Recommendations for monitoring companies

[tmbrown97]

I want to agree and I want to let this go... but I have to say, it's not necessarily stupid if one weighs the cost vs. benefit and they're OK with the result.

A person of above average intelligence can look at their home vs. every other in their 3,000 house tract-home community and see the likelihood of someone entering their home vs. their neighbors. One house - with the older cars, the world's cheapest TV and no stereo or electronics around really; just a bunch of kids' toys everywhere, and someone is home basically 24/7 - vs. the house around the corner with the Hummer out front, bachelor gone till all hours of the night and many weekends, always showing off his 70" flat panel and booming stereo and iPad and electronics everywhere... I mean, who's the average crook going to go after?

Then again, if the intention is something other than theft - like to do something to a person's family, then that's a whole different set of circumstances to protect against... I'm not trying to get into all the details, just offer examples...

Again - people aren't necessarily dumb for taking a calculated risk. In fact, the people who can't evaluate when the risk outweighs the benefit are the real idiots. Those are the people I can't stand - who jump around waving their flag about "this is the only right way to do it!" without an ounce of strategic or intelligent thought to know if what they're proposing even passes the "stupid" test.

 

[newalarm]

Ok, alot to digest...

If i go with an uplink 2500, can someone enlighten me as to how it is powered? I read that you may need to add power supply. Any recommended suppliers?

Thanks.

 

[chrisexv6]

Ok, alot to digest...

If i go with an uplink 2500, can someone enlighten me as to how it is powered? I read that you may need to add power supply. Any recommended suppliers?

Thanks.

Elk makes a can that is "made" for the Uplink 2500. Comes with one of their power boards that can accept a 12V battery. All you need to do is run an input to the power board itself which would be powered off a wallwart. Battery hooks up to the same board, then a small wire set from the board to the Uplink itself. Part number is P983

Or you can power the Uplink directly with an external supply (thats what Im doing). No need for the separate power board thats included, so you could technically get away with just a 14" can with the Uplink and XSP inside, or just mount the Uplink and XSP directly to a wall.

Whichever route you go, it basically comes down to having a 2 conductor wire to feed power to something (the power board or the Uplink itself). You'll also need a databus connection for the XSP and the serial cable from the XSP to the input of the Uplink.

 

[apostolakisl]

Again - people aren't necessarily dumb for taking a calculated risk. In fact, the people who can't evaluate when the risk outweighs the benefit are the real idiots. Those are the people I can't stand - who jump around waving their flag about "this is the only right way to do it!" without an ounce of strategic or intelligent thought to know if what they're proposing even passes the "stupid" test.

Amen.

And in my opinion, the government excels at not passing the "stupid" test. I just had to spend $14,000 on various over the top fire protecting systems for my new office. Realize of course that I am just one occupant of a complex that holds roughly 20 others . . .so that would be a couple hundred thousand dollars in total. But the city refuses to put a stoplight or any kind of safety device at the complex driveway entrance. This is an intersection that sees 2 or 3 accidents per year, some with serious injuries. Tell me how that is efficient use of money.

 

[dw886]

OK, so I've read through this conversation from start to finish, and I understand that there's obviously a number of feelings on this. I'm completely new to the M1, and have been reading for a number of months. After reading all of this, I'm still left with this question:

• Isn't there a way for the M1 to "fail over" to a second form of communication?

I'd think that you'd want to setup communication with a primary source (say POTS line, VOIP, etc), and then have a backup source if the primary goes down. If all communication goes down, you'd want the alarm company to call you on your cell phone to tell you that something's up, right?

I keep thinking back to a few years ago when a friend had the police knock at her door, and ask if everything was OK. She said "yeah, of course, why?", and they said that her alarm company had dispatched them. The police walked around the house, and found that the phone line had been cut (this is in South Dakota - a state that I would assume is "low risk"). How did the alarm company find this out?

 

[tmbrown97]

Yes - the M1 can take backup routes to communication, as long as it knows when a method failed. There is a problem with broadband adapters and dial-capture units in that they let the panel think communication was successful so the M1 would not know there was a failure, and would not know to try a different method.

One could set up IP monitoring with cellular backup and be in decent shape; or POTS dialing with cellular as a backup. That only works though if the Elk is using an Uplink 2500 connected via an XSP. If properly configured, it should work through its available options to report a problem.

