Choose an alarm panel to replace Minder

Please can someone help me choose an alarm panel to replace my Minder (Thinkboxx) which has died.

My ideal system would be a panel that is programmable and has full bidirectional communication with C-Bus. I currently have ITI wireless sensors and I would like to reuse them if at all possible.

My alarming requirements are not over taxing but I do value the integration with C-Bus and flexibility that I had. I would have a PACCA or Wiser to do any logic.

I would appreciate any advice or comments about alarm panels

 

Comfort

www.cytech.biz
www.comfortforums.com

 

Thanks for the advice. Specifically why do you recommend it? Does it meet all my requirements? Does it interface with ITI wireless?

Thanks
Colin

 

Hi Colin

The Ness ELK M1 gold might be suitable as they have a CBUS interface for that panel..Heres a link to the interface........

http://www.ness.com.au/ViewProduct.asp?ProductNumber=101-236

HTH
Frank

 

As a matter of interest what has happened to your minder? The one in my own house (which is currently rented out) has an issue in that it cannot see any inputs or the voltage of the AUX rail. This seemed to happened after the battery failed on it. I was a week too late in getting to the house to replace it. I suspect one of the voltage regulators has died, although normally these things would be protected by a thermal fuse.

The 'logic' part still works fine though.

In my case I am not too worried about replacing it as I have a spare I picked up on E-Bay. As the tenant doesn't use the alarm I won't replace it until I move back in next year.

 

My Minder started to weird things. If I did a full reload it would halt at 83% saying retrieving LCD status. Everything was still working except logging. As I went though various fault finding strategies the problem got worse and I lost more and more functionality.

My theory is that there may be some kind of flash ram that dies after some time. Certainly in my case the more I reloaded the controller the worse it got

If anyone has any other theories I would be happy to hear them.

In the meantime I am still searching for a solution to my ITI interface compatibility

 

ITI wireless sensors can be connected with most alarm systems using the Quickbridge Loop receiver. I would assume that this was how your old Minder worked. This has 8 hardwire outputs which connect to the security system inputs. See a picture of it here http://www.homesecurityandautomatio...R&Store_Code=HSA&Category_Code=HS-ALRM-GE-MOD
Comfort is available in Australia through IQHome http://www.iqhome.com.au/

 

Thanks for the reply. My ITI connects to Minder using a bus receiver. The connection is via RS485. Do any alarm panel support this?

 

Not good at all, certainly sounds cactus. It is a pity that there isn't really anything that is a 100% replacement for Minder. It was a good product that had a lot more potential.

 

Homeminder replacment

Why not try the Clipsal Homesafe with C-Bus interface.

Because it is NESS panel, it supports all NESS wireless sensors, reeds, fobs, transmitters etc, and will provide simple, effective integration to the C-Bus network.

If your existng Minder keypads are the vertical type, the Homesafe keypad should pretty much cover up the old holes as well.

If you require a large amount of logic, control and access integration, consider the M1 panel.

 

Hi,

The M1 will support the NX408E,NX416E or 448E receivers. I am using this because I had existing ITI wireless and Ness hadn't yet released their wireless receiver.

It works, but there is a "But" - You are limited to old firmware. The new firmware that supports the Ness receiver doesn't support the ITI receiver. So far this hasn't been a problem for me. When there is a feature in new firmware that I must have then I will need to switch to the quickbridge receiver.

Paul

 

Hi Paul

Your suggestion looks very promising. Can you please answer 2 more questions?

1. Is the old firmware still freely available?
2. Can you list all the items you have in your system so I can try to order them?

Thank you for your assistance so far

Colin

 

Hi Colin,

You have to request the firmware from Ness, but it should be available.

I am using an NX448E which is available in Australia from Direct Alarm Supplies. This connects directly to the M1 alarm board. Nothing else is required.

Depending on how many sensors you have it might be better to use the Quickbridge with an M1 zone expansion. This will enable you to use the newer M1 firmware.

Paul