Transmitters Posts

Alarm Grid has partnered with interactive service powerhouse Alarm.com. Well-known as the pioneer of modern-day interactive, the Alarm.com product, along with Total Connect and Telguard, are well-known names in the industry. "Alarm Grid is excited to offer the whole suite of Alarm.com products to our customers. The product provides an incredible consumer experience and we're excited to be offering it alongside our other interactive options," said Sterling Donnelly, president of Alarm Grid. "We have really come to love the interactive services provided by Alarm.com. Their focus is on making sure that our customers are satisfied so that we can retain them for years to come. As you can imagine, that sort of loyalty is something that a no contract alarm monitoring company like Alarm Grid is trying to find." In addition to adding the new product line, Alarm Grid is rolling out new alarm monitoring plans to accommodate the new features that Alarm.com customers have come to know and love. "We're going to start giving automation away for free, basically," said Joshua Unseth, Alarm Grid's Director of Marketing. "It's included with any of the plans we offer that are not the most basic."

In addition to the Alarm.com rollout, in an effort to expand their reach, Alarm Grid, best known for making Honeywell panels accessible to end users, is now offering 2GIG panels. Powered by the interactive services of Alarm.com, the panels can do anything and everything one would expect a professional panel to. "There is a lot of demand for 2GIG's product line," said Joshua Unseth. "We want to make sure that our consumers can get the product that they want." Donnelly reiterated the point, "we absolutely love Honeywell and are going to be supporting and selling them for as long as we're selling home security equipment, but there is a need for a consumer friendly site that sells 2GIG as well. We will do our best to service both markets."

2GIG's become a well-known security panel in the DIY space. But for many end users, the Alarm Grid touch might be just what is needed to convince them to consider the consumer panel. "2GIG's documentation is written for installers, and even then, if you're not super familiar with the equipment, there just aren't really a lot of places that a person can go to get answers. Alarm Grid is going to change that," Joshua said. "With about 90 FAQs already on-site, we expect the Alarm Grid roll out of the 2GIG product line to change the way consumers can expect to interact with these products going forward. DIY videos showing both programming and installation are coming soon, and there are no shortage of FAQs that we will be producing over the next year."

While there are other smaller outfits that sell and support both Honeywell and 2GIG panels, Alarm Grid's made a name for itself by offering unparalleled support for the panels it does sell. "We have heard reports of techs in the field using Alarm Grid's site to get answers when they get stuck," said Sterling Donnelly. "Our experience has shown us the level to which there is a knowledge gap in the field. Some techs know everything about all the panels. Some know almost nothing. As far as our techs, we simply don't want to sell something on our site that our techs don't know in and out. We want our customers to be able to ask hard questions and get great answers no matter what the customer wants to know. We spent the last couple months getting 2GIG products into the hands of our support team and making sure that they encountered as many situations as they could so that they are prepared to give technical support that exceeds everyone's expectations."

One of the big gripes people have with the LYNX panels is that the only siren that it works with is the 5800WAVE. The truth is that Honeywell's wireless security system can be made to work with any wired siren. It just takes a little bit more work. We've done our best to make it simple with FAQs, manuals, and even an Alarm Grid kit, but we have been missing the most important, helpful element: videos. The following video can be viewed as a series on YouTube (if you head over there, be sure to subscribe to the Alarm Grid channel), or you can watch it in order right below.

In this first video, we show you the Alarm Grid LYNX-EXT. It's the simplest, cheapest way to get an external sounder to work with your wireless security system without having to run a wire. The LYNX-WEXT works roughly the same way as the one in the video below, however, a wire needs to be run from the relay in the WEXT to the system itself.

Putting everything together in the LYNX-EXT is really simple. Sterling goes through the wiring, and how to connect it to the wireless security system.

Sterling goes in depth about how to choose the wired sirens you would like to use, and how to do a quick power calculation on your system. In this video, we demonstrate the strongest siren we sell, the Amseco 52s, which will make a 120dB fuss if the system is breached.

Sterling gives a quick explanation about how to properly wire the siren and the strobe. Once this is done, all that is left to do is set the house ID codes in the system and the 5800RL.

Setting the House ID Codes on the LYNX Touch Units

All three of the next videos demonstrate how to set the house ID whether your system is an older, discontinued L5100, or the newer L5200 and L7000.

Setting the House ID on the 5800RL

Like most Honeywell sensors, the 5800RL uses dip switches to pick its House ID. It is the same way that the 5800WAVE works. Setting these dip switches will allow the system to communicate with the horn so that the siren can start blaring the second you need it most.

