Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - Also having Failure to Communicate

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xyzzy17
01-05-04, 08:48 AM
I have a DSC 832 panel and have attached my phone line to it, but do not yet want to have it monitored.

Being frugal, I want the system to call my cell phone if there is an alarm. Since I am using a second line in my house with the alarm (usually used for fax), I know that if I get a call from this number that it is the alarm.

I have set up all the numbers in the programming worksheet to only communicate for alarms and it began to call my cell phone when I get an alarm during testing. I have been using the communicator in the contactID mode.

However, now I have the FTC (*2 #4) trouble and I can't figure out how to clear it. Can someone help me? Also, what should I set for [160], the maximum dialing attempts? should this be set to 001?

Since I just want the panel to dial my cell (and I realize my cell can't handle any of the info the panel count report (zone where alarm occured, etc) -- should I be using the pager or contactID mode or ????

Any other ideas? I am sure more than I have thought about using our panel to dial up a cell.

Happy new year!


SafeWatch
01-05-04, 08:59 AM
Here's some info someone posted on another board I frequent:

Using a cell phone instead of a pager can work. In my limited experience it's not quite as good as a pager, though.

In any case, you need to program your dialing string so that there are enough pauses so that the call forwards to your voice mail, then the appropriate key to "leave a callback number", then let your panel leave the pager code in DTMF format which works just fine like on a pager. The best way to figure out this dial string is to call the phone from a landline phone and keep track of the timing in seconds for the call to forward to voice mail and the keys you must hit.

Unfortunately, the amount of time to forward to voice mail varies, so the dial string you come up with may not always work. For example, if you are roaming or temporarily out of range, it may forward much quicker or take much longer to forward.

Another angle is that you must not pick up the call when it rings your phone, and let it forward to voice mail. This is a problem if you normally receive calls from your home to your cell phone.

Either with a pager or a cell phone setup, the panel just dials once, blindly. There's no handshake to tell the panel that the message was received by the pager or cell phone.

That may work, however, your best bet is to add a Voice Dialer to the system instead - something like the <a href="http://safewatchservice.com/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/113/products_id/501">USP AD-2001</a>.

Good luck!