Elk M1 Cellular communication?

[benze]

I've been looking at a new security system for my house and see that the M1 seems to be all that and more. I am debating between the M1 and the Vista 21ip. I realize that the M1 is much more geared towards home automation than the Vista, and hence, am leaning more towards it.

However, I can't seem to find any information on a way of doing cellular communication for central monitoring of the system. The Vista has a GSM module that snaps in. Does the M1 have anything that allows it to connect via GSM to a central station?

Additionally, does the ELK-M1XEP ethernet adapter allow for managed monitoring by the central station as well? Does that require special software on their part, or do they need to specifically support the Elk units?

Thanks for the info!

Eric

 

[wuench]

I've been looking at a new security system for my house and see that the M1 seems to be all that and more. I am debating between the M1 and the Vista 21ip. I realize that the M1 is much more geared towards home automation than the Vista, and hence, am leaning more towards it.

However, I can't seem to find any information on a way of doing cellular communication for central monitoring of the system. The Vista has a GSM module that snaps in. Does the M1 have anything that allows it to connect via GSM to a central station?

Additionally, does the ELK-M1XEP ethernet adapter allow for managed monitoring by the central station as well? Does that require special software on their part, or do they need to specifically support the Elk units?

Thanks for the info!

Eric

The M1 supports a couple of options (Uplink Anynet, AES Intellinet) via the serial expander M1XSP. See the manual for details.

There is also the Tellular option which doesn't require an expander module.

 

[WayneW]

Additionally, does the ELK-M1XEP ethernet adapter allow for managed monitoring by the central station as well? Does that require special software on their part, or do they need to specifically support the Elk units?

Eric, welcome to CT!

Yes, the XEP supports Contact ID monitoring over IP, via an Osborne-Hoffman receiver at the central station. NextAlarm was testing this (you can find the NextAlarm threads here), but apparently for business reasons decided not to market it. So far, we haven't found any DIY friendly central stations that support the XEP reporting, but supposedly there are non-DIY friendly stations that support it.

 

[CollinR]

Alot of it depends on what you want to do.
The Vista21ip doesn't provide cellular support at all it is straight ethernet over POTS. It does however have an optional snap in circuit board that provides cellular communications if you wish to add that. I guess you could plug it into a 3g/evdo router, which would provide wireless TCP/IP communications.

Honeywell has a couple of different communications methods, the v21ip and 7845i-GSM (combo quad path addon) are basically just for reporting. However when you register with Alarmnet you will get the option of using "total connect" this is a remotely hosted webserver that tracks the alarm. Then you have the Vista ICM, which is more like the Elk ethernet expander as it allows for a locally hosted web interface and a MCE interface. You can add the ICM to any about any control vista control. You can also ftp files to it to modify it's appearance and function. The Vista ICM doesn't have any recurring costs either.

You can use the Vista21ip with POTS like any other alarm if you choose.

Whatever you get the communicator should connect at the keypad or data bus not where the POTS line would connect.