UTC is ending Interlogix residential

[pete_c]

By Stephen Hoh  October 3, 2019

Last week UTC announced that they are ending production of the Interlogix residential lines. This means Networx, Concord, Simon, TruProtect, TruPortal, and a few others. They say manufacturing will end before the New Year.

I’m sure all the Omni dealers, who are still reeling from the loss of that product line, are just as floored by this announcement. The difference here is that there are several more options to replace it. Those that have been around long enough know these products from the GE security days. The wireless sensors are supported by many controllers. In addition, there are translators to help support many more.

To help determine what panels is the best option to replace your Interlogix controller, you may have to investigate several systems. Just look at the things you need to compare.

    Did you use the Alarm.com module? Do you want to continue using ADC?
    Do you prefer wired or wireless zones? Maybe hybrid?
    Do you include automation? Is automation critical?
    Do you need to integrate with a control system like Control 4, RTI, Savant, Crestron, Elan, etc?

We are working on a chart to help narrow down the options. The solution may not be cut and dried. And there may be more than one viable option. I’m familiar with DSC, ELK, Napco, Alula, 2GIG, and Qolsys.

I spent and hour on the phone with a dealer, thinking we would decide on one brand, but his decisions lead him to the Elk M1 Gold.

 

 

[lanbrown]

Thanks for posting this.
 
UTC also markets some of these products in the commercial space as well.  The NX-8e has an NX-8e-CE for commercial fire applications.  I cannot really see a difference between the residential and commercial products as the same capabilities are there and the add-on boards are the same.  They also have other products that fall in this same space; so they could kill this line (interlogix) while continuing the other line.
 
I think they see the writing on the wall in where the market is headed.  People want automation and that at times is not easy.  Every company seems to want to do this own little walled garden.  Have door locks; some use Z-Wave, some use WiFi, some use BlueTooth, etc.  Cameras are fairly easy; video doorbells are not.  Ring is a closed system whereas DoorBird is an open system.  I'm sure it takes considerable resources to keep things up to date and add new products, be it Z-wave, ZigBee, etc.  If you look at any of the Z-wave controllers; there are multiple software updates released every year.  Some people don't understand the technology but use it, so the QA process is probably a nightmare.  The more tech savvy people want to tweak things.  I believe the UltraSync system from UTC is a closed system and that limits the automation aspect of Home Automation.
 
You also have competing products from say Trane where they try to make the HA Hub the thermostat.  Most/some of the controllers cannot act as a slave.  So if you have an UltraSync for the alarm and a Trane for the thermostat, they two probably cannot coexist and you can't have modules on two controllers.  So you may not be able to have the alarm system say you're not home to the HVAC system.
 
Given that some panels still have X10 built into them, tells you the age and the lack of changes to the product line.  Insteon supports X10, but Z-wave and ZigBee seem to be beating Insteon.  Insteon products don't appear to have been updated for quite sometime, mainly one company makes the products and the consumer just seems to be using other technologies.  Back in 2017, Insteon was acquired and the new owner doesn't seem to be bringing new products to market.
 
Simplisafe is in 2 million homes and back in 2010, when ADT bought Broadview (Brinks) the combined companies had 8.7 million customers.  in 2013 ADT had 25% of the market.  In 2019, they had 30% but over 7 million customers.  So it appears that the consumer is moving away from monitored systems and relying more on the cloud and an app on their phone.
 
Beyond Simplisafe, you have Ring in the market and the Google (Nest) alarm system as well.  So I guess UTC just sees that they cannot compete with Simplisafe, Amazon (Ring) and Google (Nest) and it is best to leave the market.
 
My NX-8e does what I want it to do and is integrated with my HA system.

 

[jeditekunum]

Wonder if they are just phasing out ancient stuff. Their UltraSync line is new as of a couple of years ago. I've got an UltraSync Modular that is only partially installed (just smokes/CO). It seems a decent enough system, fairly modern, relatively cheap, modularity looks promising. It is a closed system but does have an automation interface that is currently limited to "partners" (as of a year ago the only partner was a single obscure company). They should open it up.
 
Even so, at its best, UltraSync is not going to be the core of a home automation system despite their dreams.
 
I almost bought an Elk for my new home but I think the price is ridiculous for what it is and still way too limited. (I have a Loxone system for automation/lighting [which is another problematic ecosystem].)

