The gold monitoring package includes ‘sensor activity monitoring’ - I’m not clear what this means. I saw the FAQ at http://suretydiy.com/faqs/ but it didn’t completely clear things up for me.
For example, I read in another forum post that you can have a tilt sensor on your garage door notify you if the door is open but not actually trigger an alarm - if this what is meant by activity monitoring? It seems to do it I would go on alarm.com and create a notification for ‘Is Left Open’ which I am able to do on my Basic account. If this isn’t activity monitoring, then what is? Maybe an example would help me understand the difference. Thanks!
Activity monitoring is an added feature with Gold Interactive that gives you the ability to check the status of sensors regardless of alarm status. So for example, you can check to see that a door or window is open or closed now, even when the alarm is off. Activity monitoring does not apply to all sensors, for example the smoke detector is either activated or not activated, regardless of the alarm status, so there is no need to view its current status.
I use different dog walkers who stop in at non-regular days and times. So, an example of how I use activity monitoring is checking in while the dog walkers are at my home to make sure motion detectors in my office and bedroom are not activated, since neither my dog or dog walkers should be exploring my office or bedroom while I’m at work. Another example that pops to mind is using it with kids (who aren’t really conscious of the price of heating/cooling a home) to check the state of windows when they’re are home and the system is unarmed. Its most helpful in pop up situations where the right notification might be difficult to anticipate and/or set up.
Sensor activity monitoring specifically enables 24/7 notification capability for a number of sensors you choose. This means that Alarm.com forwards all signals from these sensors for processing.
What this means to end users: In addition to being able to set up “left open” notifications, you can set up immediate “open” notifications. Literally you can be instantly notified any time that sensor is opened during a time frame that you stipulate.
This is tremendously important if individuals wish to protect a gun safe/medicine cabinet/liquor cabinet/cleaning products closet/etc. The alarm system is not necessarily going to be armed when these locations are targeted, because the person targeting them is likely a guest or a child.
Whatever you might use it for, it is a separate service due to the increased data demands.
So would a “left open” garage notification only be sent when arming the system on my basic plan? I could see wanting to know if the garage door was left open during the day as well when the system wouldn’t necessarily be armed.
With the basic plan, you do not get any sensor activity monitoring. If your sensors are opened while trying to arm remotely, they will automatically be bypassed. You can setup notifications to let you know when any sensor is bypassed, but there are not notifications for specific sensors.
Jay, thats the answer I was trying to get at in my original post. See the attached screenshot - I was trying to determine if ‘activity monitoring’ was needed for these reminder notifications. I assumed because I am able to create the notification that the feature exists on my basic account - is this not true? If I setup the notification would it to do nothing?
My father has a gold account and has extra options visible that I don’t have, so I assumed if I saw it on my basic account that means that I can do it.
Right, you can create sensor left open notifications. These will activate regardless of arming status.
It is the sensor activity (notifications generated immediately upon the sensor opening) that require the sensor activity monitoring.
