We set to close on a new home in couple months. The home has a hardwired DCS PCS1864 panel with two keypads and ~8 hardwired zones. We currently have a Qolsys setup in our current home and have been using Surety for monitoring and would like to continue that in the future. It looks like our version of the DCS panel is compatible with an alarm.com SEM (possibly the ADC-SEM300-PS-VZ-M). I’m looking to understand how difficult the SEM install is. It doesn’t appear super difficult but at install direction it doesn’t seem trivial either. I did all the setup and configuring of our existing setup and have some limited hobbiest electornics experience. Anyone done this DIY and could speak to it?
Its relatively straightforward. You will need to be comfortable with electronics and mounting the SEM. Possible removing/moving some wiring. This guide here covers compatibility, the installation process, and some other recommendations for the installation. Alarm.com recommends using a Alpha keypad (Version 1.2+) and you will want to verify the Installer Code
Thanks Tyler. Our current Qolsys setup uses an Encore FF345 to monitor our existing smoke detectors. I was trying to determine if there is a cost effective way to add a similar device to the PC1684 with the SEM but I haven’t had any luck. I know zwave isn’t supported for life safety devices. These would be hard wired smoke detectors so I’d assume I’d be looking at some sort of relay for monitoring purposes?
The DSC Powerseries has been discontinued and parts are not as available as they used to be. The WS4936 is the smoke detector that is compatible with the system but we no longer carry it in stock. Unfortunately, there is no option for DSC like the Firefighter module you have for your other system.