winter said:
I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest this is what he meant:

Alarm monitoring cost $200/year. Having it reduces his homeowner insurance by $60/year. Thus 1/3 the cost of the alarm monitoring is effectively eliminated.

Nothing about the annual cost of the homeowner insurance is mentioned or relevant.

wow, i can't believe it took that long to figure that one out. lot of math challenged people on here lately..

k000 said:


Hmm... are you saying you have added an additional panel on the same system ? That sounds interesting... even their basic 2-way wireless keypad costs $150 so buying an additional panel (if that can be added) sounds very interestig idea. I added a wireless keypad only.

My question was when we have ABN and GSM on the same panel - can I send signals from both ?

Yes I added a second panel - this provides me with dual redundancy (if one panel fails - the second one is still working). As well, when an alarm sensor is tripped - BOTH panels go into alarm mode - and both begin transmitting to the central monitoring station - one via VOIP and the other via cellular.

Some alarm panels can have a proprietary GSM component (With names like Alarmnet / Uplink / Anynet) added to the panel. From what I understand - with that method the panel first tries the primary form of communication (lets say through the ABN adaptor) and if it gets the 'ok signal went through' then it stops. But if it cannot send through the primary method then it tries the second (cellular radio) method. It is not sending both ABN AND cellular radio at the same time - instead it tries ABN first then tries cellular radio if the ABN does not give it the 'ok' signal. But what if the ABN method was giving the panel the 'ok' signal - but the signal was not being forwarded on to the central station? Also you have to pay a second monthly monitoring fee for the GSM component on top of the monitoring fee you pay for the ABN method of monitoring.

I've read all the pages on this thread. Thanks for all the info guys.

Quick question... I plan to install the main panel on a kitchen wall (near a phone jack and not too far from the front door). Could a thief force open a door/window, then rip out the panel or phone connection before the alarm sends the signal to the monitoring company?

If so, how could I offer better protection? I could put the panel upstairs, but I would hate to run upstairs and enter the disarm code every time I come home. Any suggestions?

taepo said:I've read all the pages on this thread. Thanks for all the info guys.

Quick question... I plan to install the main panel on a kitchen wall (near a phone jack and not too far from the front door). Could a thief force open a door/window, then rip out the panel or phone connection before the alarm sends the signal to the monitoring company?

If so, how could I offer better protection? I could put the panel upstairs, but I would hate to run upstairs and enter the disarm code every time I come home. Any suggestions?

I've added a $135 2-way wireless keypad and use that for day to day operation. Or you could try what careh suggested above, add anotehr panel.

BTW, a $25 keyfob can do the same thing and you can leave it downstairs - but a 2-way keypad annouces / chimes and talks just like the console.

careh said:k000 said:


Hmm... are you saying you have added an additional panel on the same system ? That sounds interesting... even their basic 2-way wireless keypad costs $150 so buying an additional panel (if that can be added) sounds very interestig idea. I added a wireless keypad only.

My question was when we have ABN and GSM on the same panel - can I send signals from both ?

Yes I added a second panel - this provides me with dual redundancy (if one panel fails - the second one is still working). As well, when an alarm sensor is tripped - BOTH panels go into alarm mode - and both begin transmitting to the central monitoring station - one via VOIP and the other via cellular.

Some alarm panels can have a proprietary GSM component (With names like Alarmnet / Uplink / Anynet) added to the panel. From what I understand - with that method the panel first tries the primary form of communication (lets say through the ABN adaptor) and if it gets the 'ok signal went through' then it stops. But if it cannot send through the primary method then it tries the second (cellular radio) method. It is not sending both ABN AND cellular radio at the same time - instead it tries ABN first then tries cellular radio if the ABN does not give it the 'ok' signal. But what if the ABN method was giving the panel the 'ok' signal - but the signal was not being forwarded on to the central station? Also you have to pay a second monthly monitoring fee for the GSM component on top of the monitoring fee you pay for the ABN method of monitoring.

Careh - do you know if I can add any other Powermax panel to the Abbra 2 or does it need to be the same model panel that is the main one ?

