better idea what's going on from that manual.
You're right about other brands having the communicator built into the keypad but that's poor practice. Keypads are almost always only ever placed on entry routes so a person could break in and smash up the keypad before the alarm has had chance to communicate a problem to you. Having the communicator separate (usually co-located with the control panel in a hidden location, and the remote keypad being the only thing on display) keeps your system that much more secure and allows an alert to be sent to you even if someone's gone as far as smashing up the keypad.
If you do plump for the Elite series I can really recommend you get a keypad with a proxy reader combined too, for a family it's great and makes the system so easy to operate.
If I go for Elite Ricochet, I can have everything wired except from door contacts which can be wireless
Will be getting the Elite series keypad since it looks better than others and proxy reader will be a great thing for my parents since they are getting old, it will take them more than 10 secs to disable the alarm
The proxy reader is one of my favourite things about this system. Tap once to get welcome message, tap again to do a full set. When coming home tap once to unset from a full set.
When doing a part set tap once to get welcome, down arrow to do part set then select what part set programme you want, to unset tap once for welcome and again to unset.
I have Odyssey alarms too which work superbly. Two in house for heat/optical, avoiding false alarms like burnt toast that would set off a smoke alarm, and one in the garage which is 'rate of rise' so it won't trigger in a dusty environment. Flashes up fire on the display.
I am about to fit a com-ip module to mine, this allows remote monitoring which you might find useful if the system is to be fitted with elderly relatives and the equipment is cheaper than GSM communicator but you'll either need IT/networking skills or your engineer might charge a premium to configure the kit. Talk to your installer about this option.
For added peace of mind the Ricochet can have a remote key your relatives can trigger a panic with and an alert would be triggered by either GSM or IP module for you to monitor.
The control panel itself has PSTN built in already? If so I can add a GSM module for now and have GSM as first option and use PSTN only if the signal is weak but I will consider fitting a IP module later on
You can have up to 4 wired zones and 16 wireless Ricochet devices on a Ricochet 24 panel. The keypad and siren are wired, what you're suggesting should be fine. I can recommend the Elite quad PIR's with this system, sensitive but resilient to avoid false alarms.
With elderly relatives you can get the smart key they can hang on a chain or carry in their pocket to trigger the system if they need to.
I have fitted a com-ip module today and can highly recommend it. The units don't have PSTN already, these units work best with either a GSM or IP module. The IP module is cheapest of the two (if you shop around you can get them for about £80 - £100). I found it a doddle to set up, you connect the module to the panel internally, plug in a network cable then close the box up. Then you connect the other end of your network cable to your internet router/switch. Back on the keypad you set a spare IP address and I also port forwarded its communication port (I can talk you through this if you need to).
Then I fired up their software and connected to the panel on my laptop, it's absolutely brilliant. Event monitoring, diagnostics, active/inactive zones, you can even send messages from your laptop to the panel and the panel beeps/displays the message (so you could do anything from 'happy birthday darling' to 'please call me at work' or whatever).
The software you can download for free (Wintex) also works on Linux using Wine if you're a Linux user which is always a bonus.
The only downside to com-ip is the smartphone apps are chargeable which seems a bit bizarre as the apps can only be used with this module, I think making them free to download from the Play store/iTunes and perhaps doing a bit of marketing of these apps could spark some interest. Looking at the numbers displayed on the Play store these apps aren't popular at all but I reckon if they became free it could be the start of raising interest.
Having put in the com-ip today though and sitting tinkering on my laptop I wish I'd have got this module when I first got the alarm, it makes a great alarm fantastic.
I have searched online for each part of the system but don't know if I have chosen the correct part or can it be improved?
Control Panel - Premier Elite 24, but what's the difference between Polymer and Metal case version?
Communicator - ComGSM, but what's the difference between the ComGSM and this speed dialer? I want it to send me SMS text when the alarm is triggered
Keypad - Premier Elite Surface Mount
Siren - Premier Elite Odyssey 1 115db Bellbox, but what's the difference between Odyssey 1 and this version?
