home wireless security

home wireless security

The third essential part of a home security system is the alarm.

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Read our full Wyze Cam Pan review.

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All of your wireless equipment connects to a control panel or hub and can easily be controlled using your smartphone or web portal.

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The difficultly purchasing hardware and getting manufacturer technical support, especially for warranty issues, has been a roadblock for DIY projects. But there ARE paths to tackle those concerns reliably. The real issue however is not where to get the equipment but what equipment do I need and why?Understanding DIY home security system basics is the first step. If you are a home security installation newbie then this series of articles are for you!Manufacturers have had pet immune motion detectors on the market for years and have made progress making them more reliable. We however have never felt completely comfortable recommending them to our company installed customers, especially Central Station monitored customers. Pet immune motion detectors are good at ignoring mid sized and smaller pets but are not fool proof. Even one false alarms a year is not acceptable. A standard motion sensor turned upside down or lens masked works better and provides less headaches down the road more install tricks later. You never want to lose faith in your security system!Yourself, wife, kids, housekeeper, a babysitter?All security panels offer multiple “passcodes” allowing every family member to have their own unique arm/disarm code. While most customers use just a single primary passcode, we do however recommend programming a babysitter code. This special passcode can arm the system, but the system can only be disarmed with this code when the babysitter code was used to arm.
Most of these panels use capacitive touch screens and contain multiple radios that allow them to wirelessly control Wi Fi, Z Wave, Zigbee, and Bluetooth sensors and home automation components. Most panels also contain a cellular radio that connects them to a monitoring center if you subscribe to a professional monitoring plan, and they almost always have a speaker and a microphone for two way communication with a monitoring agent. The cellular radio is also used to push updates to the system. For example, the $229 SimpliSafe Foundation is a starter kit that gives you the hub, a door/window sensor, a motion sensor, and a yard sign. Additional door/window sensors go for $14. 99 each and you can order glass break detectors for $34.

In this connection, I recall that somewhere in your articles you said that your system did not support advanced motion detection, whereas in your packaged systems review you put this as a con. Thanks for stopping by!Yes I am familiar with Swann equipment and they have lots of good features. However the reason I do not recommend them is that their cameras and NVRs are locked down – they do not work with any other brand or manufacturer’s products. You can see under the compatible products section of the product page, they list only a few Swann NVRs. This is because they do not support the ONVIF standard which guarantees inter operability. Or in other words you are stuck with them once you start buying their cameras/NVRs similar to what Apple does with iOS.