Hi everyone,
I have been wanting to get a monitored alarm system for a while now. I came across the 2Gig system, which I think would be great, as it seems to give me both the monitored alarm plus the simple Z-Wave control I’d like to get into.
I just came across this site and I’m very intrigued and the Veralite seems like a gadget right up my alley. That being said, I’m not sure of the pros and cons of choosing the 2gig system for both the alarm and automation, versus a solution that would include the Veralite and a alarm panel.
On one hand, it ticks me off a bit getting nickle and dimed with alarm.com. You have to pay extra for thermostat, zwave, cameras, etc. I’m ok, of course, with paying for the alarm monitoring. I just don’t know if getting into the Veralite and DSC (I’ve read this alarm interfaces good with these products) is introducing too much unnecessary complexity.
If I’m going to spend the money, I want to do it right. If the separate soltuion is better, I’m good with that. But similarly, if 1 box will simplify things greatly, I’m good with that too. I don’t midn tinkering a bit, but I don’t want to end up with 2 products that are more of a pain to deal with working together.
Appreciate any comments/suggestions, etc you may have.
Thanks!!!
Welcome, I highly recommend that you have a look over the forum as many questions you may have mighty already be answered. The 2gig zwave solution it very limited and will not do a whole lot except for basic control. If you do not mind spending a little extra, the separate solution is the way to go.
Thanks for the reply. I suppose I was looking for a high lever overview of mating the Verde with an alarm panel. I have looked around this forum and searched on the internet, and definitely see many more bad responses than success stories. But I’m not sure if this is a factor of the failed attempts are out looking for a solution and the working examples are at home enjoying the system.
Separate solutions will be far better in terms of customization.
A “1 box” solution will get you started right away, but if you want to make mods or so something extra, you will quickly (very quickly) run into limitations that simply cannot be overcome.
They have been a number of integration issues in the past but they were quickly resolved. Some of them were not integration of the two system but 3rd party devices which were the root cause. The z-wave sensor do not compare to security sensors and even though the upfront cost maybe more the re-use as part of the integration offers cost savings as whole of life.
The two integrate very well and look at recent threads in the DSC will identify this. If you open a thread that is old go to theoretical recent post and work backwards. Note: look the EVL 3 as the integration module. Example of a recent thread can be found here.
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,13773.0.html
Great thread link…thanks! Give me something to read tonite. I’m excited about this, as the 2Gig system seemed nice, but I did wonder if it was as full featured as I’d really want. I think the Vera and a DSC panel will be a good combo.
Talk to you guys in the security forum! 
Appreciate it…