Wireless security package for snowbirds

[BaduFamily]

HI Folks,
 
My parents are snowbirds and leave their small house for a few months every year. The house is in a pretty small town in western ny. Neighbors are spread out along the road within sight but not hollering distance, if you can imagine what I mean.
 
They got cleaned out this week. TVs, a lot of firearms, a little jewelry, ( there wasn't much )  etc. Apparently even the safe was hauled through the snow to an adjoining lane. It was a multi-night operation.
 
My brother and I are now looking for reliable and end-user operationally simple security package.
 
The house is smaller than many great rooms, has only one entrance, and is actually dug into a hillside on 3 sides. My parents are in no way hippies but they recognized how inexpensive such a design would be back in the late  70's and heated the place from the woodlot until just this past year when age made that difficult. The house is built of cement and old mine shafts ( I am not kidding ) with very little traditional framing on the interior. Hence wireless.
 
So we're thinking just a keypad, a couple of interior motion sensors for the 2 central rooms, a handful of door/window sensors,  perhaps keyfobs and a very loud siren in a vandal resistant box. And land-line dial out.
 
I just did an half hour tour of Amazon's packages and am chuckling at the comment wars between vendors, so decided to come over here and ask for some insight.
 
Budget? not too worried. Operational simplicity & reliability? yes.

 

[pete_c]

Yup; here in the 80's; folks became snowbirds.  The house always had central station monitoring as it was wired up by the original contractor.
 
I did go to the house about once a month to check up on it.  It was a PITA as it was a bit of a long journey to it; such that I would just stay the weekend.
 
It didn't have wireless sensors at the time.
 
Will the outdoor loud siren attract attention enough for a neighbor to call authorities?
 
Are you looking for a total DIY including personal monitoring or a DIY and central station monitoring or a whatever you can get for free with central station montoring?
 
Been getting a lot of telemarketing calls for a "Free" GE alarm system for a "low" monthly fee.

 

[BaduFamily]

pete_c,  I don't think there is central monitoring out there , it's rather rural.
 
I had been thinking 'call the neighbor!' ( just kidding ) I'll look into it, thanks.
 
back when the cats were alive neighbors and relatives would come by every day to put stuff in the bowl, but once the cats passed the folks decided life was easier for everyone w/out.

 

[RAL]

You can get central monitoring service pretty much anywhere, as long as you have a hard wired phone line, or there is cellular service, or internet service.  The central station can be thousands of miles away, as long as your alarm system has a way to communicate with them.

 

[pete_c]

I did try at the time to create a "lived in" look using X10 and random room lighting.  I also had issues with those in the wall box motion sensors getting full of cobwebs and triggering false alarms.
 
During the construction we did have an issue where someone came and told the contractor they were replacing a new freezer in the garage.  That said they just loaded up the new freezer into their pickup truck and drove away with it.  The builder didn't say anything to us until a day or two had passed.
 
You could just make it daylight and noisy if any motion is triggered in the vicinity, use cellular technology to page you and put a couple of cameras in place. Use one of those little TV like LED illuminators maybe.

 

[BaduFamily]

Bro reports that they turn off the phone lines during their travels. ( I'm in California )
So that mode of contacting a central office is moot.
Cell may work tho.
One of the of ones we've stumbled across is from a brand called 'Fortress.'
I don't remember that brand coming up in these forums.

 

[pete_c]

Yup found the "Fortress" alarm system on Amazon sold by the Fortress Security store for $199 with free shipping.
 

• Home security system complete with fully programmable main unit and sensors
• Auto-dialer function will call up to 6 designated phone numbers in case of a security breach
• Door/Window contacts detect any forceful break-in
• Passive motion sensors detect any suspicious movement or activity
• Loud, outdoor 140dB alarm alerts neighbors and deters potential intruders

 

 
Its got OK reviews and it sounds like good support from a guy named Mike.
 
Here's another one on Ebay that looks nicer for around the same price. 
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HOMSECUR-Wireless-wired-GSM-SMS-Home-Security-Alarm-System-4PIR-Sensors-/131108126396?pt=US_Surveillance_Security_Systems&hash=item1e86a73ebc
 

 
There are also a few more with analog dialers (leaving the phone line on though) for less with more stuff on Ebay.
 
 
Wondering if they make something similiar with some Zigbee or Z-Wave automation built in. 
 
I did find one with Zigbee and X-10; but I cannot tell if it comes with a GSM dialer or not.
 
Just googling ...guessing the touchscreen is android based...can't see it well though.
 
Geez something like this for $100 would ding the new automation stuff being provided by the ISP's today.
 

 
I've seen some interest on the Almond + site regarding alarm integration into it.  Geez paired up with GSM combo data and voice dialer it would be nice.  Built in would even be better. 
 

 
The little test tablets I am playing with do have telco GSM circuits.  IE: the energy hub has wireless, wired Gb, GSM (SIM socket) and bluetooth built into it on a tiny motherboard.
 
 

 

[BaduFamily]

That's a nice little set of features on the tablet. Is that a touchscreen as well?
 
I think we're leaning to this fortress product.
 
The folks are still a bit overwhelmed by the idea of having been robbed.

 

[pete_c]

That's a nice little set of features on the tablet. Is that a touchscreen as well?

 
I have no ideal as it was the only picture shown with a "security" & "automation" thing that I googled.
 
Yup getting robbed is not a good thing and never pleasant.

 

[BaduFamily]

oh sorry pete_c I was asking about this comment: "The little test tablets I am playing with do have telco GSM circuits.  IE: the energy hub has wireless, wired Gb, GSM (SIM socket) and bluetooth built into it on a tiny motherboard." and thought that was about the item pictured above the comment.

 

[pete_c]

Yup; the test tablets that I am playing with was being utilized for a couple of test environments here.  One was for energy / thermostat control via zigbee.  The other as a telco "hub" and it has a DECT chip in it.  The said the motherboards are generic for both functions.  Its internet transport worked via a built in NIC and or wireless and GSM connectivity. 
 
I had never played with any hardware that included said features.  It was a bit ahead of its time.