Smart Intruder Alarms

Interesting thread, has anyone experience with https://ajax.systems/ seems like a happy medium!
Plenty of sensor types including shock/inertia. Thinking of going with it for the new house.

garion wrote: »

I'm picking up my Ajax kit tomorrow on a visit to Spain. Much cheaper there than via UK.

Hope to install at the weekend. Will post back once I have it up & running.

Collected! I've opened a few of the boxes and the quality seems very good.

Let's hope the setup is straight forward!

Hi folks,
So I installed my AJAX alarm at the weekend. Overall, I'm very impressed. Here's a few thoughts:

- Quality: The product feel like premium products. I bought the Hub 2, indoor siren, multiple DoorProtectPlus senors, multiple DoorProtect senors, a CombiProtect motion sensor, a MotionProtect motion sensor, 2 key-fobs, a Panic button and a keypad. Each one is individually boxed with everything you need to install it (a variety of screws, sticky pads etc.).

- Registering: Firstly you download the AJAX app and register a free account. First device you register is the Hub by popping off the back cover and scanning a QR code. Note, each product has a power button under the back cover - don't forget to power it on! I was sure I'd a dodgy unit initially until I noticed the button!
Registering each device is very easy. You setup a room first and add the device to the room. Then once registered you can click into the settings to configure which sensors to enable/disable, what the sensitivity is, whether it's included in Night Arm and what to do if the sensor is triggered (i.e. sound the siren).

- Installation: The first DoorProtectPlus sensor took me about 30 mins to install as I wanted to be sure I did it right. After that, it's a 5-8 minute job. Each sensor has a bracket that slides off. You screw that to the wall/window/door and then slide the sensor securely onto it. I can see this being great when you're repainting a room - just pop the sensor off, paint, then slide them back on without fear of painting the sensor itself.
Oh, and there's a sensor on the bracket too so when you pop it off you get a push notification. So no chance someone can steal the sensors without you at least being notified about it.

- Sensors Effectiveness: The main sensors I have are the DoorProtectPlus which have shock, tilt & contact sensors built in. I've tested all 3 and they work well - tilt is very cool. I have it installed on a kitchen window that hinges on the top of the window. As I open the window, the sensor realizes it's tilting and activates the alarm. You can also configure the tilt degree from 5 degrees up to 25 degrees so it will allow opening the window a little before triggering if that's what you want.
Shock sensor definitely works - but it does require a good bang on the window or door to activate, even if the sensitivity is set to "High".

The CombiSensor seems good too - it has motion and break-glass sensors. Haven't tested the break-glass but motion has a good range, and also doesn't seem to pick up small pets or our robot hoover.

- Fobs: They work as expected. Arm, disarm, night arm & panic buttons. Nice design that fit well on key ring.

- Keypad: Haven't installed it yet, but it's a nice & clean looking. One nifty feature is the ability to configure an alarm code and also a duress code. So if someone grabs you as you're walking into your house and gets you to enter the alarm code, you can instead enter the duress code and it will disable the alarm while also raising a "panic" alert to any other users registered on your system (or your monitoring company I presume).

- App & Notification: The app is really nice and easy to use. I'm very impressed with the level of customization available. I'll post some pictures of the configuration screens in a little while but basically you have full control over each of your sensors. Also within the hub settings you can controls the users of your system, geofencing (haven't tested it yet), the GSM sim (haven't tested it yet) and lots of other things. Everything works as expected and it's very easy to use.
Again, within the app you can configure notifications at the user level. You have the option of SMS, Push and Call for Malfunctions, Alerts, Events and Arming/Disarming and you are free to adjust to that users preferences.
It's also possible to schedule your alarm to arm/disarm automatically during certain days/times.

So as you can tell I'm very impressed with it overall. I still need to play around with it some more but so far I'm very glad I invested in it - it has everything I was looking for in a smart alarm and I'd have no hesitation in recommending it. So much so that I realized I didn't have enough sensors in my initial order and already ordered some more from https://best-alarm-system.eu/ (delivery to Ireland is E25 or free over E1000).
It's not a cheap system, but it's clear that it is a premium product so I feel you are getting value for money.

Also, as an aside, during my research I got talking to the guys in Home Secure. They were very helpful and even though I was clear I wasn't going to use their service as I didn't want monitoring, they put my mind at ease about the quality of the product and their confidence in it. If monitoring is something you want I'd have no hesitation in using them - before anyone asks I have no affiliation with them at all, was just impressed they were prepared to chat it through with me even though they knew I wouldn't be a customer of theirs.

Finally, I'd recommend watching the Ajax videos from Pipl Security if you want to learn more. I found them very helpful, and I actually got chatting to Daniel (the blond dude in the videos) and he was very helpful aswell - he even put me in touch with a rep from Ajax directly to answer my questions.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbwFM-MBCq1v_8uL6XgVMJg

Let me know if you've any more questions - happy to answer anything or provide more detail. Will post some screenshots from the app later on hopefully.

