A new envisalink 4 alternative for DSC and Honeywell Vista

I was on a smarthome blog and ran into a new communicator called Safe by HUB6. Its a Canadian company that made a virtual keypad like the ev4 that can remotely control a dsc or honeywell vista via phone with no monthly payment. you could also upgrade with monthly payment that would monitoring and cellular backup . Another benifit is that this has wifi and alexa skills support as well. This company is still new so there are risks but this is a great alternative if anyone is looking to control their dsc or honeywell system with alexa.

 

Great idea! I can use Alexa to disarm, and dispense with that annoying need to enter user code when I walk in the door with two arms full of groceries.

And so can my friends and neighbors when they drop by when I'm not home; or any passing stranger who knows how to use Alexa.

Okay, I'm being facetious; but seriously, I'm curious. How did HUB6 handle safeguarding your system from any random stranger being able to use Alexa to disarm your system? I know they're not dumb enough to have the User broadcast the code out loud, so how _did_ they do it?

 

I was curious about that too and looked into it and you can only arm the system with Alexa. But the device also supports geofencing gps asl a added bonus. When you leave the house with your phone it will auto arm if all doors and windows closed and when you arrive home it will detect your gps and disarm the system. A downside is that you can’t bypass zones on their app. There’s also ifft support where if you disarm the system something like lights would come on

 

They have an annoying shill who spams some of the subreddits where alarm systems are discussed. The shill doesn't even know which systems their device supports - he spams threads for wireless AIO systems that don't support their device.

I believe the device costs about 3X what the Envisalink EVL-4 costs.

 

I recently saw that they were spamming people threads saying it would work with the DSC neo and lynx touch when it absolutely will not work with that. I have a feeling it’s employees from the company trying to promote their 300 dollar virtual keypad which is a huge red flag so I honestly take back what I said and would just go with the ev4. Usually new company’s have risks of going under and servers gets shut down rendering a paper weight.

 

Andoy said, "...and you can only arm the system with Alexa. "


Great, yet another way for people to _inadvertently_ arm the system when no one's around who knows the code to disarm. And it's a lot easier to do it accidentally with Alexa---I've lost count of the times gadget-loving friends of mine have accidentally turned lights on or off via Alexa.

And yet another way to compromise your system security. I don't think I even need to explain that, do I?

I personally don't even enable the Quick-Arm feature unless the customer insists on it, and I get him/her to sign off that s/he specifically wanted it. A certain percentage of them WILL have an "Armed-can't-Disarm and the neighbors are upset" event in their future, and I want their signature on something that absolves me of oversight.

 

Yeaa even i don't program the 4 buttons off to the side of my 6160 keypad. we usually have children over that likes to press random buttons on alarm keypads and play with light switches and i would not want them arming the system or calling the police or fire fighters to my house. That actually happened before when one of them pressed the medical button on the 6160 keypad and the ambulance came to the house. after that i erased all the buttons and left them as non functioning.

 

Exactly! Children do what children are designed to do: Explore everything they can get their hands on, and if possible, disassemble it. At least, by the time they've reached their teens, they've stopped disassembling _everything_ (usually), but even teens are prone to try out random presses on keypads.

I don't enable the Function buttons either except by special request and after explaining the hazards to the User.

I sell keyfobs as portable panic buttons (which was their original purpose), but I try to discourage their use for arming/disarming. A lot of people insist on it though: Convenience before security. It seems to be SOOooo hard to make those 5 key presses to disarm the system.

Okay, that's my pet rant for the day.

PS: I actually have one friend who's justified in using a keyfob: Condominium and can't get a wire to entry door, so keypad has to be in hallway. She has cerebral palsy and walks on crutches.

 

Wouldn't this be the same as adding an GSM/LTE communicator?

 

yep pretty much they claim to have a rate of 99 cent a month which i find very hard to believe and their central station most likely doesn't have UL listed certification either. i honestly would just go with honeywell commutator and total connect service as they are field proven technology. their hub6 also doesn't list how much power it consumes and after sending a direct message to them on twitter and saying they have no idea what im talking about. its probably best to avoid them.

 

Definitely Total Connect as it has been a solid product thus far. Although, I'll learn from anyone willing to teach me something.

 

Absolutely Total connect and Ev4 are field proven technology and has been in the industry for a very long time with quality service and the ev4 tech support knows their stuff and lists how much power their device draws from the panel. meanwhile hub6 is spamming reddit telling people their system works with everything. next time ill shall do more research before i blabber on here.