 

[lanbrown]

The article I read....UltraSync was on the list of being killed off.
 
https://www.securityinfowatch.com/alarms-monitoring/article/21106648/instanalysis-interlogix-to-shut-down-by-end-of-year
 

UTC/Carrier to focus on other fire and security businesses while maker of Simon, IFS, UltraSync and other products to cease operations

 

[neillt]

Ugh.  This was the fallback plan for Omni panels, you could still get the Interlogix/CADDX wireless receiver.  Now even that is going by the wayside.

 

[lanbrown]

It is a closed system but does have an automation interface that is currently limited to "partners" (as of a year ago the only partner was a single obscure company). They should open it up.

 
 
I did look at that system and did wonder if you could put an NX-584E module in it.  Both use DL900/DLX900 software.  So there must be some similarity between the two.  The UltraSync uses an encrypted RS-485 bus...they don't say what the Networx line uses.  It probably just uses un-encrypted RS-485.  I highly doubt way back when Caddx created their own bus.  RS-485 has been around for ages, had the speed, distance and capability they would need.
 
The NX-584E module probably wouldn't work.  It does seem the UltraSync is just a heavily updated NX-8E.  In many cases, the NX-8E probably has better support and upgradability.  Serial is old technology, but the easiest to integrate into an HA system.  I just use a serial console server and have my HA system open a socket to the serial console server which then communicates with the panel via the NX-584E module.  The only thing I wish that Caddx did way back when, have a concept of a keep alive.  Right now I have the HA system make a status query to the panel every 5 minutes; so if the connection is lost, it will recover.  Otherwise, the HA system is just waiting for data from the panel.  So a dropped connection means nothing comes in.  I wish I could use the NX-595E module I have for that communication, but the HA plugin doesn't have a way to make a connection to it and use the Caddx protocol.  The NX-595E doesn't support a socket connection.  That was a miss from Interlogix.  So I mainly use it for NTP to keep the time accurate and DL900/DLX900 for programming.

 

[jeditekunum]

The article I read....UltraSync was on the list of being killed off.

 
Well, that stinks! Good thing I didn't spend much on it. On the one hand it doesn't hurt my feelings too much as it was nothing great - had the potential to be a good hardware platform but the software was meh. The other hand is, well, everything sucks!
 
The newer DSC stuff is all encrypted too. All these idiot companies have the delusion that they're going to be some automation kingpin so they want to keep their bits all locked up.
 
Are we really down to Elk as the only option? Meh! At the prices they charge I think this trend is going to kill them too.

 

[vc1234]

Are we really down to Elk as the only option? Meh! At the prices they charge I think this trend is going to kill them too.

 
I've used elk for several years  relatively successfully.  At another place I thought long and hard whether to get another elk, but decided to adopt an existing immortal Vista 20p panel and separate automation from security.  I just added an AlarmDecoder tiny board that lets me integrate Vista easily with for example Home Assistant so that all zones are presented as binary sensors, etc.
 
I understand that Homeseer has a plugin for AlarmDecoder as well.

 

[lanbrown]

+1
 
That is what I have.  On my home automation system there is a plugin for that supports the Caddx protocol using serial connectivity.  I have no inclination to try to have the two into a single platform.  If I wanted to do that, I would use the HA system though.  Technologies change and emerge, hardware based systems become obsolete.
 
I'll take a dumb alarm panel over a smart one.

 

[jeditekunum]

I agree completely with the approach of keeping security a separate system.
 
I looked at AlarmDecoder and EnvisaLink a couple of years ago when planning my system. At the time I was looking at a higher-end Vista 128BPT. At least partially because I wanted lots of zones (I'd have to go back to my notes to see what else I was interested in). I do recall I abandoned the idea at the time because of the convoluted configuration needed to get enough power (I've got 2 zones of COSMOD2W/COSMO2W/2WTABs). I had many headaches while chasing those demons. My thought at the time was that the whole industry is full of archaic crap (nothing has changed other than soon there will be a lot less of it!).
 
Lucky me I've got 3.3K resistors on my rough-in sensors. Many of them INSIDE the Marvin Windows frames (they have a neat option that has builtin sensors and a wiring pocket in the frame). Of course those pockets are now encased in paint.  :angry2:  I digress.
 
As I mentioned, I've only got smoke/CO wired up now. Have no intention of buying UltraSync zone expansion modules now so no way to finish my setup. Back to square one with nothing in sight that seems a good fit for DIY.