Alarm system info needed - anyone?

[Howard 538]

The main board fried on my 25 year old burglar alarm system and am looking to replace it.  Any recommendation on what to go with?  I found this Qolsys IQ Panel 2 which looks nice but don't really know too much about them.  What I like about this is I can get a board that will take the 12 wired zones I have and convert them to wireless to go to this system.  Also kind of nice that you can have an app on your phone to view status and arm and disarm and when you walk in the house it will disarm when you linked phone gets within 20 feet of it.

 

 

 

[M1152 713]

Well since no one else responded I'll take a shot...

You can't go wrong with  a Honeywell Vista series, they are a favorite of alarm installers everywhere for commercial and residential installs and could be monitored by ANY UL Listed Central station. Correct me if I'm wrong but with that system in your video you are likely locked-in with single monitoring provider which means if monitoring cost spike you’re stuck with them. Honeywell is an "industry standard system" and I  like to ability to switch monitoring companies so if you are thinking about the one if the vid you may want to ask the seller if you are locked-in with their monitoring?  

Also I want as much noise as possible when my panel goes into alarm mode. I added a Moose JDS 100 Siren Driver which remains from my original install that powers-up two 35watt speakers for the outdoors and I have the original siren driver for one smaller wattage indoor speaker. I used to be able to hear this one dog two blocks away barking when I would test my system,  I assume it pissed him off and hurts his ears.  Those sirens in your video looked like toys so you would be lucky to hear those  just outside your home.  

I too had my original system also just over 25 years and it worked perfectly but I wanted to convert from Telco monitoring to cellular and my old system was not upgradeable to cellular monitoring. I pulled the panel back in 2014 and swapped it out with the Honeywell Vista 20P. I have the ability to arm and disarm my system with the phone app or web portal but I don’t want that, I could also do key-fob arming/disarming & panic mode.  I programmed my key-fob arming only this way no one sits on it to disarm or sends it into panic mode. .The key-fob is in my car and rarely used. I want last person out to manually arm via the keypad and same with first person in. I don't need all the smart home bells & whistles and online stuff, I only need Fire & Burglary monitoring. If my panel does go into alarm mode I want a quick response from my UL Listed Central Station. Good luck

[Howard 538]

Thanks for the feedback.  I had looked at the newer Honeywell Lynx systems and was not very impressed - but the VIsta might be an option.  Which one do you have, is it the 20P?  What does it cost to monitor the system on cellular?  Does it also communicate via phone or IP if the cell signal is not working?

I have a Moose Siren on my current system, sounds like it might be a very similar one to yours.  I also have a strobe light and another siren in the house.  The issue I have found is that these days people don't even pay attention to these sirens.  I had the strobe going for almost 24 hours on mine and nobody, not even the police, stopped by or called.  Central station monitoring is the only reliable method for doing something when it trips.  I do like the idea of it also being interlinked with my cellphone, but that is secondary.  You point on monitoring being tied to only one provider is something worth verifying as that would be a deal killer as you are left with a paperweight if they go out of business.  What monitoring service do you use.

 

Thanks

[M1152 713]

Yes I have the 20P. Not really a fan of Honeywell Lynx systems either, they are kind of a Simply Safe type design system. You mount them on a wall or place them on a desk which I don’t like because if someone knows your layout and they break in through your entry zone (delay zone) and not a perimeter zone (which trips instantly)  they could trash the Lynx or Simply Safe system in a NY minute. That’s especially true if you have a 30 second delay or greater and if the unit is in plain view. It just makes it that much easier to deactivate the unit.  Just to review if they break in though and entry zone your motions revert to delay zone as well unless you have programmed them otherwise.

In your case if you already have a hardwired system and if the contacts are in good shape for the wired zones you could be a good candidate for the Vista. The only thing that would need looking into is if you have end of line resistors (EOLR). If you have EOLR and as long as the value is 2K ohms you are good, if they are absent that’s OK too because you could program them out via the Vista system programming setup.   I’m a DIY so don’t know all the ins & outs but generally the EOLR are required in Commercial UL setups.  In a home it’s really not needed and half the panels that require EOLR’s the installer just sticks them in the panel which defeats the whole purpose anyway.

