Lyric SIXGB: First Impressions

Hi DIYers. Sterling with Alarm Grid here and today we're going to show you our first impressions of the new Lyric SIXGB. All right. So the new Lyric security system which is booting up behind me is an all-in-one wireless security system. It's the revolutionary new system from Honeywell. Honeywell's had wireless sensor capability for a very long time. It started by adding a wireless receiver to a Vista series control panel and then they came out with the Lynx, which was the first all-in-one wireless system. Then that evolved to the L3000 or the Lynx Plus and then finally the Lynx touch was the first time they brought a touchscreen keypad into the all-in-one wireless family.

So the Lyric is the new revolution or the new evolution of the all-in-one wireless system. And basically, this system, while it has a lot of cool new features that are building on the Lynx touch technology, the biggest difference is that it supports a whole new range of sensors called SIX series sensors, S-I-X. And unlike the 345 MHz 5800 series sensors, the SIX sensors work on a low band Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz range and basically, it's a totally different technology between the sensors and the system. The sensors are fully encrypted to the system, meaning they can only talk to this system and they can't be jammed or spoofed like 5800 series sensors could potentially happen, although we've never really heard of that actually happening, but the technology is out there. If someone had the right equipment, they could potentially defeat a Honeywell wireless system that's not encrypted like the Lyric is.

The range on the SIX series sensors is nearly double. We're expecting 3 to 400 feet as opposed to 200 feet. And the devices are fully supervised for batteries, supervision with actual battery indications in the zone programming. So you can see the level of the battery instead of just knowing that it went low. You can even see the status of the supervision with so many bars to show you that yes, it has great signal back to the system. So overall, the SIX sensors are much more advanced than the old 5800 series sensors. In fact, on the backside of this SIXGB, instead of a seven digit serial number, you actually see a 16 digit MAC address. And that's because this device is actually like a little computer, it can be firmware updated. So if the Lyric system comes out with a new feature that happens to affect the way the SIXGB would work, instead of just firmware updating the panel and having to buy a new sensor to get the functionality, you firmware update the panel, firmware update the sensor and now that new feature comes to exist in your house with the existing hardware that you have.

So that's the whole idea, is that these devices will be firmware updated or updatable. So we're very excited about that, we think that's a big improvement. Other than that, the overall design, when you compare it to the existing 5853 wireless glass break, I wouldn't say one's better or worse. Obviously, a different style, one's rectangle, one's round. But it has a very nice small footprint, certainly not too deep off the wall. It's pretty much the same exact depth as the deepest part of the 5853. It's got the traditional Lyric Swiss cheese style case design just like the Lyric panel does. So you that nice look that ties everything together to give it that family Lyric appeal between the sensors and the panel. And it's got a sticker on there talking about that it's not been evaluated for FCC yet or authorized for use by the FCC yet, I should say. We are still in beta. That SIXGB part number, even that we're not 100% sure isn't going to change but it seems like that's what they're going to use.

On the backside you've got your back plate. If you put your fingers on these two track marks here, you can twist it counterclockwise and the back plate falls away from the sensor. The sensor circuitry is all encased within this plastic which I'm sure with these tabs, you could get deeper level into there. But not being a circuit board expert, I'm not going to really know what to look for on there, so I'm going to focus on the stuff I do know about and that's the tamper switch here. So this case is tamper protected. If someone were to remove the head from the base, you'd get a tamper alarm. Also, on the base or the back plate, there's this little hole here which is designed to be screwed into a stud. So if you got to the ceiling or to the wall on a stud, if the entire unit got ripped from the wall, this little piece of plastic, it's a breakaway tab. This would stay behind attached to the stud and the whole rest of the unit would break away. And because this portion here happens to be where it touches the tamper switch, you would actually get a tamper alarm in that case. So that's kind of cool too.

The ability to tamper in a couple or protect the tamper in a couple different ways. It uses a CR123A Lithium Panasonic battery which it comes with and you'll notice there's a pull-to-connect tab. So that's the tab that's preventing the battery from making good contact to fully power the unit. When we're doing our SIX series devices, we really do not want to power them until we're absolutely ready to program that particular sensor. So this glass break detector, just like all glass break detectors, has a audio microphone right in the center there, same like the 5853. It should be using the same kind of technology as the 5853 in terms of detecting the frequency of broken glass and it's going to have the same 25 foot maximum range. So again, the sensor can be mounted to the ceiling or to the wall and as long as you have glass within range of the detector, if that glass is shattered, then the glass break goes off. So in a room like this with a big sliding glass door, if someone opened the door, then the contact on the door would protect them. But if someone smashes this glass and climbs through, without opening the door, without a glass break or motion in the room, you're not going to know about that.

So glass break is a great device to add to any security system. Even if yours doesn't have it, perhaps you didn't even know these kinds of sensors exist and you want to really evaluate your home and where you have glass and points of entry, where someone could smash the glass and get through without opening a door or a window, and the glass break adds an extra layer of that perimeter protection. So we urge everyone to consider adding glass breaks to their system because they are truly unique devices that offer a great level of security. And we're impressed overall by the SIXGB. We think that Honeywell did a good job with this unit and just like the 5853 was the flagship wireless glass break for many years, we expect this SIXGB to be the future of wireless glass break technologies.

So we hope you've enjoyed this first impressions introduction video to the Lyric SIXGB. If you have any questions about your Lyric glass break detector or your Lyric security system, please email support@alarmgrid.com. And make sure to subscribe to our channel. As we continue to evaluate this brand-new system, we'll be releasing a lot more videos about the new sensors and the new features and capabilities of this system.