I’m a big fan of the DSC 1832/1864 series of Alarm systems. It’s a robust system with all sorts of functionality right out of the box. A few of the features we’ve made use of include;

• Scheduled auto-arming – On a preset generic schedule the system will automatically arm itself to “away” mode bypassing any faulted devices. You can specify days of the week and time of day for this.
• PGM – Progammable outputs – These are extremely handy. In our system the PGMs are used for;
  • Activating an LED by the back door indicating the system is armed (our keypads are not prominently displayed).
  • Linked to our garage door so we can open the garage using our alarm system keyfobs.
  • As a “false alarm reduction tool” for our hardwired smoke detectors (the system automatically shuts down, then restarts the smoke detectors in the event of an alarm – if the smoke detector STILL detects smoke after the reset the system considers it a legitimate alarm and notifies the monitoring centre and activates the siren).

My personal favorite feature is being able to open the garage door using the keyfob – Lisa just enjoys the convenience of pressing a button on the remote to arm/disarm the system without messing with codes and entry/exit delays.