| As with all things, getting something right takes | | | | can be found at the bottom of this article. |
| time, money and patience. While planning an | | | | The less frequent situation is one where you may |
| integrated home automation security system is | | | | have an existing alarm system well established in |
| no exception, there are some things you can do | | | | your house and you wish to integrate a new |
| to minimize the pain points and maximize the | | | | home automation vendor. With the wide variety |
| effectiveness of your solution. | | | | of alarm vendors available (far, far more than the |
| For many people looking to integrate a | | | | number of home automation vendors) the |
| home-automation security system, you'll have | | | | majority of integrations will be based on voltage |
| either an existing HA vendor or security system | | | | triggers and shared sensor inputs via products like |
| and you're looking for the best compliment to the | | | | Insteon's EZIO. While setups like this can be more |
| system. If you're on the side of having a home | | | | difficult to wire than a dedicated interface which |
| automation vendor selected already (be it Insteon, | | | | handles the communication of inputs in a more |
| Z-wave or UPB) and looking for a security | | | | programmatic manor, the end result can be the |
| product to integrate, look no further than Elk's | | | | same if properly thought out. |
| product lineup. The flexibility and seamless | | | | Several systems exist to design and plan your |
| integration of the M1 is unparalleled and it has | | | | home automation and security system layouts, |
| received exposure from numerous magazines and | | | | however my experience has been that tools like |
| demonstration houses. More information on | | | | Microsoft Visio (Windows) and Omnigraffle (Mac) |
| integrating the Elk M1 with Insteon and Z-wave | | | | work just as well at a fraction of the price. |