Honeywell's AD12612 is the best selling power supply in any kit. Sterling takes us through how to wire the LYNX-EXT to the power supply and external sounder. 

The Panics!

Both to show it works, as well as allowing anyone who is curious a chance to listen to the panic sounds. Below are videos of Sterling demonstrating both the Police Panic and the Fire Panic.

Honeywell's much anticipated L5200 has finally been released. The L5200 is the sister panel to this year's ISC "Best in Intrusion" winner, the Honeywell L7000, which is expected to be released in the latter half of 2014. Like the predecessors of these two panels, Honeywell has designed the L5200 to be an integrated system that combines state-of-the art wireless security features such as Advanced Protection Logic (APL) and Interactive services that allow an user to control the system from any smart device, with the incredible convenience afforded by modern home automation products. 

With this release, Honeywell has gone far to address many of their consumers' demands, and it's clear that with this panel the company is furthering its commitment to improved user experience. They have removed many of the disparaging limitations of the old L5100 panels: the Honeywell L5200 comes with more zones of protection, the ability to display a camera on screen, and one of the most exciting developments in Honeywell's technology comes with the announcement that the L5200 is flash upgradeable.

This feature, which allows the panel to download the latest software updates that have been released for the unit, addresses one of the chief complaints consumers have had about the old panels - no updates means no access to new features.

The release of this panel is met with another incredible development in the security industry: the rise of DIY. Since vaulting to prominence in mid-2012, Alarm Grid has set the standard for DIY home security by providing resources to DIYers that they never had access to previously. The Honeywell L5200 is the first panel to have been released since this DIY culture has become widespread. As such, the Alarm Grid team believes that it will be a great test of this new, up-and-coming model: "Do-it-yourselfers have really taken up the reigns in this industry. These panels are easy to understand, they are simple to program, and they are simple to install," said Joshua Unseth, Alarm Grid's director of marketing. "We believe that the L5200 is a great addition to Honeywell's already stellar line of products. It's a great step forward, and we think that DIYers will be quick to embrace it."

While the release of a security system like the L5200 would generally mean big money for installers who bank on consumers knowing very little about how these systems work, Alarm Grid has already released the L5200 manuals, they have begun writing L5200 frequently asked questions, and they have even released a L5200 DIY installation video, which they say shows just how simple installing this system yourself can be.

"We don't think you have to be an experienced DIYer to install a security system," said Sterling Donnelly, President of Alarm Grid. "I'm always amazed by the range of people who call us and decide to try DIY security. A lot of consumers don't even know that a self-installation is an option when they start looking at security equipment. Our goal is to make it easy. For those who want to give it a try, our tech team patiently guides them through every step of the way."

When asked how non-professionals can purchase the equipment, Unseth replied, "Alarm Grid has made it easy to get your hands on this equipment. We are committed to making sure that end users have the same access to this equipment as installers have, and we want to make sure that they have access to as much information as any professional installer would have. Not only that, but we are committed to making sure that this high-quality Honeywell equipment is affordable enough for anyone who wants a security system in their home. All an user has to do is visit our site, and purchase an L5200. We send it on, it gets delivered, the end-user can watch a few videos to figure out how to install and configure it, and should they run into trouble, they can always call us at no cost."

Alarm Grid has released 9 pre-configured kits that include the brand new wireless security system, each coming with a bevy of sensors and communicators. Regarding the quality of their hardware, Unseth points out that lots of other DIY companies have built their business on consumer hatred of this industry. "It's a well known fact that big players in home security are not well loved. But those DIY companies generally make sub-standard equipment." Alarm Grid's equipment is the same product a consumer would get if the system had been installed by ADT or another big-company installer. "With us that's what you get, great hardware at a great price, and alarm monitoring with a company you can trust and that will treat you well. We treat our customers the same on day one as we do after they have installed the system and are monitored. After all," Unseth smiled a little before adding, "since Alarm Grid doesn't believe in contracts, we have to work to win the business of our customers every single month."

It hasn't even been released yet, but Honeywell's newest intrusion detection system, the Honeywell L7000 is already making waves at ISC West winning this year's award for Best in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Solutions. The award is nothing to sneeze at considering the stiff competition presented by others at the security industry's biggest, most important conference.

While the system itself has yet to be released, this reward speaks volumes to the quality of hardware and software that Honeywell is putting out. Simply put, what it means is that when assessed against every other major security system, the L7000 comes out on top.

We still have no indication from Honeywell when the L7000 and the very similar, but slightly less full-featured L5200 are going to be released for public consumption, but the instant that they are, we will make the products available here. If you would like to be notified personally when the L7000 is released, please sign up for the newsletter on its page.