I’ve got a house with a Go!Control panel (Firmware v1.9.6), previous owners had it installed and were active with Vivint. I’ll be switching to Surety once the new radio arrives. I have a couple questions:
I'll be swapping to a clean radio (same card type, just one that's not tied to Vivint). When I attach to Surety, will the sensor configs still stay setup, or will I need to re-attache every sensor?
Right now the installer questions/screens are locked (by Vivint) - will you push new config/firmware so that I have total control and total access to installer screens? Will this cause me to lose the current configuration & require re-attaching all sensors, zones, etc?
If I stop using surety in the future, will you unlock the 3G radio card, or will it be locked to Surety like it was Vivint?
How are thermostats controlled/programmed if, in the future I leave Surety and don't have the system attached to an ADC account? I can manually control them now, but seems like the schedule was set through Vivint, had to call them to remove the schedule since we nearly froze out of the house! :)
When I attach to Surety, will the sensor configs still stay setup, or will I need to re-attache every sensor?
A basic configuration template is sent which will unlock the panel and set defaults for programming questions 5+, but it does not affect sensors in any way. Your local sensor and Z-wave device programming will remain the same and will simply be polled and uploaded by Alarm.com to your new account.
Right now the installer questions/screens are locked (by Vivint) – will you push new config/firmware so that I have total control and total access to installer screens? Will this cause me to lose the current configuration & require re-attaching all sensors, zones, etc?
Yes, during the initial connection with a 2GIG Panel, commands are sent to unlock programming and default the installer code to 1561. As above, this will not affect sensors.
If I stop using surety in the future, will you unlock the 3G radio card, or will it be locked to Surety like it was Vivint?
The module would be unlocked as soon as the Alarm.com account is cancelled. Unlocked is not necessarily the right word either, better to say unregistered.
When the module is registered to an Alarm.com account, it can’t be used anywhere else for any other account, it can only be tied to one account at a time. The Vivint modules you reference are actually a unique issue in which they are actually locked to them as a provider and can’t be registered under any other dealer. This just means a new module is always required when switching from that provider.
In general that is typically not the case with other standard ADC modules and other providers. Some providers may try to make it harder to cancel or switch, but the modules are generally usable again one cancelled.
With Surety, service is month to month and you can cancel at any time. At the moment of cancellation by one of our service reps, the module is available for use with another account.
Now, in your specific question, note that 3G Verizon cards as a whole will soon be unable to be registered at all due to the impending Verizon carrier CDMA sunset. You should instead start service with a new 4G LTE module, which will be usable for much longer.
How are thermostats controlled/programmed if, in the future I leave Surety and don’t have the system attached to an ADC account? I can manually control them now, but seems like the schedule was set through Vivint, had to call them to remove the schedule since we nearly froze out of the house!
This depends on the model of thermostat. Most Z-wave thermostat models have local reset and programming options. The ADC-T2000 can only be programmed remotely through ADC. What model do you use?
Thanks for the info & clarifications. I was able to get a 3G module from a friend that had a spare, so figured I’ll start with that and buy an LTE module in the future.
Since we’re new to the house, I didn’t want to rebuild the system config from scratch without a good handle yet on what devices are setup, so figured I’d hold off until we had more free time if that was the case. Good to hear it seems like a fairly painless migration process.
I’m not sure on the model number of the thermostat. The physical interface was very basic. It’s a fairly nondescript white style thermostat that I’ll have to dig into to find the exact model number.