Best Practices for CS notification

[WayneW]

Is it possible to detect when an M1 system has had to resort to its second or third choice of notification methods? I would hate to eventually discover that my primary notification methods has been failing for some period of time and I was relying on my backup notification. Does the scheduled communicator test validate ALL the notification methods or just enough until its gets the proper kiss-off? NextAlarm ignores duplicates received within a minute or two, so they don't add an insight here.

I am currently using my M1 with NextAlarm (over Vonage VOIP) and now also with UpLink DigiCell AnyNet cellular RF. One of the drawbacks to my (any?) VOIP service is that since the dial tone and line voltage is generated by the local router, my Elk never gives any telephone trouble notices, even when my Vonage or cable internet service is down. I would really like to know when the M1 has to use the UpLink to get to the Central Station so that I can see about resolving the other issues. Does this get logged? Can I use it as a rule trigger? Can I request a product enhancement to make it a rule trigger or a trouble condition or something so I am aware of it being used?

I currently have 3 phone entries in ElkRP:

• NextAlarm - primary number (2 attempts) - always report
• NextAlarm - secondary number (2 attempts) - as a backup to above
• UpLink - serial expander (2 attempts) - as a backup to above

Should I reduce those to 1 attempt each? Change the sequence?

I know I could change the UpLink from backup mode to full/parallel mode, but I don't want to run ALL my activities over the RF if I don't have to. UpLink is supposed to be under 50 activities per month. With arms, disarms, notifications, daily tests, etc I am way over 50 per month. I guess I could add two UpLink entries - one as a "always report" but have it only report alarms (no arms/disarms/etc) and one as a backup with the full reporting I desire of arms/disarms/etc.

 

[CollinR]

I would change the order and have uplink as primary ans Vonage as secondary. Reason being cellular is not only harder to disrupt but as much faster, with phone systems you have to wait for dial tone, dial, ring twice, then begin communications. With cellular the comunications begins almost instantly, I'm thinking if you tested your current setup with the cable modem unplugged you may find it takes several seconds to a minute before communications is actually started.

 

[Monk]

Is it possible to detect when an M1 system has had to resort to its second or third choice of notification methods? I would hate to eventually discover that my primary notification methods has been failing for some period of time and I was relying on my backup notification. Does the scheduled communicator test validate ALL the notification methods or just enough until its gets the proper kiss-off? NextAlarm ignores duplicates received within a minute or two, so they don't add an insight here.

I am currently using my M1 with NextAlarm (over Vonage VOIP) and now also with UpLink DigiCell AnyNet cellular RF. One of the drawbacks to my (any?) VOIP service is that since the dial tone and line voltage is generated by the local router, my Elk never gives any telephone trouble notices, even when my Vonage or cable internet service is down. I would really like to know when the M1 has to use the UpLink to get to the Central Station so that I can see about resolving the other issues. Does this get logged? Can I use it as a rule trigger? Can I request a product enhancement to make it a rule trigger or a trouble condition or something so I am aware of it being used?

I currently have 3 phone entries in ElkRP:

• NextAlarm - primary number (2 attempts) - always report
• NextAlarm - secondary number (2 attempts) - as a backup to above
• UpLink - serial expander (2 attempts) - as a backup to above

Should I reduce those to 1 attempt each? Change the sequence?

I know I could change the UpLink from backup mode to full/parallel mode, but I don't want to run ALL my activities over the RF if I don't have to. UpLink is supposed to be under 50 activities per month. With arms, disarms, notifications, daily tests, etc I am way over 50 per month. I guess I could add two UpLink entries - one as a "always report" but have it only report alarms (no arms/disarms/etc) and one as a backup with the full reporting I desire of arms/disarms/etc.

I don't know the answer to your main question - but - You could try manually causing the first 2 methods to fail then check the log, as a test. Since you have 2 attempts each, possibly also start a stopwatch to see just how long it takes before the ELK will get to the 3rd reporting method - my first thought is that 2 times each might be excessive.

