Updating Wired Home Alarm to Wireless - Part I

I felt compelled to post my current project which was the upgrading of my existing wired GE (Interlogix, United Technologies) Concord 4 Alarm. Now mine is older but still quite typical to the units installed in 1,000s of homes in the early 2000s. I have worked pretty hard to understand this system and what can be added to it. 

GE Concord 4

However, programming is quite difficult and no matter how I decided to modify the current system I new I was not going to get the features I really wanted. Ideally I wanted all the features of the Ring Security System but wanted to use my existing wiring. How had can that be??

So there are a couple of "hacks" on the web that allow you to "use existing senors" with the Ring system but these made modification to the Ring sensors and of course would cause problems with setting this up for all 9 zones I currently have.

Konnected Alarm Panel

I thought my problems were solved with the Konnected Alarm Panel. The system would allow me to use my existing sensors and using an existing home automation hub I could self monitor the security system via an app. However, the system did not support Wink, which is what I have based all my home automation on and more importantly I had no way of having a monitor system if I so choose. 


Speaking of Wink, this was also a system I thought could work given that I am using the Wink Hub but again, no way to include my existing wiring.

So continuing to do research I ran across an interesting device - The Honeywell 5800C2W Hardwired to Wireless Converter. Problem was it only worked with Honeywell security systems. 

Honeywell 5800C2W

So I started looking at what I would need to get the features of the Ring or Wink systems. Turns out the Honeywell Lyric offers almost all the same features as the Ring and Wink plus many more I will get into.



Before I get into the cost of what I had to put into the system as compared to Rink and Wink I have to do a shout out to Alarm Grid.  If you are thinking at all about upgrading, modifying or changing your security system you need to start here. They have an amazing amount of information for the DYI'er with fully support Q&A sections on almost all their products. The videos are extremely helpful on learning about your new system for both install and understanding their features and most importantly they have many ways to monitor the system at very reasonable prices. Oh, and their prices for product is pretty much the lowest on the web.

Honeywell Lyric Alarm System

 So, with my existing wired system I already had 9 zones, sensors on all doors and windows, motion sensors and two control panels. I determined I would need to replace my keypads but one pad could have been used, I just wanted a clean installation that replaced my two current units. So what did this cost:

• Honeywell 5800C2W $78
• Honeywell Lyric LKP500 Wireless Keypad $105
• Honeywell Lyric Security System (Refurbished) $206
• Honeywell SIXSIREN (5800C2W and Lyric don't currently support wired sirens) $65
  
  

So for $454.00 I was able to use all my existing wired alarm system with no additional features added. So how does that compare to Ring: 

• Ring Alarm Windows and Door Contact Sensor $120
  
• Ring Alarm Security Kit, 14-Piece $329 

And Ring system comes out to $449. Given that I have to install all the new sensors (and replace their batteries at some point) and completely abandon my existing sensors I didn't thing the $6 savings was worth it.

Now there are some additional differences that could sway you one way or the other and I'll go into that next on the next post.