The C3 in theory does this itself, in that it can plug into your home phone line and use that primarily, but if there's a problem with it, it will switch over to using cellular - all transparent to your panel.

As for your friend - most likely there was a scheduled check-in that didn't happen and they were unable to reach the home.

 

[dw886]

So I get why the C3 *may not* be completely resilient, as the user is completley unaware if it's using the POTS line or the GSM connection (and isn't notified if one or the other isn't available). That being said, wouldn't the simplest redundant solution be to use internet monitoring via the M1XEP, and then have the C3 or Uplink as a backup when the panel reports that there's an issue with the internet connection?

I'm looking at both sides of this - this seems like the M1XEP + C3 would be the most cost-effective solution that provides some redundancy - from what I can gather, the other GSM devices such as the Uplink device, require an additional monthly fee. (reading through the forums, it looks like the combo of the M1XEP + C3 also has a host of issues - some people were reporting issues using these two devicest together, and I've also read of people having issues with alarmrelay's monitoring of the M1XEP with it only reporting outages after it comes back online)

Looking at the other side of the fence, the M1XEP + Uplink, it looks like alarmrelay charges you $20.95/month rather than the $8.95/month (page 9, number 3 here: http://www.alarmrelay.com/libraries/misc/pdf/residential_new_customer_information.pdf).

Alarm Relay Costs + costs associated with redundancy:

• M1XEP + C3 is about $8.95/month for alarmrelay monitoring service + $8.33/month for SIM card (calculated by taking the $100 example from this thread, dividing by 12)
• M1XEP + Uplink is $8.95/month for alarmrelay monitoring service + $12.00/month for Uplink service (calculated by taking the $20.95 listed in the alarmrelay documentation, and deducting the standard $8.95 monthly fee)

So really, we're talking about $3.72/month.

Am I missing something here? Does anyone have experience with either of these setups?

 

[tmbrown97]

The M1's ability to monitor via IP is relatively new, and as I understand it, a lot of CS's aren't well set up for that. Beyond that I'd wait for some of the Alarm Pro's to chime in. I wouldn't do IP alone, but the two combined seem like a good solution on paper.

I do like that the Uplink connects directly to a serial port on the M1 allowing for more information and more directly, and it'll know what's happening with the Uplink. I also prefer to have that all as one bill, rather than to have to remember to deal with SIM's every so often. I can pretty much guarantee I'd be without monitoring for several weeks each year if I relied on myself to do that.

 

[chrisexv6]

.....I do like that the Uplink connects directly to a serial port on the M1 allowing for more information and more directly, and it'll know what's happening with the Uplink. I also prefer to have that all as one bill, rather than to have to remember to deal with SIM's every so often. I can pretty much guarantee I'd be without monitoring for several weeks each year if I relied on myself to do that.

This.

I know I could get all the email warnings in the world and somehow refilling the card would get put off. And then Id wake up at 3AM in a cold sweat when I realized I forgot to refill it and now have no monitoring.

To me the Uplink is a set it and forget it type of thing. I want my alarm to "be there" but I almost want to forget its there. Arm, disarm, thats about it. Of course Ill test it, but the less I have to do the better.

 

[dw886]

Just to make sure that I have this correct: So with the uplink, the additional monthly charge from AlarmRelay ($12.00) covers the GSM costs as well a fee to uplink, and a small profit to AlarmRelay? Any idea what service provider Uplink uses (T-Mobile, AT&T, etc)?

If I go with uplink, I don't provide the SIM/Service, correct?

 

[newalarm]

Yes, Uplink charges the monitoring company a fee that is included when you pay your $12 monthly fee to Alarm Relay. No idea who they use for service, but I don' t know if it matters. It could be on a different frequency too, one reserved for security or data??

The Uplink has a built in sim card that i don't believe can be removed.

 

[dw886]

So I'm seeing two versions of the 2500. There's the 2500EZ, and the 2500STD. When you go to uplinks website, they reference the product as the 2500. If you open the spec sheet, it appears to be for the 2500EZ (http://www.uplink.com/files/pdf-2500.pdf).

Does anyone know if there really are two different models, and if so, the difference between the models?