Console placement?

N49atv

Active Member
Well ordered my HAI system. Didn't order the security contacts yet, still waiting on "approved" drill zones. Anyway. Ordered 2 consoles. As I'll only go out the garage, and I'd like one in my room. The question is. Do I mount the pad just inside the door(mud room), or do I mount it on the landing inside the garage? (other side of the door from location 1)
 
If you're talking about an alarm keypad, you would mount it inside a secure area, out of sight. It shouldn't be visible from the outside of the house.
 
Yeah, inside it would be. I just know garage doors are easy to access, so I figure inside is better. But then wife has to pull in, go up the stairs, inside, and deactivate.
 
Here using one keypad (rest are touchscreens).  That said it was mostly relating to WAF even though timings are set. 
 
Simple things like returning to home from grocery shopping or talking on a cell phone while entering the house can create false alarms.
 
Priories are relating to the groceries or the conversation on the cell phone or whatever is concurrently occurring when entering the home.
 
The addition of visual "in your face" or auditory "in your ears" also works as a stimulus to shut off the alarm; but not always.
 
Another option is the use of "classical conditioning" which typically works fine.
 
What's the reliability of the iPad for a security keypad/console? Maybe I won't mount one in my room, just use the iPad. It's just to arm before bed, and see what's going on if we have an alarm before we go out into the house?

I plan to use haiku, and helper.
 
I am a strong believer in using plenty of keypads - one for each primary entrance.  Sure you always use the garage today - but what if for some reason you can't use the garage for two weeks?  Do you ever just run in the front door to grab something?  Say you're leaving and see a UPS package you want to toss in the front door, but the alarm is already armed? 
 
Then at night - if there's an alarm triggered in the middle of the night - are you going to go grab your ipad and fire it up to see what's going on?  Not me - I'm going to look at the keypad sitting on the wall to see what the trigger was and decide if I'm grabbing a gun.
 
Any door you can enter/exit from should ideally have a keypad - just because you never know - and I've read plenty of stories here on CT about false alarms from wives going out the back door to the garden, or out a patio door, or whatever. 
 
We have one by the garage just inside the door - one just to the side of the front door, and one in the master bedroom visible from bed.  I wouldn't have minded one of the little Elk Decora ones by the back slider too but that would've been really difficult to install (as was the front-door one)
 
The iPad will be in the wall in the room and kitchen. I have a keypad for room, just wondered about using the haiku keypad to arm/disarm in room before the day begins and after
 
Here playing / testing consoles.  In the master bedroom there are three.  Two tabletop consoles and one in wall console.  I have stifled the "voices" (TTL) as these were low on the WAF at 3 AM in the morning. 
 
I have gone to beeps; IE: one if by land and two if by sea.....type stuff still a bit low on the WAF...and have moved these actvities (actions) over to the inwall touchscreen console. 
 
I do wake up some getting up and walking to the console where as just glancing at the bright tabletop screen with TTS would be mesmerizing me while still half asleep; then I would just roll over hiding my eyes and shielding my ears....that and touching and navigating the touchscreen while half asleep was a bit of a pita.
 
I don't have a keypad near my front door.  It wasn't wired for it.  I planned on adding one, but I have a Yale touchscreen lock.  I use that as my keypad for disarming.  I put a rule in the Vera that says when the alarm is armed and a valid code is entered in the lock, then disarm the alarm.  So far, it works great.  And, it pretty much eliminates the need for a keypad at the front door.
 
You can add the garage as a zone, adding wide-gap contacts to the overhead doors, and add a KP to the garage.
 
I don't know if you can use a keyfob for arm/disarm, with HAI, but you can with Elk.  Some people choose not to use fobs.
 
Id rather not use fobs, cards, or the magnetic things for keychains. One they are easy to misplace (who hasn't lost keys) and if someone gets them, they get free access if they find any mail in truck etc.

Secondly. My kids are savages. You can't turn away for a second, or they are doing things they shouldn't be (2 and 4). So they could arm it and cause a false alarm.

I'd rather have a code punched in.
 
N49atv said:
Id rather not use fobs, cards, or the magnetic things for keychains. One they are easy to misplace (who hasn't lost keys) and if someone gets them, they get free access if they find any mail in truck etc.

Secondly. My kids are savages. You can't turn away for a second, or they are doing things they shouldn't be (2 and 4). So they could arm it and cause a false alarm.

I'd rather have a code punched in.
We use a wireless fob and an RF ID fob, and would never give that up for a keypad.  The wireless keyfob is on our keychains and we usually shut the alarm off from our car before we even get out.  Each RF fob is individually coded, so if one gets lost, its easy to shut it off. I have a big LED sign in our garage that gives alarm status on or off (and weather, temps, etc.)
 
we also have RFID fobs and a reader outside our door. It unlocks the door as well as turning off the alarm.  Again, individually coded so any can be turned on and off at will.  We go again, the neighbor can use one to check the house as well.  Just walking up, and waving the fob to get in is so much easier than fumbling for keys and typing in codes.  Also, when your kids are older, giving your kids a code to remember is not very secure. They can easily tell it to other people, write it on their hand, etc.  
 
I have HAIku on my iPhone as well, and that is really reliable, but to make it secure you have to have a password.  Its just so much easier to press a button on a wireless fob, then to dig out your phone, launch an app, type in your pin, every time you arrive or leave. 
 
There are many arguments against fobs, but the alarm system doesn't do much good if it isn't armed. I found my wife rarely armed the system until I added the receiver and fobs. It was a simple matter to suspend her fob when she lost it after a few years. Also simple to activate it when it was found. We also like the ability to turn on some interior lights with the fob so she doesn't have to enter a dark house.

I have a couple lights behind the garage attic window for status in response to fob's star button. Steady light, five seconds = disarmed. Strobe light five seconds = armed. Strobe light for one minute = alarm was tripped. The lady who takes care of our cats when we are gone was always afraid she would set off the alarm. She is much more comfortable with the fob and coded lights so she knows the system is disarmed before she opens a door.
 
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