PIR Sensors - There are a lot of different PIR sensors but don't know which one to choose
Door Contact - All the ones I found are vibration detection type but I want magnetic detection type only as I don't want the alarm to be triggered if postman knocks on my door
Thanks
It's your call what you have done and price will be probably the decider what you do. A Veritas kit to buy is under £100. An Elite kit can easily be £300 (that's without diallers on either). However you need to find out what the installation costs are. The first time I installed an ADE system (similar to Veritas) it took around half an hour to fully configure it. The first time I installed an Elite it took me over two hours to configure as these are highly sophisticated systems with lots of options.
Personally using an Elite right now there's no way I would even consider the Veritas. Despite its complex setting up this is a one-off issue and if the installer is an experienced Texecom installer they will be able to set it up fairly quickly by using a laptop to configure it. The differences on a day to day basis are the Elite is expandable to cover hundreds of zones if you needed it, it has date/time recording so you can see when something has happened, it can control outputs so for instance you can have an exit courtesy light.
For the control panel the difference between polymer and metal is exactly that. A home system will be absolutely fine with polymer. If you wanted a grade 3 installation (higher security but in reality this is mainly used for business insurance purposes), you would need to have the metal case, a grade 3 sounder (they are wired differently and need several more wires than a normal sounder) again is keeping the system grade 3 but if you have a polymer case it wouldn't matter. Personally I like the Odyssey 3E sounder as it fits in with the current trend of alarms and it is very easy to fit as there's a 'hold-off' facility for engineers meaning they only normally need to go up the ladders once when fitting.
The control panel you've linked to is very nice. I have the slightly cheaper LCD-LP with a proxy reader, again I wouldn't have an alarm system without a prox reader having used it for a while now. They make the system a doddle to operate for the average user.
The difference between a dialler and com-gsm is a dialler has a limited and fixed range of options, com-gsm lets you fire pretty much any command at the system you need to and receive any alert you set the system up to send. I haven't used the diallers on a Texecom system but if it's one that connects to the normal phone line and not using a sim card it'll be even more limited what you can do.
PIR's are a personal choice. Rule of thumb is as a minimum you want a quad style PIR as these effectively 'look' at the room a number of times and what it sees has to trigger off all parts of the sensor before it sounds. This almost eliminates false alarms due to insects and bugs but still makes it highly sensitive. The Texecom quad PIR's match perfectly to the Elite systems. You can also get ones which match up infra red with pressure sensors for extreme environments like external garages (a garage attached to a house you'd be fine with an ordinary quad PIR though). You can get pet sensitive PIR's but remember if you have say a 15kg pet to ignore, this also ignores a five year old child so let's say you had a really unethical intruder they could technically get a child to go around undetected (but in fairness I've never heard of this type of break-in!).
You will be able to get magnetic door sets, if you want wired they're only a pound or two, if you want wireless you'll need to get a wireless sensor which allows an ordinary door contact to be wired into it just above the door.
Hope this helps further, feel free to ask any other questions and I'll do my best to answer them.
Do you know if the ComGSM fits inside the polymer case?
All the Elite series is Grade 2 I believe except from the Odyssey sounder and all my alarm cables are already wired when the house was built so I don't know if it will have enough wires in each cable
I can't seem to find the difference between the Elite Odyssey 1 and Elite Odyssey 5 except from the design and both specs are the same
Do you know if the Odyssey sounder LEDs are visible in daylight or only in the dark?
LCD-LP is £20-30 cheaper than the one I linked to but only thing I didn't like about the LCD-LP is it has a keypad cover
I will go with the ComGSM as I want it to alert me which sensor has been triggered rather than pre recorded messages or text
The quad PIR sensor you mentioned is the Elite AMQD? By quad detection, does it mean it will detect temperature, pulse and movement and all 3 has to be triggered off before the alarm triggers?
I have searched online and someone says that the Elite AMQD is more suited to conservatory and garage but the sensors will be used in kitchen, lounge, passage and second floor landing
I never knew door contact was that cheap, so this one will be alright since it has tamper detection as well?