This sounds great - Their customer service sucks -
I tried once .. Back to ADT now

careh said:k000 said:

Careh - do you know if I can add any other Powermax panel to the Abbra 2 or does it need to be the same model panel that is the main one ?

Sorry I don't know - in my case I have two Lynx panels set up identically except for one going out over voip and the other through cellular. I tried it on a hunch it would work - and it did.

Sure - np - so did you have to register all the transmitters twice on both panels... ? or did NextAlarm guys helped you set it up ?

careh said:k000 said:
Sure - np - so did you have to register all the transmitters twice on both panels... ? or did NextAlarm guys helped you set it up ?

As far as know Nextalarm tech's would not help out with programming sensors into panels - but I never asked them about that.

I did the whole setup myself in stages. I began by getting a wireless Lynx alarm panel and some basic door / window sensors off eBay and found the programming instructions for the panel off alarm company web sites. I slowly added sensors (door, window, motion, smoke, freeze, water leak, rate of rise and external keypads) until I had that one panel completely set up and tested thoroughly. That was when I realised I was depending on ONE panel with one method of communication to the central alarm station for all my protection. I looked into the proprietary Uplink/alarmnet secondary method of communication if the first method fails but -being a fatwalleter - did not care to pay the high cost for the secondary system - which includes a secondary monthly monitoring fee. So I came up with the idea of the second identical panel - which would be programmed exactly the same as the first panel and placed in a different part of the house. Being a wireless system I figured if one panel gets a wireless signal from a sensor - the second panel one would also get it - so both would go off. And sure enough that is what happens. I don't think the same dual panel concept would work with a wired panel - but you never know until you try.

Must say I am impressed by your idea !

NextAlarm guys did help me setup the initial 12 sensors, while I had bought only 3 from them... I am still waiting for the next set of 5 more sensors (from eBay ) and those guys have asked me to call them and they would help me setup that one up too But I got your point - all I probably need to do is setup the second panel identical... but only use the cell line.

Or are you using a land line on the second panel ? or blue tooth or what are you using,,, ?

I am totally motivated to add second panel now Thanks

careh said:k000 said:
Must say I am impressed by your idea !

NextAlarm guys did help me setup the initial 12 sensors, while I had bought only 3 from them... I am still waiting for the next set of 5 more sensors (from eBay ) and those guys have asked me to call them and they would help me setup that one up too But I got your point - all I probably need to do is setup the second panel identical... but only use the cell line.

Or are you using a land line on the second panel ? or blue tooth or what are you using,,, ?

I am totally motivated to add second panel now Thanks

I use a "Fixed Wireless Terminal" which is a box I picked up off eBay for around $120 that takes a SIM chip from any GSM cellular provider. Here is One Example The Terminal provides 'dial tone' to any phone jack plugged into it then sends the call out over the GSM cellular network. The alarm protocol I use is Ademco 4+2 as the cellular network did not want to carry the Contact-ID format (I suppose because it has lower voice grade quality).

In the Terminal box I use a T-Mobile prepaid SIM chip that is in 'Gold' status - meaning it has had $100 loaded onto it over time. You can pick these up off eBay from time to time or buy your own. Once the chip is in 'Gold' status the remaining minutes on it do not expire for a year from the date you last load any refill amount onto it. The panel only uses the dial-out for an alarm and once a week for a periodic test report so I don't need a lot of money loaded on the T-Mobile SIM card. That way I only have to reload it once a year with as little as $10 and all the previous remaining minutes plus the value of the $10 are added together and do not expire for another year.

This second panel is how I spotted the intermittent ABN delay as this cellular panel reported immediately upon alarm - while the ABN panel report from the same alarm incident came in 40 minutes later (on three seperate occasions).

You, my friend, are a frickkkin Genious.

love your setup...if I do set something up, it will be pretty much like yours (and with the prepaid idea)

thanks for this post

Almighty1 said:It seems like Visonic has something called FAST but is that available on other brands or what exactly does that feature do anyways since it seems every alarm claims to have a web interface and logs so how is FAST different?

I can't tell you how is it different than others - but what FAST does is show me instant status at any point on all the sensors and peripherals. It also let's me view latchkey and arm/disarm via web. Can't compare with others as this is my first setup.