Krombopulos Michael wrote: »

Great initial review. You mention the GSM as not being tested to date. What is the sim used for and do you have to supply it yourself or provided by the supplier? Is there a monthly subscription cost with your setup?

It's a backup in case the internet goes down. There's a 16 hour battery in the Hub itself but without the sim card there's no way to send notifications if the internet is down.

It's something you have to supply yourself, and there's no monthly subscription charge. I just haven't gotten around to popping my own sim card in it to test it. Also trying to figure out if I want the expense of paying for a mobile data subscription as a backup option for the rare time the internet goes down. Cheapest is GoMo but that's E13 a month for something that'll rarely be used. Would love to clone my own sim to use my existing package but I believe that's not possible.

If anyone has any suggestions though on a cheap way to enable the GSM backup let me know!

whosedaddy? wrote: »

thanks a lot garion. great first impressions...

I can't make up my mind going with traditional or Ajax.
How would you use the DoorProtectPlus sensors with with they typical 3-pane windows with two openings..
Wouldn't want to have to put 2 sensors at each window.
How do they compare in sizewise wired inertia sensor with wired in 2nd reed contact for the 2nd ope.

You mean a small window on top (hinges on top) and a bigger window below (hinges at side)? I guess you would need 2 DoorProtectPlus sensors.
For the top window place it vertically and just enable the shock & tilt sensors. No need for the contact magnet as the tilt sensor will tell you when the window is opened with the handle.
For the bottom window place it vertically or horizontally with the shock sensor and the contact magnet.

Or alternatively, if you're not concerned about the opening of the window itself (and more about someone putting a brick through it) just put a single GlassProtect sensor on the frame.

Size-wise... they're a third of the size of my old shock sensors - in fairness they were huge. Will post a picture later, they're about size of an adult male index finger if that's any help!

Here's a few pics of the DoorProtectPlus with the contact magnet.

Also some screenshots of the app settings for the Hub.

whosedaddy? wrote: »

thanks .
those windows yes. my old alarm sensors where on the frame between othe openings with one magnet on the bottom window and a 2nd reed with magnet covering top.. just one bulky sensor and a small reed/magnet.

Sorry I get you now. Each DoorProtect and DoorProtectPlus comes with 2 magnets. One large one (like in the pics I attached above) and also a small mini-one. I haven't tried it yet but the settings show a primary detector and an external contact. I believe you can connect the external contact (via a wire provided in the box) to the DoorProtect(Plus) like you've described above.

I'll try it out later and let you know.

maxamillius wrote: »

Mind me asking how much your system set you back?

I bought from a Spainish reseller (https://best-alarm-system.eu/ajax-hub-en/) which seemed to be the best value from the countries I tried.

I got the following:
- 1 x Hub 2
- 1 x MotionProtectPlus
- 2 x CombiProtectPlus
- 2 x DoorProtect
- 7 x DoorProtectPlus
- 2 x Fobs
- 1 x Panic Button
- 1 x MotionProtect Curtain
- 1 x Keypad
- 1 x Indoor Siren

Came to about E1150 with a 8-10% discount I managed to blag from pinging them on chat.

So not cheap as I said... but I think compared to other "professional" level systems is probably not too much more?

Krombopulos Michael wrote: »

Is there an estimate battery life on the sensors?

Each of the sensors has a pretty detailed user manual on the AJAX website. Under the "Maintenance" section of the manual it references the potential lifespan of the batteries.

https://support.ajax.systems/en/manuals/doorprotect-plus/

Here's the details for the DoorProtect:
"The battery life depends on its quality, detector triggering frequency, and ping interval by the hub.

If the door opens 10 times a day and the detector ping interval is 60 seconds, then DoorProtect Plus operates 7 years from the pre-installed battery. For instance, a 12-seconds ping interval reduces the battery life to 2 years.

If the detector battery is low, the system notifies the user, and the LED indicator smoothly lights up and goes off if a glass break is detected or the tamper is triggered."

So somewhere between 2 and 7 years depending on how often the sensor is triggered and the ping interval to the hub. Batteries for DoorProtect are the standard CR123A so easily replaceable.

whosedaddy? wrote: »

Hi. did you get a chance to try this?
until now my plan was self-installing a SPC4320 to make use of my mostly prewired house (still need a couple of wireless sensors, but no inertias).

Or succumb to my inner geek and cut the cables and put this one in...

I asked the folks at Best Alarms about the connector and they confirmed it was to connect to an external (non-AJAX) sensor. I've no idea what type of sensor would be compatible though. What's included in the AJAX sensor is just for AJAX - either the small or big magnets on the DoorProtect can be used, but not together via the wire that comes with the sensor.

Might be worth contacting AJAX directly via their support page to get their thoughts?