Home Security Systems - Wired / Wireless or Hybrid

In the home security market - wired alarm system have been around for decades.  While originally evolving from fire alarm systems, adding the ability to support door & window sensors as well as keypads for entering arm/disarm codes created that market.

Folks like Honeywell (now Resideo), DSC, etc built and sold untold thousands of these units.   Over the years the sensors got a little more sophisticated with things like motion sensors, glass break detectors, etc augmenting the traditional "normally closed" door and window sensors.

From a communication standpoint all of these system support traditional tip/ring wiring to a land-line and companies, like ADT, AAA, Sonitrol and others then provided centralized monitoring services and would forward events to the local police or fire department as needed.

The good news is these system overall were very reliable.  The bad news is - as they aged - sensors would fail or wiring would get damaged and the system would have unprotected areas.  

If you've ever bought a home with an existing wired security system - many of you know exactly what I'm talking about.  You fire the system up and get all sorts of errors or faults.   

Here in the desert where I live - a very common issue is sensors get cooked from the sun.  While it is relatively straight forward to replace damaged sensors - wire damage becomes another issue entirely.  

Because the vast majority of these systems were installed during home construction - the cost to replace a 22 gauge 2 wire sensor cable from let's say a window - either partially or all the way back to the controller often wasn't worth the effort.

The major OEMs recognized this and began to introduce wireless sensors.  These used a select set of wireless bands depending on the OEM - like 319.5 MHz, 345 MHz, 433 MHz, 868 MHz, 900 MHz.  While this gave you the flexibility to replace or install a new sensor, there were a couple of challenges you had to overcome.

First - those original security controller boards had zero support for wireless - so you had to buy a wireless gateway.  Second the wireless sensors used batteries.  While many devices included "10 year" batteries - they often never lasted that long.  Again here in a hot place like AZ - your were lucky if you got 3 - 5 years. 

Then two additional disrupters came to play.  First was Cellular communication vs the traditional land line and second was WiFi to support new devices like touchpads vs the traditional 1 line LCD KeyPads.    

Again the traditional controller had no native support for this - so all of a sudden if you wanted to upgrade your system - you'd have your original hardwire security controller then 2 or 3 additional enclosures (some with external antenna) to support A) wireless sensors, B) cellular communication and C) WiFi.   

So you'd often end up with a power strip mounted to the wall with up to 4 physical enclosures with wiring stapled to the wall from each box back to the controller -  all powered by separate power bricks and while some devices had built in battery back up - not all did - so you may have even ended up having to install a UPS.

The OEMs tried to address this - sort of - by replacing the traditional hardwired keypad with a touchpad that also contained the controller and sometimes even cellular or Wifi.   But it was kind of an all or nothing approach to upgrade.  

With most home alarm systems - there are two typical keypad locations.  The first is near a primary entrance - typically the front door or garage entrance and the second was in the mater bedroom.   The challenge is - if you wanted to still utilize your hardwired sensors - typically A) there was no way to connect them to the new touchpad controller or B) you had to add some sort of wireless gateway to your existing controller to talk to the new wireless one...  

Additionally those locations often did not have power close by and the new touchpads were typically plug-in.

Finally the current wave of disruption came with folks like Ring, Arlo, SimplySafe, etc - who are all wireless and use the large bulky surface mount sensors.  I've installed all 3 - and find them okay at best.  These systems utilize a phone app as the main UI vs a keypad or touchpad.  

There are also folks like Konnected.IO which provide a more cost effective hardwired gateway to the internet from a traditional hardwired systems.

But what if you have a situation where you want to utilize hardwired or wireless sensors, plus modern touchpads and cellular communications.

I had this situation come up with a customer.   They purchased a new place that had traditional wired sensors but no controller.  The customer wanted to use them as he had gone the Ring, Arlo, etc route and A) hated the bulky surface mount sensors and B) having to change batteries.   

They also wanted to utilize modern touchpads that could also display images from wireless cameras as well as integrate with other systems like MyQ for garage door.

So after some due diligence I found the Qolsys IQPro system.   This all-in-one hybrid controller supported both wired and wireless sensors based on DSC PowerG+ 900Mhz.  But it also had WiFi, Z-Wave and Cellular Communications integrated into a single enclosure.  

So right at the location where all the traditional sensor wires were run - I was able to install 1 surface mount unit.  The IQ-Pro easily supported all the existing wired sensors that were in the home and in the few cases where ones needed replacement the system supported the new Resideo NC sensors I installed.

Qolsys provides an excellent mobile app called IQInstaller that allows you to easily configure the unit and all the sensors and tie it to a monitoring service.  In this case we used Alarms.com.  

I added 2 x IQRemote Touchpads for the arm/disarm locations.  They can be wall or desktop mounted.   And while it does require traditional 120v line power - I was easily able to power the wall mount unit.  These provided Arm/Disarm with voice announcements as well as the ability to view the cameras that were installed.

Next I added some Alarms.doc (ADC) cameras and doorbell as well as some ADC Z-Wave light switch/dimmers and plug unit and we had the basis for some home automation.   

Alarms.com also supported integrations to Ecobee thermostats, LiftMaster MyQ - and Yale Assurance door locks.  So now via the single Alarms.com App, the owner could arm/disarm their system, view the cameras/doorbell and control lighting/garage door and lock or unlock doors.  

While there was the ability to also add Smoke & CO2 Detection - the owner decided to keep them separate.

To be honest this was as close to providing a client with a single app home management solution as I've experienced.  I've implemented several home automation projects over the years and tried to provide clients that similar experience with Google Home or Apple Home but either A) the "home" app wouldn't allow the same level of control over a device that the native device app sis or B) you had to make device choices that could "work with" the app but we're not necessarily the best.

With all that said there are a few caveats.  The ADC Cameras are not high-end 2K or 4K like you can get from folks like Reolink or Arlo but for this use case they worked great.  There is NOT a POE option for ADC cameras as well - so you need to plan for power and they don't allow you route their wiring through the mount - so it's not the cleanest install.     

If you planning an installation where existing wireless sensors also exist - make sure you are clear on exactly what frequencies are being used.  While the IQ-Pro supports DSC PowerG+ plus it can also support 1 other market frequency so 319.5, 345 or 433Mhz.  But you need to make sure you order the IQ-Pro Model with the additional frequency added as it's factory integrated. You also need to do the same for the Cellular provider you want to use.  

While Qolsys's all wireless controller - the IQPanel - supports adding a module for that additional frequency support the IQ-Pro does NOT - so you have to replace the entire controller if you need support for an extra frequency after installation.  I'm hoping they address that shortcoming in upcoming versions.

Additionally while Alarms.com shows some low monthly rates for their Self or Central monitoring, there is a little bit of nickel and diming that goes one when you want to add some of the 3rd party integrations that bumps that monthly up and reduces some of the value.

But overall compared to some other clients I have that have larger homes (5,000sq ft+) and had "professional" systems installed from ADT or others - the Qolsys/Alarms.com solution was very cost effective, compact and complete.  

It was nice to be able to install a single enclosure that included all the communication modes that were needed and configure it all from a slick mobile app.