Home Security: important parts of life

AAS 500 Wireless Home Security Alarm System Kit DIY

I purchased the Wireless Home Security system from Amazon.com and am quite pleased with the way the system installed and performed. The wireless feature really makes the installation painless. I would recommend reading the reviews for this product before starting the installation however. The comments concerning the difficulties with the instructions were very helpful. I had few difficulties except for two minor things. First, I had to activate the motion sensor several times before it was working. Second, I found that making a sketch of the system with sensor locations helped keep the numbers of the sensors straight. I ended up with two of the window sensors with the same number. This did not seem to effect the operation of the system however.
Rating: 4 / 5

I’ll start with saying that the limitations of the design of the system didn’t allow me to use the alarm system to its fullest ability. Due to the phone system we have and the way the alarm system requires to be tied into the phone system, we could not use the dialer.

That being said…

The setup of the alarm was pretty straight forward. It took me a few tries to get through the initial setup, but it worked. I would recommend setting everything up on a table and use a sheet of paper with the numbers and what they are supposed to be used for. For example, the door sensors are numbered 10-? (depending on the system), the motion was 20-? and such. Number your front door as #11, back door #12, windows…. etc. This will allow you to go through and make logical sense of what unit is “activated”. My only issue IS the numbering system and its limitations. For example, I would have wanted to number my garage door #6, the garage window #7 the motion sensor #8. But because the instructions said they had to go in their pre-designated group of numbers, I couldn’t group my numbers to a location of the house/garage. If I got an activation of #24 I would have to see on a quick reference sheet what was causing the activation.. Beyond this, that was my only issue with the numbering of the sensors.

Programming: I somehow activated two door sensors the same number but was unable to un-program the one sensor. It appears as if I would have to delete ALL the programming I had setup. This seems to be a big flaw in the system. If I deleted or needed to delete one, you actually have to “wipe” the memory and re-program the entire system. Huge flaw I feel.

Use: The system is “wireless”, but uses a lot of wires (power, alarm horns, phone, etc). It could be worse, but just take into consideration that your control box will have a power wire into it (battery backup) and a wire for the alarm horn exiting it at a minimum. When we have had accidental activations you can very easily “silence” the alarm by unplugging the horn from it. Our system has the black-remote direct plug in (110vlt) horn. The horn has a “broken” siren. It works, cuts off in the middle, works again, cuts off… I don’t know if ours is broken or what, but if it’s going off, we get the idea. The way it works is, it is remote, and must work on a signal sent off by the control head. We mounted ours in a remote place of the house, so even if the main siren is deactivated, the remote one is still doing its (quieter and less effective) notification.

Complaints:

#1: I have with the system vs. my ADT system is the “Door Chime”. Our sensors with ADT, when opened (doors, windows, etc) could “chime” the control box. This unit does not do that. It was nice to know when the kids were opening and closing doors to go in and out of the house.

#2: Activation: There is an “entrance & exit” delay. The issue is, if you set up a “delay” it ALWAYS delays. For instance, the two settings it has “Home/Away”. I would want a delay for entering/exiting when set to “away” that way when we exit and enter the house when away, the alarm gives us a moment to disable the alarm, but if HOME, and a door is opened, I want that thing to sound off and let us know a door was just opened! This is not an option with this system. I think that is one of the largest flaws.

Wrap up:

As stated, I have not used the alarm dial out feature. I’m sure it is a nice feature, but due to our house wiring, we cannot run wires to the control head to allow us to use that feature. An issue I see in the future is the motion sensor has a very flimsy mount, I can see the “orbit ball” which allows for adjustment as being the obvious failure point. The only other issue with motion is the LED inside the sensor is BRIGHT. To the point it actually freaks out my 18M/O son!!

Suggestions:

Get more than what you need. The system uses odd batteries. I had assumed it would be a AA or AAA battery, but they are small remote type batteries. Since we didn’t use all our door sensors, I removed the extra batteries and will use those to offset the cost when new batteries are needed. By buying more sensors, this would allow you to replace ones in the event they go bad. The motion sensor uses 9vlt battery (FYI).

Misc:

The company says they will give two wireless door alarms if feedback is left. Guess we will see!

Thanks for reading, I hope this helps somebody with their purchase! If you have questions or comments, please post them and i’ll attempt to update/reply!

Corey

Rating: 4 / 5