Hello All,


We have had our present alarm system f(SimpliSafe)or about two years. With that experience with a system I've decided to look for a system that better meets my requirements.

The ideal system would have the following features and capabilities:

DIY
Wireless
Will call me when there is an alarm. Yes I read the sticky on this topic but the sticky is out of date, being 8 years old.
Will be able to tell me exactly which alarm/s are triggered.
Have temperature/freeze alarm.
Have smoke alarm.
Have the ability for me to check status by calling into control unit or better yet by internet.
Camera that records when alarm triggers and allows to access it remotely.
No monitoring and no monthly fees.

Does such a system exist? Maybe I'm asking too much from one system?

Thanks, Tom

 

Both Honeywell and DSC will do what you ask as far as hardware goes. Personally I prefer DSC but that's just me.

As for self monitoring, again, not a problem for both Honeywell and DSC. Equip either one of these panels with the EnvisaLink 3 card, create a free account with eyezon.com and you have complete control over your alarm. You can connect up to 5 cell phones to your account and assign the depth and detail of text messaging you wish for each cell phone.

You will have access to complete logs, which zones are opened/closed at any time, arming, disarming etc. Eyezon.com can also give you the ability to monitor through IP cam as well.

 

Any alarm system can do what you are looking for, honyewell, ge, dsc.... But would recommend to go with alarm.com

 

Fabius,

May I ask what you no longer like about the SimpliSafe system you currently have? I currently have the system for less than a year and it seems to fit my needs. And by the way they are coming out with a cam shortly.

 

The reason that sticky hasn't needed to be changed in 8 years, is that the state of the technology really hasn't changed much. There are more options for monitoring services for the DIY, like Alarm.com Envisalink and a few others, but for "self-monitoring", things really haven't changed significantly.

Alarm controls are still designed and built with the central station model in mind.

 

First let me say I am overall satisfied with SimpliSafe. Once I got to know the system it works fine and the alarm monitoring response has always been instantaneous. Though I must say their app to monitor and control the system is very unreliable.

With that said I feel that I can interpret and respond correctly to an alarm call. Thus why pay the fee for them to call me and ask "is everything okay?". Yes, I can request that when they bring up my info on their system that they always call police/fire but do I really want to do that? I don't think so (other then the panic alarm). I've only had a couple of false alarms (sunlight hitting motion sensor from the skylight).

When I did have the false alarms it was only one motion sensor. No door, window or glass alarm activated. The alarm people call me and I say don't call police because there would be more alarms if it was an intruder.

 

I interpreted the sticky as basically saying there aren't a lot of systems that will call your cell phone as most are designed for use with master station monitoring. That may of been true in 2007 but today a quick Google search shows several DIY systems with the ability to call a cell or other type phone.

 

As for self monitoring, again, not a problem for both Honeywell and DSC. Equip either one of these panels with the EnvisaLink 3 card, create a free account with eyezon.com and you have complete control over your alarm. You can connect up to 5 cell phones to your account and assign the depth and detail of text messaging you wish for each cell phone.

I will check that out. I see it works with the following systems:

•DSC PowerSeries (1555, 1555 MX, 1575, 5010 (832), 5020 (864), 1616, 1832, 1864)

•Honeywell Vista Panels (Vista20P, 21iP, 15P, 10P, 128P, and 250P)