I appreciate your help and I can't thank you enough, without your help, I will be stuck with cheap alarms
The features are endless on an Elite system and I don't regret a penny I paid for mine.
It's separate, the polymer case has a space but that's taken up by a backup battery. It's not a big unit though.
You'd have to get an installer to confirm this, but on grade 2 wiring with the Elite you need usually 4 cables per PIR, 5 per alarm sounder, 6 for anti-masking PIR, 7 for a grade 3 sounder. Older alarms used to have 6 cables per PIR (Power -, power +, two tampers, two for the zone). Modern alarms only have power and zone, they cleverly combine resistors in the sensor so tamper is built into the zone wiring. This means if the sensor sees nothing there will be a certain resistence, if it sees something there will be a certain resistence, if you join the cables (someone trying to fool the alarm there's no break - which you could do on older system tamper circuits) it would measure no resistence and sound an alarm. If you cut the cables it would measure this and again sound an alarm, very clever.
That's pretty much it, it's design. Installers tend to favour the 3E style at the moment and it's never a bad idea to have the current style as intruders can see it's not an old system. Really, alarm boxes should be replaced every 5 years or so as they have internal batteries and it keeps them looking new which is often the main deterrent. You could have the top-of-line Elite system and a battered old box outside which still worked and an intruder would think the rest of your system was battered.
Only the dark, but the presence of a box is far more important than a little flashing LED. If an intruder is that bothered they're likely to be checking the windows to see if they can see a PIR as they know fake boxes can have flashing LED's too. On the Elite sounders the LED's serve a purpose which will mean more to the installer when they're setting them up too.
http://www.thesecurityinstaller.co.uk/community/topic/972-quad-pirs/ post 2 explains differences in PIR's.
The AM bit of that code is Anti Masking. This is in case someone tries to put something over the sensor to stop it going off and can use 6 cables not 4 as I mentioned earlier so you'd need to see if your cabling could support this, but in a home situation the plain QD should work fine. More info on the specifics are http://www.texe.com/uk/products/series/motion-detectors/premier-elite-series/
They're dirt cheap. You only need two cables and a resistor (called an end of line resistor). The two single cables then say with that resistor either the door's open, the cable's cut, the cable has been joined or the door's closed. Quite easy for an engineer to install. Ones that say they have tamper detection just mean they have a resistor built in, these are 2p devices an engineer would normally carry a bucketload of. The one you've linked to is fairly big, if you measure up carefully you can get ones that fit right inside a PVC door frame making them unnoticable.
Control Panel: Texecom Premier Elite 24
Communicator: Texecom Premier Elite ComGSM
Keypad: Texecom Premier Elite LCD-LP (Blue) with proximity tag
External Sounder: Texecom Premier Elite Odyssey 1 115db
PIR: Texecom Premier Elite QD
Door Contact: Tamper detection contact
What do you think?
Snap their hand off at that price, that's a blooming cheap installation all in. I'd say a good £300 of that is equipment alone, £200 to install is a bargain on an Elite system as they do take some configuring (but I suspect as an installer they'll wire up Wintex on their laptop and configure it which doesn't take as long).
Make sure you get a separate speaker inside as if someone gets as far as breaking in, a loud internal speaker will be the bit that makes them poop themselves and run off. The speaker built into the keypad and the speaker in the Elite unit are too quiet to frighten anyone off.
Do consider smoke alarms with this unit too, they'll be cheaper to add at this stage rather than later on. You'll get text alerts with any activations, they're far less prone to false activation than a standard smoke alarm and they make a distinctive noise when they're activated. They do 3 types of smokes, a heat/optical (good all-rounder, I have two in the house), a rate of rise (measures how quickly a room gets hot, good for dusty places like garage but not kitchens as they can get hot quickly), and a fixed rate temperature sensor (good for kitchens). Less than £25 per unit, if the installer offers you let's say two for £80 more that's very reasonable installed.