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Alarm Systems Calling Cell Phones (Newbies, Please Read)

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Magnum Alert:
It seems like the new DIYer seems to want his or her security system to call a cellular phone when there's a problem.  I'm going to provide some examples on why this is not a good idea, and why you should consider the reasonable price of central station monitoring.

First and foremost, the communicator in your security system panel is basically a computer modem, intended to take over the phone line and dial into a receiver, which does the following:
- sends the panel a "handshake" or acknowledgement tone, to signal that the alarm system can make a successful transmission.
- The alarm communicator then sends its event information via a data string (Contact ID or SIA, etc).
- After the alarm communicator sends its information and the receiver is able to interpret it, the receiver sends the alarm system a "kissoff" tone to signal to the alarm system that the alarm transmission was successful.  The alarm system then hangs up and returns the phone line.

If any one, or all of the above do not happen (the panel doesn't get a signal back saying it made contact, and then that it made a successful transmission) the panel will hang up the line, and retry the whole process over.  Usually, ten attempts are made before the panel gives up, switches to the backup phone number and tries to make ten more attempts.

If you program your cellular phone number into the phone number field, this is what you will get:

Any alarm, trouble, or other abnormal condition would cause the system to call your cell phone repeatedly.
That means the system would dial for a burglary alarm, fire alarm, panic, AC loss, battery trouble, event log full, opening/closing (if programmed), cancels, restores, dialer or walk tests, or anything that would cause the system to transmit a signal.  How would you know the difference?  You wouldn't.  Would you call the police, because you "think" someone broke in, only because a squirrel ran across the power lines and took out the transformer for your neighborhood?  Or would you call the police thinking it was a burglary, then they get there and find smoke coming from a window.  Then, an additional ten minutes later, the fire department shows up and your house is a total loss.   Or, you wouldn't know if someone just busted in your front door, or if a cat knocked over a vase.  You wouldn't know if the power was out in your neighborhood, or if a fire just started in your garage.  You wouldn't know if your battery just gave in, or if your kids were followed inside by a child molester and one of them pressed the panic button.  Or if the wife read about the duress code and tried to use it because an armed rapist is now dragging her into the bedroom.  Sound graphic?  IT'S A REALITY.


A security system that doesn't report off-premises is basically worthless.

Even if you're home, imagine a smoke detector triggering, you and your family are overcome by smoke and are unconscious.  Instead of the fire alarm signal going out to a central station who can then get the fire department and paramedics there, your phone is ringing off the hook while there are only minutes left to your life and you're unconscious.  You can't make an emergency call on your home phone line, because the panel has it siezed while it's calling your cell phone.  You can't make an emergency call on your cell phone because the panel keeps calling it and hanging up.  Get the picture?  Imagine hearing your back door kicked in and footsteps coming upstairs at 2:00 AM, you press the panic and you programmed it to call your cell phone, so now not only is there a siren wailing, but your phone is buzzing off the hook too.  That didn't do you much benefit, now did it?  Better hope your good neighbors are awakened by the siren and call the police.  If the criminals didn't get angry about the siren and decide to hold you or a family member hostage, or even worse.......... imagine your own ending here.

You can normally get decent, UL-approved alarm monitoring for between $8 and $12 per month.  Normally, you pay upfront for a year, one time.  Is your life, your family members' lives, your pets' lives, and your property worth it to save a few dollars on not having a system properly monitored by people who can respond immediately WHEN YOU CAN'T?

A security system that doesn't report off-premises is basically worthless.

So, you'd get ten calls for SOMETHING.  Who knows?  Maybe you come home from work to find a pile of rubble, or maybe you come inside to two armed intruders and now your life is in their hands.  Or maybe it was just a false alarm.  So, when you disarm, you get 10 additional calls for the cancel signal, and an additional ten calls for the restoral signal, and a "communication trouble" that resounds every 24 hours and never stops.

Come on, if you're going to spend the money for a security system, you're foolish to not invest in proper monitoring as well.  Do the job right.  At the very least, most insurance companies offer discounts for security systems THAT ARE MONITORED, when you can provide the monitoring certificate.  Usually it's ten percent, but after time, it will pay for itself.

A security system that doesn't report off-premises is basically worthless.

Just my two cents... since everybody asks about having their system call a cell phone, these are some real-life scenarios on why it's just a cheap way out and why you should go all out for the best protection.

AlanS:
I have to disagree, or at least offer some clarification.  I agree, if you were to enter a cell # using a panel in normal mode, it would be just as cumbersome as you said, however, many if not almost all panels offer a 'pager' mode, for example, the DSC1555 has a simple pager mode that will call your cell (in order to interact with it the cell must be set to dtmf mode for key press, and they have to be 'long' tones) - it calls, you handshake with I think any key, it gives you a beep to tell you there's been an event.  No zones specified.