I have the BAT with is a Cellular Broadband Alarm Transceiver and it uses the Verizon Network for Cellular. The BAT is managed by kind of a joint venture between your Central Station  and alarmdealer.com. Generally I have 3 out of 4 bars for signal strength and occasionally it will bounce to the forth bar so signal is good here. You could also plug it in to your home network but then IP becomes the primary and the Cellular becomes the failover. I had my BAT connected to Fios and never had a problem for a few years but then I switched to Optimum it started sending erroneous codes to the CS so I removed the LAN connection and just  went with Cellular only which is fine but just another black eye for Optimum LOL.

The alarmdealer.com folks provide online the access via the app and provides the alarm reporting. Below is a BAT youtube overview video, not really that good but you’ll get the general idea. The BAT connects to the Keypad bus on the panel and the Telco Tip & Ring for communication. So that’s six connections. I did one for myself and neighbor and we placed our BATS about 25 feet away from our panels for better cell reception.

For my neighbor who's I did first  I ran two four conductor cables (plain old red/green/yellow/black phone wire) and NO Lan connection. For myself I wanted the Lan connection initially then I realized I would be running three cables so for the communication between the BAT and 20P so I opted to run some old CAT3 cable I had laying around for the connection between the BAT and the panel that way I didn’t need to run three cables. As it stands now with the Lan connection disconnected I could have done my BAT install with the one segment of CAT3 cable. If you want the Lan port enabled you would have to run the additional CAT5 (or higher) cable in additional to the cabling for the BAT itself. CAT5 for data is normally good up to something like 300 feet but for the BAT itself I would probably try and stay under 125 foot cable run or less that way you are sure not to see any voltage drops. if you have cell reception problems you could install the BAT on your upper floor if that would help with cell reception. I think a lot of people thing the BAT has to be right next to the panel, it does not...but then again you don't want it out in the open either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrbL3bYQt0w

 

[Howard 538]

Thanks.  I have a few questions, will handle by PM shortly.

[NJGF 375]

23 hours ago, FXDX said:

The only thing that would need looking into is if you have end of line resistors (EOLR). If you have EOLR and as long as the value is 2K ohms you are good, if they are absent that’s OK too because you could program them out via the Vista system programming setup.   I’m a DIY so don’t know all the ins & outs but generally the EOLR are required in Commercial UL setups.  In a home it’s really not needed and half the panels that require EOLR’s the installer just sticks them in the panel which defeats the whole purpose anyway.

The circuit going to each contact (say on a window) is a closed circuit. That means that current is always flowing through it and pulling down a relay (or electronic equivalent) in the main alarm panel. When the window/door opens the contact opens, no current flows, the relay goes up, and sets off the alarm. Say you have accidentally put a staple across the wire going to the window. The alarm panel thinks everything is OK but when the window is open the shorted wire prevents the alarm panel from seeing the alarm. The EOL resistor is used so that if the wire is shorted the alarm panel can see that it there is no longer a resistor at the end of the line and can either set off the alarm or a trouble signal. This is extremely valuable. Very few of us go to each window and door and make sure that it is working properly on a regular basis so the EOL resistor really helps you know things are OK. As FXDX said when the installer puts the EOL resistor in the panel it achieves very little except to know that the installer didn't install it correctly.

[M1152 713]

yes the most commonly used contact is N/C (normally closed) but just to be clear they do make a N/O (normally open) contacts as well for different applications. Why you would need a N/O for a perimeter zone is beyond me but they do make them. The more common N/O devices would be a Smoke Detectors which are also paired with EOLRs. In that case then yes, take the extra time and put the resistor at the EOL.

For a homeowner you could argue the use of EOLR’s both ways. Personally I don’t see a problem just sticking them in the panel or not using them at all, again for fire zones I would recommend the resistors at the EOL. For the Commercial installs like a Jewelry store then sure the resistors should be installed at the EOL for all zones. As home owners we are just looking to keep the crackheads out of our underwear drawers and aren’t too concern with professional thieves.

If the OP is going to use the Vista 20P and has less than 8 wired zones he don’t need them and the 20P will allow the EOLR’s to be programmed-out during setup which is common for residential regardless if we like it or not. However if he plans on using more than 8 wired zones with the 20P he will be actually be using two different value resistors for zone doubling which gives the panel  the ability to increase the amount of wired zones with the same number of mainboard terminals which is a nice feature.  NOTE: Zone 1 is Fire and can’t be doubled so that’s why there is no 1/9 listed,