ELK M1 Gold vs DSC Alarm system

TriLife

Active Member
Greetings from Colombia,

So, I've had a love hate relationship with my M1G over the years in our home in CA, but have figured it out and got it to work.

We now moved to Colombia and are building a house from scratch. As you can guess, while a lot better than Narcos would have you believe it, a good security system is a must here due to petty crime.

Elk seems virtually unknown, but DSC seems quite popular.

Any recommendations on a DSC system that will have to work hand in hand with a Zwave hub (they recommend Verge) for HA?

Thanks for your help in advance. I really appreciate it!

Cheers!
 
CQC (Charmed Quark Controller) can interface with either Elk or DSC panels and Z-Wave. I am currently running a DSC 832 panel with an RS-232 serial interface and a network interface IP-BAT from iPDATATEL for the monitoring service. Programming the DSC is ugly but there is software out there to make it easier. My design/architectural philosophy with home automation is to install sub-systems that are stand alone functionally, highly reliable and then use HA software to glue it all together giving the greatest flexibility with minimal/no inter-dependencies.
 
We have control of the alarm system both through CQC and through the iPDATATEL smartphone app. As a small HA example, opening any one of the garage doors (exterior or interior) turns on garage light, interior light depending on which door and time of day.  Garage light is controlled by UPB switches (interior) and a ceiling mounted upb switch by the light socket for actual line voltage control.  Door sensors are either DSC for the house to garage door, exterior doors are monitored by X-10 door/window modules.  CQC bridges DSC, UPB and X10 with rules triggered by defined events. 
 
I have a "security" screen in CQC that can be pulled up on any display in the house or on our smartphones that gives a security system status and a red/green open/close status of every monitored opening.
 
OmniPro and Lumina interface with DSC.  I can't speak to the Verge, haven't heard of that one.
 
Thanks for all the feedback.

I did some more research here in Medellín and actually found a couple of companies, which handle ELK. One of them actually got back to me right away. So the question really is ELK M1G or DSC PC1864?
 
I am faced with the same question. Who has the best alarm to interface to smart tech? I have Elk installed in my house and I am mostly happy, but i need to do a new install for an small office. 2 connected buildings, already running Samsung Smarthub for the lights, Ubiquity wireless, firewall and cameras.  I want an alarm I can control, lock people out, unlock doors, etc from the iPhone app. There is an existing DCS alarm that need replace. I am also looking at GE Interlogix AdvisorOne controller. 
 
Ideas? 
 
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