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Using OBI110 with alarm system ?

Started by HGWells, March 11, 2011, 05:15:08 PM

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HGWells

The alarm system I have has been used with Sunrocket and Charter's internet phone system. I have made a quick test and it did not seem to work.

I will try fidling with it early next week. I am using Google voice.

Is any one else using their OBI 110 with an alarm system ?
Any paramiters that you had to play with ?


mykmayk

when i was using pap2t before, i used it with gizmo5 or ideasip or iptel for my alarm monitoring system since those allowed outgoing toll-free calls.

i remember that some didn't work right off the bat.  i had to play with the DTMF selections to get the correct option to work with the remote monitoring system.

you can probably do the same with the obi unit.

in this topic http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=222.0, DTMF selection was discussed:
"Changing the Phone port DTMFRxMode from "Hardware" to "Software" solved the problem."
əʞɪɯ mɪke

DrZKrewe

Has anyone been successful with using the OBi 110 with an alarm system?  If so, did you have to tweak anything to get it working?


HGWells, did you try what mykmayk suggested?  Results?



Dixon

GV on SP1 didn't work with my Ademco Lynx. Alarm co. said that no valid data was recieved after a test.

I have seen that link before about the DTMF software before. I have not tried it yet, but I will soon.

Anyone know any other tweaks like codecs?

SteveInWA

#4
HGWells, see my post here:

http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=305.msg3384#msg3384

Alarm panels, like the Ademco units, communicate with the alarm company's monitoring center over analog telephone lines using a method similar (but not identical) to a dial-up data modem or fax machine.  Your alarm panel dials a phone number to reach the alarm center.  Then, when the call is answered, it listens for a handshake tone, then it sends the actual alarm message (usually as DTMF tones), and then waits for an acknowledgement via a "kissoff", or "yes, I got your message" tone.  Therefore, the calls depend on a high-quality audio signal over the line.  Your issue may be related to the DTMF (Touch Tone) method used by the OBi, and you can try changing the setting to send them either way.  But, it's more likely caused by whatever codec is being used with Google Chat/Google Voice, or packet loss or "jitter" over the Internet.  The best codec for audio quality (human voice or modem jabber) is G.711u or G.711a (PCM).

Editorial:  I just cannot imagine my personal/family safety depending on Google's voice service for alarm monitoring.  There are too many analog-to-digital-to-analog-to-digital conversions between your alarm panel and the alarm company when using even the best VoIP.  My advice:  get a quality VoIP service or a traditional telco line for your alarm, or use a cellular or IP-based solution from your alarm company.

MichiganTelephone

Quote from: SteveInWA on April 02, 2011, 10:50:53 PMEditorial:  I just cannot imagine my personal/family safety depending on Google's voice service for alarm monitoring.  There are too many analog-to-digital-to-analog-to-digital conversions between your alarm panel and the alarm company when using even the best VoIP.  My advice:  get a quality VoIP service or a traditional telco line for your alarm, or use a cellular or IP-based solution from your alarm company.

And for the rest of us, who aren't of the "let's put safety above our enjoyment of life" mentality (wouldn't you have hated to be a kid living with that kind of parent?  I was, and believe me, it's no fun at all!), I will just note again that although I have no personal experience with the company, I've seen several VoIP users express satisfaction with the services of NextAlarm.  As I mentioned in the other thread, there is no guarantee that a traditional landline is reliable anymore, particularly in areas where the phone company has been sold or merged with another company in the past decade.
Inactive, no longer posting or responding to messages.  Goodbye and good luck.  Some of my old Obihai-related blog posts have been moved to http://tech.iprock.com - note this in NOT my blog; I have simply given the owner permission to repost some of my old stuff.

SteveInWA

No need for going "postal" (pun intended) with a personal attack over my mention of POTS lines.  I never said that a POTS line was the only option, nor the most reliable.  I was also not advocating or taking a position on the value of alarm systems.  If you don't need one, fine.  The OP has one, and was asking about connectivity. 

I was merely pointing out that, if one's goal is relatively reliable monitoring of a security system, then select a connectivity method that is likely to be RELATIVELY more reliable, compared to all choices.  Your mileage may vary, depending on your locale and service providers.  I just do not believe Google Chat/Google Voice being as reliable as one of the more established VoIP providers, or a cellular or broadband, or a POTS connection.

Since you and I both mentioned Nextalarm, go dig through their site, where they explain why conventional VoIP service is a poor choice.  The issue is that the alarm panel generates analog tones (originally designed for POTS line specs), which the VoIP adapter digitizes, and sends over the (usually) public internet.  Then, at the far-end telco CO, the digitized data is converted back into analog tones, and ends up at the monitoring center, with varying degrees of accuracy, depending on codec used, connection quality, etc.  This is the same reason fax transmissions over VoIP are troublesome at times.  Nextalarm's solution, ironically, is VoIP-based, but instead of going through transitions to the PSTN central office and back again, they use a custom-configured, dedicated Cisco/Linksys ATA which connects directly to their own digital back-end, like an extension on a IP PBX.  That way, not only do you get better end-to-end signal quality, but they can also monitor the connection to the ATA and detect outages.

Now, certainly, someone is going to chime in and say that their VoIP service works fine with their alarm provider, and that's great for them.  I'm just saying:  decide which balance of cost and reliability is important to you.

MichiganTelephone

#7
SteveInWA, I'm sorry if you felt that was a "personal attack" and felt the need to be so defensive.  I'm merely pointing out that when one is in a VoIP-oriented forum, it's probably not the best idea to suggest landlines as a solution.  However, if someone already has a landline and intends to keep it, then of course it would be better to use that for the alarm service than Google Voice.  The problem with both your posts (one of which was in another thread) is that, in my opinion anyway, they sort of cross the line into lecturing people as to how much they ought to value "safety" (and, by implication, what they should be willing to spend to obtain it), whereas everyone has different priorities.  But, it's not like you were really abrasive about it — you just made an "editorial" comment and I responded with one of my own.  I appreciate the information in your posts, just please try to remember that we're not all incapable of making our own decisions. And having said that, I again apologize if you felt my response was a personal attack, because it certainly was not intended as such.
Inactive, no longer posting or responding to messages.  Goodbye and good luck.  Some of my old Obihai-related blog posts have been moved to http://tech.iprock.com - note this in NOT my blog; I have simply given the owner permission to repost some of my old stuff.