My house currently has DSC system installed by ADT (previous owner) and I've since reprogrammed it a bit to my liking and have not used ADT - never have and never will. I did have some struggle with ADT folks when I tried to get installer code but that's another story. I'm at the juncture where I would like to upgrade the system to M1. I spoke with a sales representative that carry Elk and Leviton (HAI) and he seems to recommend HAI over Elk. I'm still leaning towards Elk though. Both will work just as well with UPB which I use for lighting.
Given some local security firms seem to have a preference for wireless vs. pulling wires and I know wired is always better. For each window, I'd like to install sensor and they wouldn't bother giving me an estimate how much it would run to pull wire to each window on the main floor. That being said, I guess I'm going to look at wireless sensor for every window. Elk is advertising its wireless being 2-way which in theory is better than other wireless sensors? Or is it just a marketing ploy?
All entry / exit points are already hard wired and for motion sensor I plan to run wire but have not decided the locations yet - again the local firms claim that so-called pet-immunity motion sensors do not work and they are avoiding putting sensor in the areas where cat could jump on something and be picked up by the sensor.
As for smoke detectors, at least one of them is failing since they all are over 10 years old. Each one is connected to 120v and it appears there are no smoke detectors available that would be connected to 120v along with backup battery and the ability to communicate to security panel wirelessly. Does that mean I'd need to have two smoke detectors in different areas? One connected to 120v (basic smoke detector) and another low voltage that sends signal wirelessly to the security panel?
Finally, I'd like to have a touchscreen and I know Elk no longer offers touchscreen besides navigator keypad. HAI touchscreen is based on android and if I understand correctly, it does not offer API. I'd like to be able to integrate with my Axis IP cameras among other things - the ability to feed data to the touchscreen would be nice. I've heard of RTI touchscreen but it's not clear if I need additional items such as controller if I wanted RTI touchscreen or would the touchscreen alone suffice to work with Elk M1?
I will probably talk to the sales representative later this week and I am not sure why he's pushing HAI other than the fact he has one in his house. There hasn't been any updates on HAI products since Leviton acquired it. Maybe he has a quite bit of HAI in the inventory that they would like to get rid of.
Thanks for any insights.
Ethan
Given some local security firms seem to have a preference for wireless vs. pulling wires and I know wired is always better. For each window, I'd like to install sensor and they wouldn't bother giving me an estimate how much it would run to pull wire to each window on the main floor. That being said, I guess I'm going to look at wireless sensor for every window. Elk is advertising its wireless being 2-way which in theory is better than other wireless sensors? Or is it just a marketing ploy?
All entry / exit points are already hard wired and for motion sensor I plan to run wire but have not decided the locations yet - again the local firms claim that so-called pet-immunity motion sensors do not work and they are avoiding putting sensor in the areas where cat could jump on something and be picked up by the sensor.
As for smoke detectors, at least one of them is failing since they all are over 10 years old. Each one is connected to 120v and it appears there are no smoke detectors available that would be connected to 120v along with backup battery and the ability to communicate to security panel wirelessly. Does that mean I'd need to have two smoke detectors in different areas? One connected to 120v (basic smoke detector) and another low voltage that sends signal wirelessly to the security panel?
Finally, I'd like to have a touchscreen and I know Elk no longer offers touchscreen besides navigator keypad. HAI touchscreen is based on android and if I understand correctly, it does not offer API. I'd like to be able to integrate with my Axis IP cameras among other things - the ability to feed data to the touchscreen would be nice. I've heard of RTI touchscreen but it's not clear if I need additional items such as controller if I wanted RTI touchscreen or would the touchscreen alone suffice to work with Elk M1?
I will probably talk to the sales representative later this week and I am not sure why he's pushing HAI other than the fact he has one in his house. There hasn't been any updates on HAI products since Leviton acquired it. Maybe he has a quite bit of HAI in the inventory that they would like to get rid of.
Thanks for any insights.
Ethan