Internet and power lines Cut.. Backup Power On

[Jyad]

Hypothetical Situation:

Homeowner arms all Arlo Cameras and system and leaves home for 3 days.

Burglar cuts off power supply and internet cable from outside

Modem, Router and Arlo base station are connected to a UPS (uninterrupted power supply)

Now that the internet is cust, the homeowner obviously does not get any notifications...

But, does the siren still work if the Arlo base is powered and the router is powered and is on INTRANET

.............related question

when is Arlo bringing in a cellular backup option??

[steve_t]

Yes, the siren will still work. Video from the cameras will be recorded to the USB drive in the Pro or Pro 2 base if you have a USB drive attached so you will still get videos to watch. I guess the siren could alert the burglar to the location of the base station and they could take the USB drive.

There are a number of modems or modem/routers that have 4G failover. This is far more practical than specifically putting a sim card in an Arlo base station

[pc2k17]

I don't really consider cameras alone to be a full security system. I use my cameras in conjuction with my simplisafe alarm system which works over cellular and has it's own battery backup that last up to 48 hours. If power and internet are out it still works. It connects to a security call center should an alarm be triggered and then they call the police. For $15 a month it's well worth it.

Like you I also have my modem, router, and the arlo base connected to a UPS (which gives me about 4 hours of power) and I have a USB drive connected to the arlo base as well.

This type of setup covers you pretty good.

[Jyad]

Hi

hank you for sharing.   In fact I am looking for another system too.  I have looked at simplisafe and others and I might go for simplisafe as an additional system.

Do you have to subscribe to a plan in order to get the SIM card/cellular option?

Are there any standalone SIM card/cellular systems out there that will alert me directly in case of a power/internet failure instead of alerting a service provider for a monthly charge? It would save me the recurring monthly charge....

If they are going to call me to verify, then call the police, I might as well get a cellular system that alerts me directly - and i could call police myself and save precious time in the back-and-forth.  It would eliminate any false alarms too.   I know it would not work if I am flying or in a meeting or travelling thru bad cell reception areas, but it would be the same thing if they called me too if  was flying/in a meeting/out in non cellular areas. 

Am i misssing something?  Does the simplisafe monthly plan have other advantages over cellular plans that directly notify the homeowner without charging a montly fee?

[pc2k17]

Do you have to subscribe to a plan in order to get the SIM card/cellular option?

-----Yes. All the base units have the cellular connection built in, but you need a plan for it to connect. The system also works without having a plan, just no monitoring via cellular. If you have the monitoring you can set the app up to alert you via text or push notifications as well as get a call from the monitoring center.

Are there any standalone SIM card/cellular systems out there that will alert me directly in case of a power/internet failure instead of alerting a service provider for a monthly charge? It would save me the recurring monthly charge.

-----Not that I know of, but I don't know of all the alarm systems out there. Simplisafe is only $15 per month for the basic monitoring plan. You probably spend more than that on lunch per week. I have the $25 plan because it gives you more options.

If they are going to call me to verify, then call the police, I might as well get a cellular system that alerts me directly - and i could call police myself and save precious time in the back-and-forth.  It would eliminate any false alarms too.   I know it would not work if I am flying or in a meeting or travelling thru bad cell reception areas, but it would be the same thing if they called me too if  was flying/in a meeting/out in non cellular areas.

Am i misssing something?  Does the simplisafe monthly plan have other advantages over cellular plans that directly notify the homeowner without charging a montly fee?

------ To eliminate false alarms, once the alarm is triggered, you get 15 seconds to disarm before they call. If you're not available and do not answer the phone the police are automatically sent. Also if there is a fire and you have the simplisafe smoke detector, they will call the fire dept automatically if you don't answer. And if you have a water leak sensor they will call and let you know water is detected and/or the app will alert you. The only way police or fire don't get called is if you tell them it's a false alarm and provide your safe password. Otherwise they get called. If you monitor yourself something as simple as a bad cell spot or a dead battery stops you from knowing there is a problem and the police or fire are never called. That's the great thing about a monitoring service, they take care of eveything if your not available. I have all my doors and windows set to instant alarm except for the entry door where the keypad is, that is a 15 second delay. If I don't disarm and the alarm goes off, 15 seconds later they call, if you answer and need the police, or don't answer, that takes another 15 seconds or so, so in under a minute the police or fire are on there way. There is also a panic button and a special code to send a silent alarm in case an intruder makes you disarm the system. You punch in the special code and the monitoring center sends police immediatly without a call. Comes with an 80db siren and I added two 105db sirens. The average burglar is just gonna run with 290db of ear splitting sirens going off. And of course you can control the whole system remotely from the app as well.

