Ballpark Costs & Effort to move to AlarmRelay Cellular monitoring?

[SterlingDonnelly]

As long as the company you sign up with (and their central station if they don't run their own) are licensed to dispatch in Seattle, you certainly should be able to get professional central station service there. You'll have to pay a yearly $10 registration fee and they charge $115 for any dispatch they go out on that the deem a false alarm. There is the opportunity to attend a false alarm class/workshop to get that waived the first time I believe.
 
I would think a TG-1 Express would work nicely with the Elk M1.

 

[TurboSam]

@Sterling, agreed.  
 
I ended up with a TG-1 Express that does, as you say, work nicely with my Elk M1G.  
 
I had several conversations with a very nice woman at Alarm Relay in which I informed them I would be happy to pay the registration and any false alarm fee (as I would assume any monitoring agreement would require me to pay), but they simply were not interested.  I found a local company that would probably have done it (as I noted previously most of the local companies would not touch a DIY Elk system), but I went with GeoARM becasue they are licensed to dispatch in Seattle and I got great setup/technical help from them.
 
I'm still interest in the Elk C1M1 dual monitoring, but is seem to be a rather elusive beast to find (much less catch....). 

 

[Del91574]

I have been using Alarm Relay with internet monitoring over my M1XEP and a Uplink 4530EX as cellular backup.  As mentioned it is $5.00 more a month for the Uplink vs the IP BAT but I felt more comfortable going with the Uplink product.  Alarm Relay has been great for me, easy to setup and responsive.  We have a bad habit of accidentally setting the alarm off and every time the phone is ringing from the central station within seconds.

Pay attention to how you're using the cellular as a backup and the system switches over. That's an engineering issue with the M1 that I remember.

 

[homejones]

Alarm Relay recommended the IP Datatel CDMA Cat or Bat to me (cheaper monitoring). The Cat is cellular only and the Bat is IP and cellular.

I just installed this and it could not have been easier.

I don't have much running on my Elk M1, so I was able to power the CAT directly from the Elk to get back up battery.

The Cat uses dial capture, so I connected a total of 4 wires. 2 for power and 2 for phone.

I got the CAT for $150 online, it comes in its own enclosure.

I called Alarm Relay at noon and had a service tech call me at 4 to put in the correct Contact ID codes.

The IP Datatel CDMA Cat or Bat units are Verizon and surprisingly are cheaper monitoring than the Uplinks that use GSM (additional $5 per mo approx).

I paid $15.95 per month for cellular burglary, fire, panic, etc.

You prepay the year $15.95 x 12, plus one time $30 setup fee. Total of $221.40 plus the $150 for the CAT off eBay.

Setup took about 25 minutes and I was very happy and surprised at how quickly the system reported a violation to Alarm Relay. This is my first Alarm so I expected the old school modem sound and 20-30 seconds to connect.

To my surprise when the alarm goes off and they saw the violation in 5-10 seconds.

Hope this helps.
Jeff

 
Ugh - just signed up with AR after installing my 4500EZ. I spent $230 total for the 4500EZ, M1XSP, P1215K, and a 12'x12' Elk Box to store it all in. Monitoring for this setup is $19.95/month. Wish I just purchased the IP Datatel unit like you suggested to save the upfront cost (there is one on eBay now for $100) + $48 annually.

 

[Del91574]

Ipdatatel is not UL listed for the purpose. You need to factor that in.
 
There's other ways to go with listed hardware, simplify the install and more economical than teh 4500 way.

 

[BulletHead]

Anyone know how much the C1M1 Elk dual-path communicator is going to be going for?  It is to be released this month, 8/2016.  
http://www.elkproducts.com/c1m1-dual-path-communicator
Would that be the way to go?
 
If one goes the IP Datatel route, does that mean the $48 annual cost above requires an account with IP Datatel separtely?  Or is that for the CS, like AR?
 
I dont have a phone line, currently being monitored via ethernet and AR, and would like to go cell as primary or backup, thinking of 4500 or 4530 until I read up on the C1M1 this morning.

 

[Del91574]

Unless you have the other items, then you might as well go dual path and just add the 4530EX. Unless you have an absolute need for different email items or OTA programming, there's really no need to spend for the different item. Hell, you can even use Uplink's app to arm/disarm remotely.
 
The Elk isn't released for too many markets, so it's probably going to be a while.