Concord 4 ???

[skybolt]

I just bought a new house after selling my previous one with an Elk M1 Gold panel in it. The question I have is I amnot sure it is worth setting up another M1 Gold for this house. This house has all cassment windows in it where my previous one had all double hung.

I know the concord is a pretty old panel, but after looking into things a bit it looks like it could do the job with touch screens and all for a whole lot less then an Elk. My question is is it worth setting up an old panel like this or are there better options at this point. I know I mentioned cost, but that really isn't an issue for this. Funny thing is I was using all of the GE caddx with the Elk.

[drhtmal]

I have a Concord 4 I installed about 10 years ago. As far as I know the Concord panel has not changed that much over the years. Since alarm panels involve life safety, changes to them are not done as often as other systems. Once it is working it just works.

I mostly use my alarm system for notifications to HomeSeer.

To integrate the Concord 4 to HomeSeer you will need the

1. Superbus 2000 Automation module which is about $75.00
2. Concord 4 driver is free
3. A serial port on your system to connect to the automation module. If you don't have a serial port you can use a serial to USB adapter.

This setup requires wire from the Concord 4 panel to your HomeSeer system. I chose to put the automation module in my equipment closet so I extended the superbus from the panel to my equipment closet which is about 50 feet away using 22ga 4 conductor alarm wire. I figured that the superbus would be more robust than a 50 foot serial cable.

All the Concord 4 info you will probably ever need is here https://www.interlogix.com/intrusion/product/concord-4

[skybolt]

Thanks, that is basically how I am going touse the system as well. Which is why i posted that question. For me at this point the Elk is over kill and I won't use the added features anymore becasue of how HS has evolved from almost 15yrs ago.

[skybolt]

I have been looking at keypads for the conord 4. Do any of them have function keys or something that could be assigned special functions to trigger events in HS?

[drhtmal]

I am not aware of any keypads for the Concord 4 that has programmable function to be able to trigger events.

[skybolt]

There in lies my quandry, the Elk has 4-6 depending on which key pad used. Thanks for all of the answers.

[concordseer]

I have been looking at keypads for the conord 4. Do any of them have function keys or something that could be assigned special functions to trigger events in HS?

What type of events would you need to trigger from the keypad that you couldn’t trigger from your phone or tablet. Maybe give a little more detail and we could help. The plugin should cover most if not all bases for you.

The Concord 4 panel works rock solid with HS3 but do bear in mind it is an analogue and not a digital based panel. It’s industrial strength with a very secure protocol and the Concord Plugin works very well with it.

I installed my tenth panel quite recently and it’s still as fresh as ever. I only utilise the wireless aspect of the panel and it’s so simple to install and configure.

Cant comment on the Elk panel but the cost of the Concord 4 panel coupled with a range of wireless sensors, the ATP keypad and the automation module makes for a very cost effective and reliable security panel.

[drhtmal]

What type of events would you need to trigger from the keypad that you couldn’t trigger from your phone or tablet. Maybe give a little more detail and we could help. The plugin should cover most if not all bases for you...

The convenience of having them would be nice. I do understand that there is no way for us to add this feature to the Condord 4 as I have one myself.

Who the heck wants to pull out their tablet of phone, fireup the HS3 app, navigate to the button and press it.

Also, some people prefer the cleaner look of not having the clutter of multiple control panels on the wall.

[concordseer]

The convenience of having them would be nice. I do understand that there is no way for us to add this feature to the Condord 4 as I have one myself.

Who the heck wants to pull out their tablet of phone, fireup the HS3 app, navigate to the button and press it.

Also, some people prefer the cleaner look of not having the clutter of multiple control panels on the wall.

A tablet wall mounted not much different from a keypad wall mounted and a lot more useful too. Definitely a lot more functional using HSTouch or HS Mobile. Keypads can be quite ugly. Still each to their own.

If skybolt could outline what events he needs I can point him in the right direction. I’m using the Concord 4 with HS3 and Home Assistant too and both options open up a lot more home automation options outside of a keypad.

[skybolt]

The convenience of having them would be nice. I do understand that there is no way for us to add this feature to the Condord 4 as I have one myself.

Who the heck wants to pull out their tablet of phone, fireup the HS3 app, navigate to the button and press it.

Also, some people prefer the cleaner look of not having the clutter of multiple control panels on the wall.