Hope that helps.

[Jyad]

Thanks again.  I am looking at several DIY systems.  THe basic  simplisafe with monitoring seems reasonable and simplest.

Did you get the latest Simplisafe 3 or is it an older model?

How about abode?  Their 1 year package seems pretty good too...Right now they are offering for $359,  12 months of 24/7 monitoring, 12 months of cellular backup,  1 gateway, 1 door sensor, 1 motion sensor, 1 key fob. It includes phone app.   For $40 additional, you get a keypad and about $25 for each additional door sensor

Thereafter, their monthly fee is $30 if paid monthly and $240 if paid as an annual lump sum...

Question - can the simplisafe panel, when disarmed, be programmed announce or chime when a door or window is opening?  I would like to have a system where I hear a simple chime or announcement if a window or door is opened even when I am at home and the system is disarmed.

I had seen a system in a friend's home that announces "back door", or "front door" or "such and such window" when they were opened.  They left it like that while at home and armed it to set a real siren off when they were away...

The system was installed by a local security company and I believe it is a 2Gig C3 panel and system

I have also heard of  honeywell etc that can be installed thru a local company.  Like Honeywell Wireless Lynx Touch L7000.  Supposedly they are better quality than out of the box units like Simplisafe??

[pc2k17]

I have the simplisafe 2 system. The 3 is much better looking.

Abode seems more expensive. You can get a bigger package witrh SS for same money, but no 12 month monitoring included. But SS add-on sensors and such look cheaper, and once you pick a system you'll want to put sensors on all doors and windows and probably a smoke detector, maybe a water leak detector, and even motion detectors too.

To answer your question........ Yes the SS system has a door chime feature to tell you when a door or window was opened while disarmed. It also has voice telling you when you set armed away or armed home mode. It also tells you by voice if a door or window is open when you arm (forgot to close a window type scenario), and it also tells you by voice when the alarm has gone off, and if there was a power outage.

A system like the honeywell may be "better" than a system like SS, but you're going to pay a heck of a lot more. Mostly for some feastures, but not for security. Putting sensors on doors and windows and motioin and such and having them get set off when opened, then setting the alarm off and having a monitoring company notify you is pretty standard stuff. I don't think one ssytem does that better than the other. Lets face it ADT is the number 1 system out there, but why pay alot more for the same security and in most cases the same features. As for quality, I haven't had any issue with my SS system and still have the same batteries in for over 4 years.

[Jyad]

Quick question - does Simplisafe give you the ability to arm/disarm with your android or Iphone on their basic plan or do you have to get the $25 plan?  The keyfob would be yet another thing to carry in your pocket....

Have you used such an ap?

I did a google search on Simplisafe android app and came across some posts from 2016 that their app was a nightmare...

[pc2k17]

You need the interactive plan, which is the $24.99 per month plan to arm/disarm the system from the app and get text alerts and/or push alerts as well as the monitoring company. I believe you can look at the timeline/status logs only with the $14.99 plan. You might want to call them to verify.

I do have the app on android. It was redesigned since 2016 and it works great. Big arm/disarm button and what mode your in on the main page (home, away, disarmed), has a timeline that shows all the activity of the system, settings page where you can set alerts and see the status of every sensor you have setup, also has a camera section if you have the SS camera. I've never had an issue with the new app.

I do see that the entire system has ben redesigned since I bought it. The simplisafe2 system. The base and sensors are smaller and look much better, the base not only has a cellular connection but also a wifi connection backup, the keypad now lights up at night (the old system you have to push a button for it to light up), they have 6 monitoring centers so if one goes down you're still protected.