Change Eircom Phonewatch Alarm to Dial my mobile

Chonus

Hi,

I have a wired Eircom Phonewatch alarm fitted in 2003. The panel is made by Securewatch.

I'm tired of paying the annual monitoring fee since all that really happens is that the alarm goes off, it calls Eircom and they call me. I get nothing for paying them as middlemen and I know it is possible to change the alarm to directly call my own nominated phone numbers.

I have obtained the Engineer code for my alarm but before I start opening the panel, I want to figure out how difficult it is going to be.

I gather I will need to get a new dialler board - can anyone recommend where I can get one of these?

Is it simply a matter of plugging out the old dialler, plugging in the new one and doing some programming from the numeric keypad?

If anything goes wrong (e.g. the new dialler board is incompatible or faulty) will it be a simple matter to restore the original dialler while I sort it out?

Are there GSM dialler options or diallers that will work over Digiweb or other non standard phone providers?

If I open the alarm panel to have a look, will the tamper alarm go off letting Eircom know that I've been poking around?

I'm located in Galway

Thanks for the help and any recommendations.

KoolKid

OK lots of questions there. first off welcome to boards.
Secondly,yes it can be set up to text with a HKC dialler.
The diallers are plug on as you will see once you open the panel.
Its fairly straightforward & all programming is done via the keypad.
That you have the engineer code helps .
There are a number of GSM options available prices of these would range from €200-€500.
Opening the panel will not send a tamper or activate the alarm if you enter engineer mode first.

Hop this helps.

northdublin

just to add to the above, the programming of the old dialer will have to be removed inc the dial up numbers and the existing digi will probably be connected to the main board using a ribbon, the newer text dialer connects directly to the board. phonewatch also alter the channels that fire and p/a use so this will also have to be changed.
also at the moment the alarm panel will have priority over your house phones, while you disconnect the dialler you will have no phones till the new one is installed or the old one put back. they can be looped temporarilly using connector blocks if the digi is out for a long time
as for getting the hkc dialer, there are a good few electric wholesalers in and around ballybane, not sure how close this is to you but one of them should have one.

Chonus

Thanks guys for the replies.

The original installer messed up the phone pre-empt when setting it up so that won't be a problem.

Looks like I'll have to brush off my soldering skills also if I have to change the ribbon

There is no info appearing in the programming menu at present relating to dialler numbers. I expect that will appear once I install a new dialler.

All in all seems like it is well worth doing to save the money.
Thanks again.

fred funk }{

An easy option for you would be to buy a stand alone speech dialer that rings you when the alarm activates. All it needs is 12VDC from the alarm panel, a single cable from the bell input (negative) and a phone line. This way you wouldn't need to do anything with the alarm programming and all the programming of the Voice dialer is done through its own easy to follow menu.

Dummy

Might be worth checking with your insurance that this does not affect the pricing of your policy. We got a reduction in insurance because we were going through a monitoring station. If this changes, we are obliged to notify the insurance company which I guess would mean that we have to pay more.

Just in case....

Chonus

Yes - it means an increase in my house insurance of 10-20 Euro per year. Still far cheaper than the ~360/year I pay for monitoring.

Speech dialer seems an effective alternative also. I'll check ebay to see which is more cost effective

KoolKid

Be very careful with saying you have an alarm on your house insurance at all.
Insurance policys may require a system is to EN50131.
All professionally installed systems now conform to that standard, but to maintain that standard requires annual servicing. Like everyone else in the present climate insurance company's are trying to cut their costs.

marcusdav

I have much the same situation as chonus except i dont have the engineer code and i dont want to do the job myself. Any ideas who I can contact to do it for me and how much its likely to cost?

kub

Hi Marcusdav, you might ask that question here, there are lots of alarm installers to be found http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1366

KoolKid

marcusdav wrote: »

I have much the same situation as chonus except i dont have the engineer code and i dont want to do the job myself. Any ideas who I can contact to do it for me and how much its likely to cost?

Very straight forward for most installers. Where are you located?
Take a look at the sticky re suppliers and installers in that forum.