Hey all,
Thank you for any information you can give me on this. First let me tell you the story of my home security install. The tale starts mid Jan of this year. I live in a three unit apartment building, my landlord lives in one of them. Anyway, I came home one day to find my apartment burgled and about $1.5k worth of items stolen. At this point my landlord approached me and asked if I could look into a security system. I advised that I had never touched a system before but I would look into it. I have a small PC repair/network/web-design business so I had no clue about security systems and told him this but I guess he figured I was better equipped to research it that he was. I called brinks and ADT who quoted around $1200 plus a 3 year horrible contract. We needed to use GSMR since the landlord doesnt have internet and his only phones are cell. He didnt want to sign a contract and after talking with a local security company I figured we could at least run the wire and install the equipment they recommend and get a more reasonable contract, possibly spend less money as well.
I was advised to purchase:
1xVista 20p
3x6150RF keypads
as well as various sensors which all work fine. The wall fished wiring was a bit of a pain since the house is so old its actually made of wood and lots of it! The plaster walls didnt help either. Finally once all the wiring was in place I installed the panel and began reading the instructions, unfortunately the panel will only run two partitions and a common. Also I was getting lost in the programming because the numeric keypads are a pain. I told the security company owner of the panel issue and he suggested the 50p which I double-checked does allow up to 8 partitions. The problem with the 50p is that it is not compatible with the GSMR modue. again wasted money. I still was having trouble programming the vista 20p so I purchased a 6160 keypad and programmed the first partition over a cup of coffee (seeing useful information makes for a easy setup).
Here is my question:
I know now that I should replace the other two 6150s with 6160 keypads but as for the panel.... I am now being told that a 128bp will handle the three partitions needed AND is GSMR compatible. Is this finally the answer I have been looking for? I will need 11 zones total so I will need a zone expander and depending on GSMR signal in the basement I may need a antenna.
Thank you for any information you can give me on this. First let me tell you the story of my home security install. The tale starts mid Jan of this year. I live in a three unit apartment building, my landlord lives in one of them. Anyway, I came home one day to find my apartment burgled and about $1.5k worth of items stolen. At this point my landlord approached me and asked if I could look into a security system. I advised that I had never touched a system before but I would look into it. I have a small PC repair/network/web-design business so I had no clue about security systems and told him this but I guess he figured I was better equipped to research it that he was. I called brinks and ADT who quoted around $1200 plus a 3 year horrible contract. We needed to use GSMR since the landlord doesnt have internet and his only phones are cell. He didnt want to sign a contract and after talking with a local security company I figured we could at least run the wire and install the equipment they recommend and get a more reasonable contract, possibly spend less money as well.
I was advised to purchase:
1xVista 20p
3x6150RF keypads
as well as various sensors which all work fine. The wall fished wiring was a bit of a pain since the house is so old its actually made of wood and lots of it! The plaster walls didnt help either. Finally once all the wiring was in place I installed the panel and began reading the instructions, unfortunately the panel will only run two partitions and a common. Also I was getting lost in the programming because the numeric keypads are a pain. I told the security company owner of the panel issue and he suggested the 50p which I double-checked does allow up to 8 partitions. The problem with the 50p is that it is not compatible with the GSMR modue. again wasted money. I still was having trouble programming the vista 20p so I purchased a 6160 keypad and programmed the first partition over a cup of coffee (seeing useful information makes for a easy setup).
Here is my question:
I know now that I should replace the other two 6150s with 6160 keypads but as for the panel.... I am now being told that a 128bp will handle the three partitions needed AND is GSMR compatible. Is this finally the answer I have been looking for? I will need 11 zones total so I will need a zone expander and depending on GSMR signal in the basement I may need a antenna.
