Elk Communicator Settings Question

[ChuckSchick]

Greets all. Let me preface by declaring my complete newb-ness.

Tomorrow I'm planning to "go live" with phase I of my Elk retrofit -- the security. I've been "bench testing" for a couple of weeks and I think I'm ready to move my home's zone sensors from an existing DSC panel into the M1G.

I have to admit that the area of my greatest confusion surrounds the communication settings. My goal is to have the Elk report the following to the CS (nextAlarm)....

1) Alarm events
2) Zone info for alarms
3) Duress alarms
4) A daily test of communications

I don't see the utility of reporting anything else to the CS (can anyone give me any compelling reasons? -- I'm open to all advice).

Anyhow, here's my configuration. I'd appreciate any comments regarding whether the panel will or won't do what I'm wanting. I'm terribly worried that I'll be flooding the CS with superfluous information or will be triggering a bunch of false alarms.

The zones aren't filled with the sensors yet

Here's the bit I'm hoping will do a comm test daily (without resulting in the police being called )

I'm guessing the panic buttons should all be enabled

Is there any reason I should have these enabled?

And lastly, Is using the internet to report to the CS a horrible idea?

Wow, I hate dumping on the community like this. I hope I can answer my own share of questions eventually and balance out my cocoon-karma.

Thanks in advance - Chuck

Oh, I almost forgot, any tips for testing comms to the CS?

 

[IVB]

I'm very new to Elk in "live" mode too, but here's what I did.

I personally opted to flood NextAlarm with notifications, mainly so I could also enable their eNotify. I figured that they know enough via the CID code to ignore the non-alarm/random stuff, plus it allows me to check the webpage to see what's going on.

I enabled all user open & closes, then set it up so they page me on my cellphone anytime anyone arms or disarms the system. Although now I realize how many times my wife exits/re-enters the house in the morning when she's dropping the kids off at school.

 

[Digger]

I would enable troubles such as AC fail, low bat etc.

 

[rfdesq]

Be aware of the 2:00 a.m daily test. If you have NextAlarm notify your cell phone I don't think the wife/girlfriend/both will be too happy .

 

[Sandpiper]

I'm not sure how NextAlarm works, but most central stations (CS) will charge extra for daily testing. Also, if you enable the users, the system will report every time the system is armed and disarmed. Many commercial establishments do this and, again, there is usually an additional charge.

For testing......normally the central station will allow users to place their system into test mode....again, don't know about Nextalarm though. Call the CS and place in test, then arm and trip all the zones you want to test. Call the CS back and see what they got, then put the system back on line.

You can let us know if this is the correct procedure for NextAlarm.

 

[rfdesq]

I have placed several of my installations with NextAlarm. They don't charge extra for the additional reporting. You do most of your configuration on the web interface. You put yourself on test via the web. You can be called on the cell phone, sent a text message, emailed, when there is an alarm. You can even set up a special latch key kid notification. If little Johnny doesn't disarm the system by 3:30 p.m. on school days NextAlarm will send you an email, text message, etc. I have had one communication failure with NextAlarm, other than that they have been top notch.

 

[Steve]

You can be called on the cell phone, sent a text message, emailed, when there is an alarm. You can even set up a special latch key kid notification. If little Johnny doesn't disarm the system by 3:30 p.m. on school days NextAlarm will send you an email, text message, etc. I have had one communication failure with NextAlarm, other than that they have been top notch.

It's cool that NextAlarm would do that, but if you have an Elk (or guessing also an Omni), why wouldn't you do those things directly from the Elk via rules?

 

[rfdesq]

It's cool that NextAlarm would do that, but if you have an Elk (or guessing also an Omni), why wouldn't you do those things directly from the Elk via rules?

One reason to use NextAlarms' notification system is to confirm that NextAlarm is receiving your signals either daily, weekly, or monthly. From what I'm reading about the M1's inability to consistently send emails I would rather rely on NextAlarm. That SMS from NextAlarm arrives within about 10 seconds. Until such time as the posts about the M1XEP stop, I would defer to NextAlarm.

 

[wuench]

Wouldn't you for sure want the alarm cancel/abort on so you have time to cancel the alarm if you accidentally set it off? Otherwise NA wouldn't get the cancellation notice.

Also, I think a good reason for offloading all the email/pager stuff to NA would be to save space on the ELK rules. And ELK emails are limited to static text with no replacement fields, so you can eat up the email slots in a hurry.

 

[Steve]

Well, sounds like a good alternative, but I would probably still only use it for real alarms. My email thru the XEP is rock solid. I have a daily test email and have not missed a single one. Thanks for the info.

 

[rfdesq]

My email thru the XEP is rock solid. I have a daily test email and have not missed a single one.

I will be setting one up in the next couple of months. Be prepared to have your brain picked .

 

[wuench]

Well, sounds like a good alternative, but I would probably still only use it for real alarms. My email thru the XEP is rock solid. I have a daily test email and have not missed a single one. Thanks for the info.

I have not had any email issues either with my M1XEP. Once I figured out I had to use my real send address. Just a little disappointed in it's static-ness.

 

[Steve]

Yeah, some more functionality would be nice, but once you know how your host email works you should be able to configure it right in 95% of the cases. Once it's setup, it works great.

I'm going to be configuring my sisters panel for a CS soon, so I'll be asking questions too! But not sure if I want to use NextAlarm or AlarmRelay.

 

[rfdesq]

I'm going to be configuring my sisters panel for a CS soon, so I'll be asking questions too! But not sure if I want to use NextAlarm or AlarmRelay.

I just took a look at AlarmRelay. It doesn't look like AR is as advanced web-wise as NA is.

 

[WayneW]

From what I'm reading about the M1's inability to consistently send emails I would rather rely on NextAlarm.

Not to nit-pick, but is that true? I haven't heard of anybody complaining about intermittent emails. Yes, I have heard of issues getting it configured to work at all, but once it works, I thought it was rock solid. AFAIK, mine is rock solid, but there is no log, so I would never know if I missed one.