I don't use DSC equipment. Only if it's a takeover and most times, even the= n, I'll replace it. I only have a few of them out there. The reasons I don= 't use them are important to me but something just happened with one of the= ir radios that really pissed me off.
About 2 years ago, I did a job for a client who only wanted cellular connec= tion to central ... no land line. So I asked around about a good product. T= he DSC 3060 was recommended by a couple of people so, even though I don't l= ike DSC, I got one and installed it. It went in pretty easy, just sending C= ID. It's worked reliably for the past two years.=20
HOWEVER!!!! after the recent storm here on the east coast, I get a call fro= m the customer that the panel is showing fail to communicate. The customer = had lost power long enough so that both the panel battery and the 3060's ba= ttery had died. The 3060 idiot light is blinking twice which indicates ( ge= t this ) either a non existant battery or an unregistered SIM card. (Uhhh W= HAT!) Well, anyway, The power has been back up for a couple of days. So I r= ead close to 13vdc at the disconnected battery leads and 12.5vdc at the dic= onnected battery terminals even with a brief 10 ohm load on it. So I call D= SC technical support. He asks me what version the 3060 is I tell him (G24 ?= ) Anyway he says=20 " OH yeah that's the one that that had that problem."=20 " What problem?" I ask.=20 "When it loses all power and comes back up, the unit fails ..... but we fix= ed that in the latest revision."=20 "So now I have to buy a new one? =20 "Yep"=20 "So your telling me that you have a product out in the field that has this = known flaw in it and you're just leting them sit out there until their warr= antee is up and when dealers call in with the problem they've got to buy a = new unit?"=20 "Well I think we put out a notice about it."=20
The rest of the conversation took just a few minutes, all of which I hope t= hey really do have a recording of. Obviously he hung up before I ran out of= breath.
All in all, it simply confirms my convictions about why I don't use DSC equ= ipment.=20
I might also say that when they first came out with the earlier 3055, I ins= talled one as a favor to someone who wanted an evaluation to see if it had = any problems so he could decide if he wanted to distribute them. This was m= y first attempt at using the "new" type of radio. What I mean by that is, u= p until then, I always used backup radios, sending both landline and radio = simultaniously. When I discovered that the 3055 only trasmitted an alarm if= the land line failed, I questioned DSC tech support about how to send both= signals at the same time. They said that it couldn't be done. I asked abou= t not having some way to make sure the unit could transmit an alarm signal = and they said that the supervisory signal was the test. I said that a super= visory signal is not an alarm signal. Anyway, without their help, I found o= ut that I could set it up to send simultanious signals .... just not full d= ata.=20
The hook to this story is .... that sometime after I installed this unit, I= received notice (by word of mouth from another dealer) that the 3055's had= a problem and where "on hold" and were not going to be available for awhi= le. As it turns out it was because it was discovered that even though they = could send supervisory signals ... the units were not sending alarm signal = when the land line failed. Soupprise! Soupprise!
I don't know what you all think about it but I'd like my "backup" communica= tors to send a signal every time a land line signal is sent. Not have it si= t there for years, if the phone line never goes down, just sending supervis= ory signals and never once sending in an alarm signal.