What alarm panel for UK house with Homeseer Support

newstuart · #1 October 2nd, 2009, 04:32 AM

Hi guys

I am looking to buy an alarm panel in the near future and would like something I can tie into homeseer. Most of the panels the compatabillity sheet mentions appear to be US models.

Can anyone recomend a UK panel I can use and where best to purchase it?

Thanks in advance

newstuart · #2 October 2nd, 2009, 04:35 AM

Hi guys

I am looking to buy an alarm panel in the near future and would like something I can tie into homeseer. Most of the panels the compatabillity sheet mentions appear to be US models.

Can anyone recomend a UK panel I can use and where best to purchase it?

Thanks in advance

Bestgear · #3 October 2nd, 2009, 04:42 AM

HI

The stock answer to that is Comfort, but the Texecom Premier range (48 and above) support several protocols that can be used to speak to the panel. These are connected via serial but the panels also support an IP module (comIP) too should you be adventurous. There are some limitations if you go that route.

If its a "polished" commercial solution with no detailed scripting you are looking for, then Comfort is probably your best route.

I use a Premier 168 zone panel and have all zones in HS, plus 64 other status devices from the panel. I also have other areas configured in the panel and use it for my general purpose input into HS - so things like Geovision, water meters, various relays from central heating etc all signal the panel and then into HS.

Given the nature of the panel and the job its designed to do, it does not miss zone status changes and is 100% reliable.

If you have a communicator inthe panel you can also send SMS messages easily through it from HS - although there are several other ways of doing that.

So - you have some options.

David

newstuart · #4 October 2nd, 2009, 11:03 AM

Hi

Thanks for this, I will do some "googling" on both makes and make a decision.

Any recomendations for an online supplier?

Bestgear · #5 October 2nd, 2009, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by newstuart

Hi

Any recomendations for an online supplier?

There are many Uk suppliers of Texecom, and to be honest, Ebay produces a lot of new kit at excellent prices.

Brewtime is a popular and reliable online supplier as is Mourton Alarm Supplies (MAS).

Not sure about comfort - that will be a much shorter list as its distribution is more specialised rather than a mainstream panel.

D

msweb · #6 October 3rd, 2009, 05:39 PM

Hi I recently bought a new alarm with a mind to integrating with Homeseer. It's not cheap but I looked at ESP Infinite Prime and Visonic Powermax (I got the Powermax Pro).

As an alarm in it's own right it will dial out and SMS out (with the right bits e.g. GSM module). I bought it from these guys http://www.tritonfiresystems.co.uk so you can see some of the options on their site.

You can add PIRs, door contacts, flood, gas, CO2, fire sensors. Have a look at http://www.visonic.com for more.

With an XM10U module you can get Homeseer to read if it's alarmed/away/home/disarmed and create events based on it. In fact I've just posted up a guide to doing just that as it wasn't obvious (to me anyway).

If you want Homeseer to pick up the Visonic PIRs/transmitters then they work on 868mhz not 433mhz but RFXCOM (http://www.rfxcom.com do a receiver that will read 433/868 or both.

I can't comment on some of the options above or compare them to Visonic but I've been really happy with the Powermax Pro.

Good luck if you want any more information drop me a message.

apluck · #7 April 20th, 2010, 01:52 AM

David, I have the Texecom Premier 48, and I'd like to integrate it with Homeseer directly without going via the intermediate route of programming alarm panel outputs to trigger inputs on an Netiom digital i/o board connected into Homeseer.

Would you mind sharing how you have connected your panel into HS?

cheers

Al

jasv · #8 April 20th, 2010, 12:24 PM

Not sure that they are available but I have more than a few users of the caddx/Networx NX8e panels in Europe. The panel is a bit "old" but seems to fill most of the needs. The plug in is fairly mature and free. Not really sure how it compares to other's though since it is the only panel/plugin I use for security.

apluck · #9 April 20th, 2010, 12:28 PM

Thanks James, I'd like to use the Texecom panel. My fallback option is to parallel up the motion sensor zones into the Netiom Digital I/O so that both the panel and Homeseer are triggered. Ideally, I'd like to interface Homeseer to the panel directly though.