However, other/higher DSC panels offer a more sophisticated setup and will tell you with a number of beeps which zone has been tripped - and for most, if you isolate your devices as much as possible you should be able to get a pretty good idea of what's going on.  If it's a fire or flood alarm for example, that'd be pretty straightforward.

There are also IP modules for some systems so that they can send a signal out on the internet, so I imagine a cell with internet capability, say a blackberry could be used.  Since there is usually a utility feature in most panels to trip a relay or other device (or you could run parallel to the siren with a relay) you have the ability to control another device, say a dialler with recorded voice, or, if you want to get fancy, some sort of interface that would communicate with a PC that could be programmed to contact you one way or the other.

So there are LOTS of ways of doing this, when I first started work in security I asked a co-worker who pretty much responded in the same way as the original poster, but since then we've discussed it often and I pointed out the pager function.  In his own business he recently set up a client with the pager option, with it calling his phone.

I agree the best thing is no doubt a monitoring company, but they're not perfect, and not everyone wants/can afford $20-$30 a month for monitoring (which is what it is in my locale) and guess what, with the world economy the way it is, there will be a LOT of people cancelling their monitoring.  Stands to reason.

I have a 70lb dog so I don't really need a system, but since I've got most of the parts, it'd be good practice and good for resale, I will set my own system up (and I especially want the fire/flood/temp alarm option) but I can't justify monitoring, so pager mode it will be for me.

I am a strong believer in an external siren and strobe, where I live/and used to work, the belief seems to be that you don't go that way if it's a monitored system.  Sure, there's still an internal siren, but realistically, any response is not going to be instant.  Most cases, your system cannot contact fire or police directly so you are depending on a monitoring company and a callout/security type company to go out.  How long will that take?  That's why I favour the external siren, so your neighbours are kind of your backup provided you have the mandatory legal siren timeout etc, so it shuts off after 4 minutes or whatever, most importantly, if you set the siren/strobe up like they do in places like Australia, the strobe will continue to flash to indicate a tripped state so you are forewarned before entering your burgled premises.

Because my ex-boss didn't believe in the external siren I know of at least one block of businesses that were hit hard, because the phone lines were cut and there was no cellular backup.  They belted the siren off the wall in the premises (this area is quite exposed and busy) and since there was no visible strobe or external siren, they had plenty of time to go through several adjoining businesses. I doubt they would have stuck around if there were external sirens in hard to reach places.

Gaylord Security:
I would agree with both of you.  However, the key here, that I think dboyle pointed out is how it is set up.  Certainly - if someone is doing an install of their home (not a professional at installation), then they likely should just stick with the standard install and ask someone who knows what they are doing to help with some of these other options. 

I also agree with dboyle that a strobe and external siren are handy and a great idea - particularly in residential.  They will get neighbors attention and they can help be back up.  This is especially helpful when a home owner is out of town.

MmmDee:
The more important point that dboyle was making is what good does your system do if you or your family is incapacitated either from smoke or home invasion if all that will happen is that your fancy system is going to call the cell phone on your hip instead of calling for help?  Even if you have alternate folks on your "call list", many systems will try the primary number 6 or 8 times before giving up and going on to the backup number.  How much time are you willing to waste, during a fire, for your alarm panel to try the next person programmed in?

Self-monitoring is often being "penny wise, pound foolish".

Magnum Alert:

--- Quote from: MmmDee on April 13, 2009, 02:10:01 PM ---The more important point that dboyle was making is what good does your system do if you or your family is incapacitated either from smoke or home invasion if all that will happen is that your fancy system is going to call the cell phone on your hip instead of calling for help?  Even if you have alternate folks on your "call list", many systems will try the primary number 6 or 8 times before giving up and going on to the backup number.  How much time are you willing to wasted, during a fire, for your alarm panel to try the next person programmed in?

Self-monitoring is often being "penny wise, pound foolish".


--- End quote ---


Yes, that actually is the point I was trying to hit head-on.  Security systems do more than alert you of an intrusion.  Your cell-phone monitoring is doing you no good if you're laying in bed unconscious from smoke inhalation (whereas a centrally monitored system would have the fire department and EMS dispatched immediately upon receipt of the alarm).  Your cell-phone monitoring does no good if you lose reception, miss the call because it was on silent and you were in a meeting, or if the battery dies halfway throughout the day.  Not all intruders will be scared off by a siren.  If that intrustion happens and that person is still coming up the stairs, armed, well, your cell phone ringing isn't doing anybody much good.

Long story short is, central station monitoring gives professionals a chance to get help when you're not able to for whatever reason.  In today's messed up society, with all the sick stuff people do like stealing children, breaking in even when people are home and holding someone hostage, or anything worse, it just makes good sense to have the system report offsite to a location that is staffed 24/7, whose sole purpose is to receive signals and immediately summon help when you or someone else can't.

If your security system serves more than one purpose (burglary, fire, a keypad with panic buttons, maybe a water sensor for the basement or something) then you may as well do it right and have it monitored by a central station.

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