Anyone have any experience with any of the options out there now? Iris, Piper, Scout, Viper, SimpliSafe?

I bought a cheap chinese DIY kit of ebay, but I never installed it, so I'm not going to be any help.

Installed my Simplisafe equipment in a few minutes last week. I just set up the monitoring this week. The whole process was pretty quick and easy. So far, so good.

quote:

---

Installed my Simplisafe equipment in a few minutes...

---

Pretty sure that is the route I'll go and then install a seperate, secondary system with video capabilities ala Piper etc.

Did you get any secondary siren units to compliment the base station? Also, did you place the base station in a difficult to find location? Any tips or tricks you can pass along from setting your system up?

Just thinking about design and placement of all the pieces to layer in some additional levels is security.

Thanks!

I went with one of the refurbished units, and from what I can tell, all components are about as good as like-new.

The part that took the longest about installation was taking the individual pieces out of the boxes and then deciding exactly where I wanted to place them. You have the option to screw every component into the wall, but I used the 3M tape that was already stuck to the back of each component. There is a manual that tells you an order of operations of sort as far as getting everything placed.

The house is only about 1500 sq. ft., so there wasn't a whole lot for me to think about. I only have 1 siren, and placed it higher upon the wall in the living room. I didn't give much consideration to where I placed the base station yet, because I'm not moving into the house fully until next weekend. As it stands right now, it's just plugged into a wall socket and sitting in the middle of the bare living room floor.

Once I chose a monitoring plan, they said that I needed to send a test signal from my base station. For whatever reason, simply putting it in test mode wasn't sending the signal, so I had to unplug the base station, remove 1 battery from it, and then reboot it, and then i was up and running. Someone called me about 15 minutes after that to confirm that I sent my first test signal.

Key fob controller is not as small as previous alarm systems I've had.

That's about all I can report thus far. I like the fact that I own the equipment, and I'm not locked into a term contract, so the monitoring plan is only $25 a month for the best plan.

I also use Simplisafe. I live in a one bedroom though so placement wasn't too difficult. I have 2 sensors, the door sensor and a motion sensor with the base station on the other side of the apartment. On vacation my motion sensor had a false trip and they tried calling me at 4 AM while I was sleeping. I have my parents as a secondary contact so they called them next and they were able to get a hold of me. They had dispatched a police unit out there and confirmed there was not a break-in. Coincidentally the motion sensor had a false trip again while on a different vacation, but I answered and they confirmed the front door sensor hadn't been tripped so I told them not to send a unit. I requested a new sensor and they sent one free of charge and I haven't had any issues. I'll report back during my next vacation if that's truly the case.

I use simplisafe too. No contract required, plus it is cheap per month after you get over the initial up front cost. I like the text messages/phone integration as well. The equipment "looks" a little obsolete, but I'm not paying for sleek equipment. I'm paying for reliable equipment.

Agree danger. Ordered a SS system and plan to compliment it with a Piper for layered security.

Just checked out Piper. I may have to pick up one of those.

Does it allow you to record video locally and/or to the cloud?

Ss here too.bought refurb to save more.

No complaints.

I bought the "loud siren" in hopes of putting it in the attic so neighbors could hear if alarm went off....no way. Way too quiet. I have it in the main area of my house so if someone comes in at least it will annoy their ears while they're nefarious.

I think so, but still working through all the research. There is also a unit called Canary that I want to learn more about.

I actually picked up 3 extra sirens. My plan is to place one inside, one outside in the back and one outside in the front.

anyone use frontpoint?

I have an old Android phone I'm going to re-purpose as a video surveillance/motion detection system. You can have it e-mail you with pics when the motion detection is triggered, and/or stream live video with one. It takes two apps. One free, one $4.99.

http://www.howtogeek.com/139373/how-to-turn-an-old-android-phone-into-a-networked-security-camera/

Picked up a Guardzilla standalone video security system at BestBuy and am pretty impressed with it. Cheap ($100) and extremely easy... and it has everything I was looking for. Going to go pick up one or two more and daisy chain them together.

A VERY close runner up was the homeboy.. went with the Guardzilla due to the two way communication feature.

Anyway, just thought I'd share in case anyone was interested.

aggiedanger said:

---

I use simplisafe too. No contract required, plus it is cheap per month after you get over the initial up front cost. I like the text messages/phone integration as well. The equipment "looks" a little obsolete, but I'm not paying for sleek equipment. I'm paying for reliable equipment.

---

I'm starting to look at new home security. I like a lot of the stuff simplisafe does with the ap but he equipment certainly looks dated doesn't it?

I prefer security systems on a cellular network, so many of the ones mentioned wouldn't work for me.

Vernada said:

---

aggiedanger said:

---

I use simplisafe too. No contract required, plus it is cheap per month after you get over the initial up front cost. I like the text messages/phone integration as well. The equipment "looks" a little obsolete, but I'm not paying for sleek equipment. I'm paying for reliable equipment.

---

I'm starting to look at new home security. I like a lot of the stuff simplisafe does with the ap but he equipment certainly looks dated doesn't it?

---

I still have no complaints. The monitoring service has been quick to respond. Price is still the same as it was 2 years ago, but I believe there is a higher subscription level they now offer with a camera. I could see how the equipment styling could stick out. They should probably consider updating the look.