I have a DSC PC3000 system in our house that was installed in 1995. 16 Zones & 3 smoke detectors wired to it along with 2 LCD-600 keypads. Still works fine & nothing has been done to it over the 23 years we've had the house (except replace smoke detectors). When the house was built & there was still a fixed line in the house, the system was remoted to an agency for monitoring, but the service had been cancelled before we bought the house & we've never felt the need to restart it. We discontinued fixed line service many years ago but, due to surrounding hills, cell reception in parts of the house isn't great, especially in the closet where the alarm planel is located. Internet service is good & there is a mesh repeater for the LAN next to the panel. We don't have a VOIP line.
On renewing the house insurance this year, a policy requirement has been added that the system be remotely monitored by a UL certified solution. So I'm now going through the process of finding out what that will entail. In this strange world we live in, the requirement is only that the monitored system be UL certified & include both security & fire. As the existing system has been acceptable as a non-monitored solution, my plan was just to remote the existing PC 3000 system & contract a basic monitoring service.
Sounds easy, but I've gotten far enough down the road to learn from the services I've contacted that the PC3000 is only capable of connecting to a fixed line for remote monitoring, so must be replaced. However, this isn't the end of the world as, given the age of the panel & keypad(s), I think a retrofit makes sense in any case. I'm ex Telco, so pretty comfortable with what needs to be done, so plan to do it myself and then contract a basic monitoring capability.
Which brings me to my questions.
I've been doing a lot of reading & pretty much decided that the simplest path is to retrofit with another DSC unit, likely from the NEO line, as that appears to be as close to a plug & play option as I can get, as it will reuse the existing transformer, b/u battery, siren and wired contacts & seems to offer a reasonable level of future proofing. As I have 16 current zones, that looks like it means I need something like an HS2032 board with an HSM2108 8 zone expansion card & at least 1 new wired keypad. I think the HS2LCD looks like it will work. Does this look like it makes sense as a retrofit plan or is there another option that might be better?
Where I'm really struggling is how best to have the system monitored & what communicator I should look at. My preference would be to have the monitoring be done via Internet rather than using a cell connection, but I can't tell from what I'm reading if that is possible, or if there is some form of UL certification for monitoring technology that determines the solution that will meet the Insurance Policy requirement & which then drives the communicator I need to use?
For programming, I gather from what I've read that I can program a Neo system from the keypad, so don't need to worry about programming s/w (I'm all Apple, so anything that won't run on MacOS or IOS is an issue) - is this correct, or do I need to ensure I get a keypad that can do the programming?
Attached is a shot of the existing panel. There is a lot of wiring coming into the box & I'm hoping that I can mount the new control board(s) into the same panel as I don't think I will be able to move the cabling to a new panel without risking disruption to the connections, which would make the job a lot less fun ......
Appreciate any comments / suggestions, especially as regards the best communicator/approach for remote monitoring.
On renewing the house insurance this year, a policy requirement has been added that the system be remotely monitored by a UL certified solution. So I'm now going through the process of finding out what that will entail. In this strange world we live in, the requirement is only that the monitored system be UL certified & include both security & fire. As the existing system has been acceptable as a non-monitored solution, my plan was just to remote the existing PC 3000 system & contract a basic monitoring service.
Sounds easy, but I've gotten far enough down the road to learn from the services I've contacted that the PC3000 is only capable of connecting to a fixed line for remote monitoring, so must be replaced. However, this isn't the end of the world as, given the age of the panel & keypad(s), I think a retrofit makes sense in any case. I'm ex Telco, so pretty comfortable with what needs to be done, so plan to do it myself and then contract a basic monitoring capability.
Which brings me to my questions.
I've been doing a lot of reading & pretty much decided that the simplest path is to retrofit with another DSC unit, likely from the NEO line, as that appears to be as close to a plug & play option as I can get, as it will reuse the existing transformer, b/u battery, siren and wired contacts & seems to offer a reasonable level of future proofing. As I have 16 current zones, that looks like it means I need something like an HS2032 board with an HSM2108 8 zone expansion card & at least 1 new wired keypad. I think the HS2LCD looks like it will work. Does this look like it makes sense as a retrofit plan or is there another option that might be better?
Where I'm really struggling is how best to have the system monitored & what communicator I should look at. My preference would be to have the monitoring be done via Internet rather than using a cell connection, but I can't tell from what I'm reading if that is possible, or if there is some form of UL certification for monitoring technology that determines the solution that will meet the Insurance Policy requirement & which then drives the communicator I need to use?
For programming, I gather from what I've read that I can program a Neo system from the keypad, so don't need to worry about programming s/w (I'm all Apple, so anything that won't run on MacOS or IOS is an issue) - is this correct, or do I need to ensure I get a keypad that can do the programming?
Attached is a shot of the existing panel. There is a lot of wiring coming into the box & I'm hoping that I can mount the new control board(s) into the same panel as I don't think I will be able to move the cabling to a new panel without risking disruption to the connections, which would make the job a lot less fun ......
Appreciate any comments / suggestions, especially as regards the best communicator/approach for remote monitoring.