On a separate note, I also use NextAlarm. (a great company thus far) A couple of years ago access to both their numbers went down for some reason and my (DSC at that time) alarm went nuts!

 

[WayneW]

I would change the order and have uplink as primary ans Vonage as secondary. Reason being cellular is not only harder to disrupt but as much faster, with phone systems you have to wait for dial tone, dial, ring twice, then begin communications. With cellular the comunications begins almost instantly, I'm thinking if you tested your current setup with the cable modem unplugged you may find it takes several seconds to a minute before communications is actually started.

If I put the UpLink first, then I go over the 50 activities per month, which I wanted to avoid. I haven't tested extensively and there are many failure modes for VOIP/cable, but I would hope the the Elk would bail pretty quickly when dialing doesn't go right. I can certainly drop the attempts to 1 to get to the UpLink quicker and/or swap the UpLink with the NextAlarm secondary figuring I am more likely to have phone trouble on my end than hit a busy on NextAlarm's end.

But I still think it is a very nice to know feature of when is the backup actually used? This is relevant to different technologies and just to see when your CS has a busy phone number.

 

[CollinR]

I feel for ya, you may be able to upgrade your account as they should also support "opens/closes" which would get you vastly more reporting.

You might also use zones on the uplink and relays on the Elk to make the Uplink report either burglary or fire fast and then zone descriptions will come in via Vonage or secondarily the Uplink. This shouldn't go over your limit but also basically make the Uplink primary for burglary/Fire as the CS will get the uplink side before they do the Vonage regaurdless even if both methods go off in a real burglary. Might talk to NextAlarm and see if they care about this but I kinda doubt it since you pay for the uplink service.

Uplink might also not allow this functionality I dunno I don't own or installed either devices but I'm pretty sure the uplink has contacts on it and I know the Elk has outputs.

 

[WayneW]

I don't know the answer to your main question - but - You could try manually causing the first 2 methods to fail then check the log, as a test. Since you have 2 attempts each, possibly also start a stopwatch to see just how long it takes before the ELK will get to the 3rd reporting method - my first thought is that 2 times each might be excessive.

On a separate note, I also use NextAlarm. (a great company thus far) A couple of years ago access to both their numbers went down for some reason and my (DSC at that time) alarm went nuts!

Well, you made me realize I probably already know the answer to my request... Elk apparently doesn't log when it attempts to use the backup number. Maybe there is a way to trigger a rule, but I haven't found it. On a recent trip, I had my router drop dead, so my M1 log was full of "1130 - fail to communicate trouble" events. Since I only had the one VOIP communication path (at that time), my panel was dead in the water, but the logs didn't indicate it was trying the backup phone number.

So, how about:
* NextAlarm - primary number (1 attempts) - always report
* UpLink - serial expander (2 attempts) - as a backup to above
* NextAlarm - secondary number (2 attempts) - as a backup to above

I also got to thinking that maybe I could put an NC relay in the phone line circuit to the Elk. When I know that my internet connection has failed (via ping tests in HomeSeer), which implies that my VOIP is probably dead also, then I could open that relay, which should trigger the "phone trouble" system in the Elk. If the Elk knows the phone is in trouble, maybe it would avoid attempting NextAlarm and go straight to the UpLink? Spanky?

I discovered some outdated or confusing info in the M1 manual because it states " A backup cannot have another backup", but ElkRP allows me to have the 3 above.

 

[WayneW]

I feel for ya, you may be able to upgrade your account as they should also support "opens/closes" which would get you vastly more reporting.

You might also use zones on the uplink and relays on the Elk to make the Uplink report either burglary or fire fast and then zone descriptions will come in via Vonage or secondarily the Uplink. This shouldn't go over your limit but also basically make the Uplink primary for burglary/Fire as the CS will get the uplink side before they do the Vonage regaurdless even if both methods go off in a real burglary. Might talk to NextAlarm and see if they care about this but I kinda doubt it since you pay for the uplink service.

