[Articles] HAI Cellular Communication Center

[CT Droid]

Home Automation, Inc. (HAI) has released some more details about their soon to be released 'Cellular Communication Center' (Part # 70A00-1).  This looks like a great and easy way of adding redundancy to your alarm panel (no matter what the make/model is), even if it doesn't support cellular interfaces.

"Connects with any HAI Omni or Lumina home control system, as well as any security panel. Checks the status of your home phone line. If the phone line is unavailable, it will emulate the phone line signal, and the panel will dial out using your GSM cellular network to communicate with a central monitoring station, and/or your cellular telephone. Includes backup battery and antenna. Requires GSM SIM card and cellular service. Can also be used in applications where landlines are neither present nor desired."

View the full article

 

[rogerous]

Any idea about pricing?

I think it has a great potential if it's not tied to a monthly fee service provider.

 

[electron]

HAI announced they are shipping the product now, more info will be released next week.

 

[Neurorad]

pretty cool

 

[sic0048]

I thought I'd post about some of the prepaid plans out there.

T-Mobile
Prepaid GSM SIM card options
It looks like their service is good for 90 days. No carry over minutes or credit for unused minutes. So you must reorder at least every 90 days even if you didn't use all the minutes. Of course you can order sooner than that if you run low on minutes. The one exception to this is with the $100 card (1000 minutes) - it lasts for 12 months.
$10 gets 30 minutes (equals 33 cents/minute)
$25 gets 130 minutes (equals 19.2 cents/minute)
$50 gets 40 minutes (equals 12.5 cents/minute)
$100 gets 1000 minutes which last 12 months rather than 90 days (equals 10 cents/minute)

You also need a T-Mobile SIM Card Activation Kit to get a SIM card and activate it. It seems that using this option would prevent you from having to buy a prepaid phone.

 

[electron]

Tech Sheet and User Manual are now available.

This is really a cool device, it even allows you to make calls over the cell network, using your regular house phones.

 

[ASIHome]

Available on the site for those interested in pricing.

We are expecting our first shipment on 9/11 and have a couple unclaimed.

 

[sic0048]

That is pretty cool. It would give us backup should our IP phone connection go out. Given this revelation, I could see getting a 1000 minute card for $100. That would be approx $8.50 per month for 83 minutes average per month. More minutes that I would use, but pretty inexpensive overall and in line with other cellular backup services. But this option would give us the cellular backup for the entire house. That probably isn't a huge deal since we all seem to have cell phones, but still an extra layer of safety IMHO. Of course you have the cost of the hardware too.

Any other mobile providers that use GSM SIM cards now?

 

[TXFlatLander]

Any other mobile providers that use GSM SIM cards now?

Post/Pre-Paid:

AT&T
T-Mobile


Pre-Paid:

Tracfone
Boost

Update: Here is a link to GSM Coverage Maps in the US. May not be complete, but appears to have regional providers as well.

Then you have regional carriers that are on GSM. I will see what I can find from when I was researching GSM backups. What I found for prepaid was the expiration of the minutes and the "first call"/daily charges would eat your prepaid amount up pretty quick, especially if used as primary communication method.

 

[electron]

So Tracfone would work with this? I already have one for my wife, you can always find coupons out there to get tons of free minutes (plus buy one that has the double minutes for life) whenever you buy more minutes, so that would be a good deal.

 

[TXFlatLander]

So Tracfone would work with this? I already have one for my wife, you can always find coupons out there to get tons of free minutes (plus buy one that has the double minutes for life) whenever you buy more minutes, so that would be a good deal.

I cannot tell you if it will work. I can tell you that Tracfone sales GSM phones, thus SIM cards. They also have some CDMA stuff.

Per wikipedia entry for Tracfone:

TracFone service is limited to TracFone-branded handsets (all TracFone handsets are pre-programmed by the manufacturer, therefore, the handset is locked including its latest GSM models). Other GSM handsets will not accept TracFone SIM cards, even if unlocked.

Not sure if that makes it a deal breaker. If you plan on getting one anyway, it would be a good test for those in the community that are on the fence and looking at Tracfone and the HAI CCC.

 

[js19707]

Just in case this matters to anyone else: the user manual for the C3 says that the operating temp is -10C to 40C (14* F to 104* F).

I was previously planning on installing the C3 in my attic but I can't ensure it will always be < 104 *F there so I'll be finding another spot for it.