Can a Simon XTi or XTi-5 Do Home Automation without Monitoring?

hi DRS joy from alarm grid and today we're going to talk about whether or not you can use home automation on the Simon XTi or XDI 5 and the answer is that you can but it's kind of weird how it how the features work in the system today we have an x di setup and I do have an ex-gi 5 just to show you the difference it's the same system it just has a larger screen so if you are in the market buying a new Simon panel go at the XT i-5 as it's going to be easier to use and the bigger touchscreen does look a little nicer on the XT I though the the system currently isn't monitored but it does have the z-wave controller installed in the unit the caveat with the home automation features with this particular system is that the z-wave controller is actually built into the alarm comm cellular module the cellular module itself is not exactly a cheap part so if you are looking to use home automation with the system it really makes sense to get the system also monitored as you're going to be paying a premium for this piece but with this set if you do just want to use the home automation features in the system you can buy an alarm comm module install it in your panel and get the the basic home automation features from your panel again there's no way around this and they don't make a standalone z-wave controller for the system so you are gonna be spending a little more than you normally would to add this functionality into the system but with that said to show you how this works we do have it built into the panel or we do have the module installed in the system if you click on the gear right here this is going to bring us in the system settings and you're gonna notice that you'll see it says lights right there and door lock right there that's really the only things that this panel can control from the system itself if you do get monitored by alarm calm it really opens up the home automation features that you'll be able to use through the app but if you do just want to use as a local controller you can control the lights or the door lock and to actually enroll the devices into the system or I press the down arrow down programming hit enter everything is defaulted so our code is four three two one so get into the programming menu now right down here on the bottom where it says interactive services we'll click that and then on the side you'll see it says z-wave so we don't have anything in the panel right now I'm going to enroll in this door lock this quick set door lock right here after I take the cover off I'm going to click Add device and now the system is in z-wave learning mode so I pick up my z-wave device and I'm going to click the learn button and as you can see it just added it to the system so I'm going to go ahead and click close I'm going to click close again close again and close again now if we go back into the main program or the the the programming menu after clicking the gear and we press the down arrow and we click on door lock will see that this door lock actually shows up so now as you can see it's currently unlocked I'm going to click the lock button and I'm going to enter the regular security code which is the default 1 2 3 4 and as you can see we can lock and unlock the door from the panel now the only way that you can control the door lock if the system is not monitored and you don't want to get up and go to the actual panel itself you'll have to get the talking touchscreen keypad for the system on that keypad you'll have a gear in the bottom where you can go to the same menu and operate the lights or the door lock this is the only functionality that you're going to get though as far as home automation goes with this system without monitoring so again if you are going to spend the expense to get the alarm comm module with is you a controller on top of it and installing it in your system it really pays to get the system monitored by alarm comm as that's going to give you an app where you can control your stuff on your phone and it's also going to give you a wider array of home automation capabilities that's how to use home automation on your Simon XTi or xti 5 without it being monitored if you did enjoy the video feel free to subscribe if you want to be notified when we post future videos hit the notification button below and we'll send you an update when we do so you have any questions about home automation Simon panels or alarm systems in general feel free to head to our website wwlp.com a lot at alarm grid comm thanks for watching we hope you have a great day