Sidekick Question

[Moony_Lupin]

I'm interested in the Sidekick, but not as a back up. If I order the sidekick can I use it as my primary communication to the eyezon monitoring or is purely a back up?

I currently use a Freedompop sim and a Netgear 4g modem as my primary connection to eyezon. I'm growing increasingly unhappy with Freedompop and thought the Sidekick might be a better replacement.

If the sidekick can't be used as a standalone connection, does anyone know of an affordable data only sim (few bucks a month) that I could order and use with my Netgear 4g modem?

Thanks for the help!

[GrandWizard]

Hi, its called a backup as the Envisalink will always try to communicate over its Ethernet interface first but if it doesn't work it will use the Sidekick instead. So I guess yes, you can think of it as the primary if there was no other path. Monitoring over LTE is limited to alarms and O/Cs.

[Moony_Lupin]

I received my Sidekick and I'm pretty excited about it. I did have a question about the data provided in the Boost back up. The contract I received indicates that Boost provides "up to 100 kb of cellular data per month." I realize the Sidekick is exclusively a back up device, but is 100 kb even enough data for a single day of outage with an ISP? How much data does the EnvisaLink transmit on a typical day?

[GrandWizard]

I recall one of the engineers saying it was 64 bytes for an alarm message. That is roughly 1000 alarms signals a month assuming the "acknowledgement" is also 64 bytes. I think you're fine.

[Moony_Lupin]

That makes sense. Thanks for letting me know.

[alarm-dude]

I had a similar question about the Sidekick service. The contract that I got from Eyezon for the Eyezon Boost Cellular Add-on Service states "The Service includes up to 100 KB of cellular data per month with an overage rate of $0.05/KB for use beyond the included amount." So, I feel some assurance that alarm signals don't use much data. However, I could not find a cap to the 5 cents per KB in the contract. I do not know the technical details of the Sidekick unit and if it is capable of sending large amounts of data. Without knowing this, the situation leaves me a little concerned. It appears to me that if a customer's Sidekick unit somehow uses 100MB of data in a month, the customer could get a bill for $5,000. This seems to me to mean that the customer is left to trust that the Sidekick won't transmit or receive much data, but the customer is on the hook if it does use more than the 100KB amount. Please let me know if I am reading the contract incorrectly. Also, there is a post by GrandWizard on Oct. 6, 2020 that states "Full interactive options will be available in a firmware update in 2021. Additional LTE data fees may apply." How much data will these new interactive options use? Will there be an updated contract that caps the liability of the customer for cellular data?

[GrandWizard]

You are responsible for your security system so if you program your panel in such a way that you generate thousands of alarm signals in a month then the overage charges will surely apply. You would probably be contacted by the central station way before that happened as they would shut you down if the situation wasn't fixed.

This would happen even with our standard IP service.

We have not been given a timeline or what the price will be for Envisalerts over LTE. I'm sure it would need a different contract as you would need a much larger data tier, certainly a lot more than 100kB

[alarm-dude]

Aside from listening to the serial bus of my alarm system, the EVL4 also listens on the local network, and I don't know what could get forwarded to the Sidekick. For instance, I have not connected any cameras or thermostats to the EVL4, but it appears to me that this is possible by adding a camera on the Eyezon website. A camera could easily send many megabytes of data in a very short period of time.

If there is a flaw in the Sidekick or EVL4 firmware that causes it to transfer excess data, my (non-expert) reading of the contract is that the customer may still potentially be held liable for the overage charges. Please let me know if I am reading the contract incorrectly. The contract states "Subscriber is solely responsible for any and all charges incurred if device is powered on and used internationally and/or any data overages from misuse or overuse whether domestic or international." The word "overuse" sounds to me to potentially include anything that causes an overage whether or not the overuse arises from misuse by the customer.

Will Eyezon warrant that the Sidekick connected to an EVL4 will not transfer any data besides alarm signals and that the Sidekick firmware won't transfer excess data beyond the minimum required for sending alarm signals?

My concerns arise from what looks to me (admittedly as a non-expert at reading legal contracts or in any governing law) as the idea of an open-ended liability for the customer. I did not find any cap on data charges in the contract. A 10GB cell phone plan might cost $50 a month, but 10GB of data at 5 cents per KB costs $500,000. Modern cellular data networks are capable of transmitting big volumes of data in a short period of time.

[GrandWizard]

I am sorry, but you're are just going to have to trust that a company that has been serving the DIY alarm communitry for 15 years isn't going to screw you.

[alarm-dude]

It isn't a question of me trusting that Eyezon isn't out to screw its customers. I have no idea of Eyezon's contract with the Boost network. It may be that in the event of an overage, someone has to pay. If a data overage arises from a problem with the EVL4 or Sidekick firmware, then my (non-expert) reading of the contract is that the customer potentially has to pay. Given the capacity of cell networks for large data transfer, this could be significant money. The intent of Eyezon is irrelevant in this case - it is a question about responsibility. It would be very comforting to have a statement from Eyezon that the customer is not responsible for a data overage in the case that the customer did not misuse the product. A customer, properly using the EVL4 should never be held responsible for overages. I previously had cellular monitoring with another DIY company, and I read through my contract and found nothing in it about excess data charges. So, putting this burden of responsibility on the customer is not a generic feature of DIY connections to alarm monitoring.