Uplink might also not allow this functionality I dunno I don't own or installed either devices but I'm pretty sure the uplink has contacts on it and I know the Elk has outputs.

UpLink supports arms/disarms (aka opens/closes) just fine. It is just me trying to stay in the good graces of UpLink and abide by their 50 activities per month contract. They don't say what overages cost or if there is an upgraded airtime plan available. I do like the feature that UpLink offers.

You have an interesting workaround proposed there, but I think I can do it all in software with two UpLink entries:
- one as a "always report" but have it only report alarms (no arms/disarms/etc) (first on the Elk list so it would get highest priority for alarms)
- and one as a backup with the full reporting I desire of arms/disarms/etc. (after the NextAlarm entry, therefore VOIP handles the bulk of the arms/disarms

So, how about:
* UpLink - serial expander (2 attempts) - always report (but alarms only)
* NextAlarm - primary number (1 attempts) - always report everything
* UpLink - serial expander (2 attempts) - as a backup to above
* NextAlarm - secondary number (2 attempts) - as a backup to above

I did notice in the UpLink web pages of logs, it appears that they forward every notification to NextAlarm primary AND secondary... I saw a couple failures on the NextAlarm secondary number.

I do plan on using the UpLink relay OUTPUTS to control remote rebooting of the cable modem/router/etc if needed I wonder if the XSP supports receiving the serial ATM01 to ATM12 from the UpLink and passing that into rule triggers as received ASCII? That would let me tell the M1 to do up to 12 different things remotely, even if my VOIP phone and internet is down. I really like my UpLink AnyNet, so keep your eyes open on eBay if anybody else wants one, good deals can be found.

 

[WayneW]

I discovered some outdated or confusing info in the M1 manual because it states " A backup cannot have another backup", but ElkRP allows me to have the 3 above.

I must have discovered a loophole bug or a time warp, as after tweaking my config to the 4 entries mentioned above, I can no longer daisy chain backups. bummer.

 

[DeLicious]

I have an uplink monitored by Next Alarm as well, but I have inner heard of a 50 event limit of any sort. I do, in fact, receive notifications of all my arms and disarms without issues from NA or Uplink.

 

[CollinR]

This will depend on your plan, some have limits like this.

Same goes for supervision, monthly, daily basically constantly.

 

[cliffs]

Central Station can program their systems to detect if you have not sent a test in say
160 hours. The M1G can be programmed to sent a test once a week to the CS to be
sure everything is working. I do this a 3AM once a week. They will notify you
if they haven't received the weekly test.

Cliffs

 

[hollisin]

I have an uplink monitored by Next Alarm as well, but I have inner heard of a 50 event limit of any sort. I do, in fact, receive notifications of all my arms and disarms without issues from NA or Uplink.

I have ELK/NextAlert and can only get violations to log to NextAlert. What do I need to set to get the other events to log. I have everything checked on the telephone panel. thanks
Jack

 

[WayneW]

I have ELK/NextAlert NextAlarm(?) and can only get violations to log to NextAlert. What do I need to set to get the other events to log. I have everything checked on the telephone panel. thanks

If you are looking to get the arms (aka closes) and disarms (aka opens) to report, you need to enable Communicator | User RCs. If you want system issues to report, then look under Communicator | System RCs.

 

[WayneW]

Central Station can program their systems to detect if you have not sent a test in say
160 hours.

Can/will NextAlarm do this? I don't recall seeing this option in their web config stuff. I have the self-notify only, not the full dispatch service yet, but would love to hear from NextAlarm if they didn't get my daily test.

 

[Monk]

Central Station can program their systems to detect if you have not sent a test in say
160 hours.

Can/will NextAlarm do this? I don't recall seeing this option in their web config stuff. I have the self-notify only, not the full dispatch service yet, but would love to hear from NextAlarm if they didn't get my daily test.

Wayne,
I think you can setup latchkey events that might serve that purpose - check your online account options. The latchkey stuff is (I think) mostly for events to be generated if your kids don't disarm the system during defined time period. Possibly it could be used for your purposes.