New Feature Requests

[GrandWizard]

Just call the 1-800 number and say you're on TEST for the next 30 minutes. You are supposed to do this regularly to make sure everything is working.

[hokie21]

Just call the 1-800 number and say you're on TEST for the next 30 minutes. You are supposed to do this regularly to make sure everything is working.

That's what we have to do today and while this does work, the feedback we are giving you is that this is inconvenient. Please consider this as an enhancement to the portal. The current situation where we must call the monitoring station to put the system in test still doesn't solve the problem of other users seeing text messages that appear to them to be actual alarms.

[user17600]

the feedback we are giving you is that this is inconvenient.

...And not only for the user, but also for the central station (CS). If a user is working on their system (testing or otherwise) and has to call the CS, that takes valuable CS time. What if a true emergency comes in at the same time? Do you really want to delay a fire call because another user is asking for a test?

The ability to place a "NO ACTION" flag for a period of time (1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours) would allow for any alarm to come with the flag visible and be ignored by the operator, or perhaps even filtered so it did not even show to an operator, freeing them to deal with actual alarm messages.

While I do like the concept of changing (email/text) messages to indicate there is an active "NO ACTION" ongoing, perhaps instead you could consider sending a "NO ACTION period initiated (expired)" message at the start (end) of the period instead of changing the current message format? Or suppressing alarm messages during the NO ACTION period instead.

But yeah, a "NO ACTION" option on the portal is really something you ought to implement. For both user convenience and safety. (And for you, if there are charges associated with each non-emergency call to the CS, which I understand some contracts call for).

Edit: in an email (from a related ticket), the Eyezon response also made statements around needing the passcode to initiate a NO ACTION mode. But the security of the website is even more robust (email/password combo - I presume there are minimum requirements); whereas anyone with the phone number and the single-word passcode could initiate this on the phone.

[hokie21]

My previous Internet alarm provider did offer a "test mode" feature on their portal. While moving to Eyez-on offered me several advantages over my previous monitoring service, this lost feature is the one I miss the most.

[Flyct]

Some other Alarm Central Stations offer a web based TEST function BUT not for cellular alarms.

I found this out when testing a system with NExt Alarm tech support putting my system in test to verify the proper programming of the Panic Buttons. I had Fire Engines, Police cars and Paramedics all respond within 5 minutes. The tech was very embarrassed as it seemed that the cellular signals were not being ignored.

Here is from NextAlarm web portal

Put your Alarm Account on Test Mode
You may choose to put your Alarm Account on Test Mode for a period of time. In Test Mode, all alarm signals received by the monitoring center will be E-Mailed to you for testing purposes, and no dispatch actions will be taken (e.g. the police or fire departments will not be called). Test Mode will automatically expire (and your account will go back to normal) after the number of minutes you specify below.

PLEASE NOTE: Once your alarm panel sends your test signals, please use this website, or check your E-Mail, to verify that the signals were received. Do NOT call the dispatch center, as the dispatch staff will not be able to help analyze your signal logs while Test Mode is active.

Again -- The dispatch center staff will not be able to see Test Mode alarm signals!

Cellular Backup and Radio System Users: The mechanism on this screen cannot be used to put your alarm system on test. Please call the dispatch center to ask to put your cellular account on test, if you use a cellular backup or other radio system.

Contact ID Only: If your alarm panel is not transmitting in the Contact ID format, then the mechanism on this screen cannot be used to put your alarm system on test. Please call our dispatch center to ask to put your account on test, if your panel does not use Contact ID.

For how long would you like your Alarm Account on Test Mode?

[hokie21]

I would like to see a selection on the web portal that allows the system to be put into test mode for 30 min, 1 hours, 2 hours, 4 hours, etc. I'm aware of the cellular backup limitation and it isn't an issue in my case.

[user17600]

I could live with 1 hour and 2 hour increments.

Not to add too much complexity, but would it be possible to send a message to all email/text address associated with the account that "no action/test mode activated for X"? With X being the duration selected?

This would prevent the alternate notification parties from worrying about any notifications they might receive.

But either way, being able to temporarily trigger a no action without a call would be the one thing I miss most of all from my previous provider (I could notify parties before doing so if auto notification couldn't be programmed).

Thanks!

[David]

The ability to setup the Static IP configuration beyond just the IP address would be very helpful.

[gnolivos]

I've been using the EVL-3 module via the mobile interface for several days now. A few things I'd like to note:

1) Although I'm impressed at what eyezon has done with pure html etc, I think the mobile portal is a poor replacement for a true iOS app. For one, I do not like having to constantly hit refresh in order to see updated information. Also the interface can get rather clunky with headers and footers from the browser popping in and out. Net, I would want to think of this as a temporary solution, and hope that there will soon be a true iOS app to go along with this system.

2) The Zone coloring scheme needs work. I like how the red color seems to fade out as time passes, and gives you a good idea of active zones 'at a glance'. However, the biggest issue I see here is that there is currently no easy way to distinguish which zones are OPEN. And this is truly the only reason I would glance at the zone chart! I want to know wha zone is open, quickly. Black bold text (instead of white) is not a big enough differentiator. I think any open zone should be colored GREEN in those boxes, and after it is closed it should become red (of varying degrees of fading as it is today). Simple change, would work wonders and make it so much easier to see at a glance what zones are open.

3) To add to the above, I would like for that zone view grid to have zone NAMES instead of numbers. On the web interface you roll your mouse over to see zone name, so at least that's possible. But on the mobile phone interface there is no way to know what each zone number 'translates' to. So it's kind of useless really as it stands today, unless you have all zone numbers memorized (!)

4) I find that the existence of the 2 pages, theEVENTS page and the ZONE ACTIVITY page, are sort of confusing... Not really sure what goes in one list versus the other. Some information is redundant. Also one list show TIME of event, while the other shows 'minutes ago'. Which seems inconsistent.

5) Why add cameras? I feel like it makes more sense to me to use my own camera app to view cameras. I especially think that providing username/password info for the cameras to the eyezon server is (or any other server for that matter) is risky.

I hope the development team can consider some changes based on this feedback. Thanks.

[hokie21]

This doesn't seem to happen very often around here, but it looks like Eyez-on did actually implement part of a feature request.

Starting on 11/30/15, I've started seeing "Away arming by user xxxxx" instead of "Closing by user xxxx."

The feature request was to have "arm" and "disarm" replace "close" and "open." They got half of the feature request done anyway.