Exactly! It would be nice to a real button interface to HS with programable buttons. Right now alarm panels are the only thing that will allow that.


Concordseer - Yes, you can mount things on the wall to run HS Touch etc. but that is not always the answer as it always seems to stop working when you least expect it, hard buttons always work. It's next to impossible to find such a thing that looks nice as well. So alarm panels more or less do the job. A nice single gang panel could work nicely.

I have had the do it all touch screens all over the house. after years of use the reliability goes down the tubes or you go to use it and it needs to be updated etc. Touch screens have there place as does technology. It's not about single events or devices being ran or controled. When you leave your house, come home or go to bed an alarm panel is usually the thing you interface with the most. It's jsut easier to have the extra buttons to do things on that keypad. Setting sences or wake up times, is it a holiday on a week day and you want to wake up later that day. Sometime pushing a button is just easier.

[concordseer]

Exactly! It would be nice to a real button interface to HS with programable buttons. Right now alarm panels are the only thing that will allow that.


Concordseer - Yes, you can mount things on the wall to run HS Touch etc. but that is not always the answer as it always seems to stop working when you least expect it, hard buttons always work. It's next to impossible to find such a thing that looks nice as well. So alarm panels more or less do the job. A nice single gang panel could work nicely.

I have had the do it all touch screens all over the house. after years of use the reliability goes down the tubes or you go to use it and it needs to be updated etc. Touch screens have there place as does technology. It's not about single events or devices being ran or controled. When you leave your house, come home or go to bed an alarm panel is usually the thing you interface with the most. It's jsut easier to have the extra buttons to do things on that keypad. Setting sences or wake up times, is it a holiday on a week day and you want to wake up later that day. Sometime pushing a button is just easier.

I’m sure you could fabricate something like that yourself. There’s plenty of projects on the web that involve pairing either an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi with a keypad that would fit the bill.

HS trying to decide what what events should be included on a push button panel would be a nightmare for them. So many different systems on the market and so many options to choose from it wouldn’t make economic sense

Of course even Interlogix supply a touchscreen option that is use both in the domestic and industrial installations so they clearly have faith in it. https://www.interlogix.com/intrusion...-4-touchscreen

Personally speaking a repurposed tablet would provide a more flexible and cheaper option and a lot more maintainable from the users perspective. They’ve been working reliably here for a number of years and are certainly prettier than their push button counterparts and a lot more versatile.

[skybolt]

I’m sure you could fabricate something like that yourself. There’s plenty of projects on the web that involve pairing either an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi with a keypad that would fit the bill.

The problem there is not too many, if at all, enclosures to make things look nice. Makeing something myself that would work would be not too bad, but having it look nice with molded plastic etc is not so easy, nor do I have any interest in doing that any more. HS use to be a hobby, now it just part of the house and other things have taken over. HS jsut works as I am using it now and needs very little if any supervision.

HS trying to decide what what events should be included on a push button panel would be a nightmare for them. So many different systems on the market and so many options to choose from it wouldn’t make economic sense

I am not sure I understand the bolded comment, but they wouldn't have to. A device interface that can change and or trigger events is all that is needed. Like an X10 control pad, you make events that trigger off of x10 devices turningon/off. The issue there is the X10 reliability ...

Of course even Interlogix supply a touchscreen option that is use both in the domestic and industrial installations so they clearly have faith in it. https://www.interlogix.com/intrusion...-4-touchscreen

Yes I saw that, which is why I asked about function keys/outputs. If the outputs could be easily accessable onthe touch screen then that could possibly work well.

Personally speaking a repurposed tablet would provide a more flexible and cheaper option and a lot more maintainable from the users perspective. They’ve been working reliably here for a number of years and are certainly prettier than their push button counterparts and a lot more versatile.

Yep tablets are a lot bigger then a single or double gang keypad though and very few tablets are always on working for that long. I had the table top ones that HS sold a while back and thought that they wre going to be awesome. Not so much ...

[concordseer]

Still using Gen 1 iPads with HSTouch wall mounted with with wooden enclosures. Only limited by your imagination I suppose.

Yes if it’s purely down to practicality a stock keypad would be the order of the day. I doubt HS will ever supply such an item though

Don’t read too deeply into the bolding. Formatting issue on a mobile device. Don’t have time for all that electronic shouting. Life’s too short for all that.