I was at someone’s house today, when I noticed they had a new security system. They moved into their current house in 2021 (although the house is much older) and it had a DSC NEO system installed from the previous owners. I don’t know too many details, but I do know that it had mostly wireless door contacts and motion sensors (I think made by Honeywell). As far as I know, they never used the system and it was in pretty rough shape. It was powered up, but that was about it. Most of the wireless sensors either had dead batteries or were just completely missing altogether. The panel itself also had dead batteries. I don’t believe it was ever monitored while they had the house.
The new system is a DMP system that was installed at some point in the past few months. It was installed by a local security company that is actually the Autocall fire alarm dealer in my area. Apparently, they sell DMP for most things but they sell Autocall for fire. I guess this is good because it has allowed them to get the contact for some very large projects that DMP never could have handled.
Anyways, the new system consists of what I believe is an XT-series panel with a 5-inch touchscreen keypad. They use DMP wireless sensors in place of the old DSC ones.
Here is the actual panel. You can see the wireless antenna. I’m guessing the two wires at the top go to the keypad and a siren. The one at the bottom/side goes to the power supply. It is mounted in exactly the same place as the “old” DSC panel was.
Here is the touchscreen keypad. It is mounted in exactly the same place as the “old” DSC keypad. When I took the picture, there was some sort of alert message on the screen but I didn’t get close enough to read it.
I thought this system was kind of interesting. I’ve never seen a DMP system before.
Rather neat. You didn’t by any chance get the old DSC system did you? (going by you saying that the old devices are no longer in place)
That’s an unusually thin panel going by the ones I’ve seen. The lock being on the bottom of the door is unusual too (unless the panel is mounted sideways for whatever reason: it would still be unusually short if it was though, as most security panels are either taller than they’re wide or are about equal dimensions in both directions).
I haven’t either, but they seem like a fairly good manufacturer.
DMP systems are basically just security systems. They are really only good for small buildings. On the other hand, Autocall (which is just rebranded Simplex) has the 4100ES, which is networkable, and can therefore handle some of the biggest buildings you can imagine.
Autocall is rebranded Simplex these days, so you can go up to as big as you want, really, given just how capable networked 4100ESs are:
2500 pts/panel as 250 pts per SLC with up to 10 IDNet2 SLCs present
RUI/Miniplex support for distributed FA topologies with up to 31 transponders per panel
4120 or ESNet networking, with a maximum of 99 nodes/network on the latter, yielding a maximum networked point count of 247,500 (which is more points than most central station protocols can handle!!!)
Dozens of NACs (either conventional with support for Simplex and Wheelock sync, IDNAC addressable with up to 127 NAs per IDNAC, or integrated audio with up to 100W/amp) per panel
Support for multiple alarm cadences (essential given the need to support CO and auxiliary life safety alarms in modern building practice) + zone coded alarms
Full support for smoke control
Class N interpanel networking using ES-Net Network Bridge modules (ES-NET Network Bridges connected over VPN give you the power to have a literal globe spanning FA network. Imagine being able to do integrated voice and logic equations between Salzburg, U-Tapao, and Punta Arenas.)
Yeah, even their 24V panel (the XF6) is rather limited:
No support for aux alarms (just fire and CO), which means you can’t use it in applications where fuel gas detection/alarming or life safety panic alarming (such as manual panic switches in walk-ins) is called for. This is a particularly galling limitation compared to the Firewolf given that the XR series that is used as a basis for the XF6 does have auxiliary alarm support, and it would only require a firmware update to bring auxiliary alarming to the XF6.
No 2-wire SLC protocol (all DMP addressable is 4-wire keybus type), a downside shared with the XR series and a limiter compared to its closest competitor (the Napco Firewolf, which supports Hochiki addressable devices). It also means that DMP addressable is akin to V-Plex in that it doesn’t support analog addressability the way proper fire SLCs do, which means you’re a lot more limited in detector capability.
No ULC listing, which means it can’t be used north of the 49th parallel
Furthermore, the XR series won’t let you turn off AC power failure reporting AFAICT, which means you can’t just have an XR150 or 550 PCB mounted in an Altronix (why them? dry contact triggers means you don’t need NAC cards just to get the extender to go) NAC extender and running off the 24VAUX from the NAC extender.
Well for security items (contact sensors, cameras, door controls etc) I would only want a wired system. Wireless can be jammed and in-effect disabled. At least wired doesn’t make it so easy for the bad-guy. I suppose there are circumstances where it is wireless or nothing.
