I have stopped using the key fob for that very reason and installed the extra loud auxiliary siren in my house, but I agree, some sort of obvious blinking light would be useful. Instead of the fob, I use the smartphone app.
Maybe, as a stopgap, they could even program the base station lights to blink when the 'countdown' begins. (I don't know if that happens or not, I've got the light turned off) That would weaken the base station security a bit but I don't think significantly so.
I love the blinking light sensor idea though, I'd put one in my Living room, one in the basement, and one in my bedroom. It should trigger when the doorbell rings as well. I agree that SS is missing a significant amount of revenue. As we age, two things almost certainly happen:
1) We become more concerned with security. I've studied the martial arts for 15 years, at least, but at the age of 70, I am NOT the fighter I used to be.
2) We lose some amount of hearing and eyesight.
There is a synergy there that ALL of the security monitoring systems seem to ignore.
They will never have the base blink or light or make noise during the countdown. This is a major design element to reduce the chances of an invader finding and disabling the base before it sends the alarm to the monitoring center. An external strobe (preferably outdoor rated) and/or an alarm controlled switch would be massively saleable.
Has anyone tried to hook up a strobe light or something similar in addition to the SimpliSafe external siren? I'm unimpressed with the "ear-splitting 105Db" siren, and I'd love to add my own sound-and-light annunciator to my "old" (SS2) system.
I have been using Simplisafe at home for about 6 months now after using it for over 3 years at my business. At home I previously had a 2Gig system monitored by Brinks. I gave up a few amenities since SS is just a security system where the 2Gig is more of a security/home automation system, and that's fine - I was able to easily find other solutions for the home automation stuff. I'm very happy with SS, and obviously wouldn't have changed at home if I wasn't very satisfied with how it works at my business.
That being said, there is one feature I REALLY miss from my 2Gig days, and that is being able to tell at a glance from across the room whether or not the system is armed. The 2Gig panel glowed red when it was armed and green when it was not armed. With the Simplisafe, you have to walk up to the panel and push a button, or at least get very close to a button, before it wakes up and displays its status.
Why is this important? Say I'm upstairs getting ready for bed and my wife says "hey honey, did anyone arm the system?" The panel is downstairs, so if you're not sure you have to go downstairs just to check. With the 2Gig you could tell at a glance from a distance.
Similarly, if I want to open say my back patio door and I'm not sure if the system is armed or not, I have to actually walk over to the panel to check, where in the past I could tell by just glancing in the direction of the panel.
Some sort of red/green indicator that stays on full time would definitely be helpful.
With SimpliSafe, that indicator is on the Base Station, not the Keypad. When it's constantly blue, that means that the system is armed and ready to trigger.
Of course, if your system is connected to the SimpliSafe app, you'd be able to use it to check status as well, wherever you are.
I understand the visual indication on the base station. However, the base station is hidden out of view in a different room on a different floor of the house, which is normally the recommendation for this system. I doubt many people have the base station near the keypad. The base station indication isn't helpful.
I'll echo the original poster's request for a visual indicator, but with a twist: how about adding a remote indicator?
Replace the sensor part of the motion sensor enclosure with a large LED and use that to echo the status LED from the base station.
Why? Because many of us have the base station in the kitchen, family room, or other "main" area of the house, but typically enter through the garage. I'd love to see a clear indicator of system status as soon as I open the garage door. Doing so would prevent me from setting the system off by being unaware that someone else in the house had set the alarm and left [through the main door]. It *has* happened....
Similarly, the OP could hang this remote indicator near the bedroom and be able to know the system status at a glance.
Please, Simplisafe, consider offering us a remote status indicator. Thank you.
We know it's blue. But... the Base is in a central place. So it's either NOT at the front door, or NOT at the garage-house entry or NOT at the Master Bedroom. Even still, we wouldn't want a bright, glowing blue light in the Master. Please follow up with rfas' idea.
Note: A second (or more) keypad is not necessarily the answer. Nice to show the Off, Home and Away in big circles.
but the text is tiny. MAKE IT BIGGER!!
Just wondering when you'll have available an external alarm box similar to the one released by 'ring'.
I have five of your external sirens - but they are no deterrent in the dead of night. Nor are they any assistance when the siren is ringing as there is no strobe or flashing light to identify the property where the alarm is sounding from.
Please could you look into providing such a solution.
I am a premium subscriber even though I cannot avail of the monitoring I am very happy with the system - just get me an alarm box please!!??
The ring alarm system also allows you to link to any of their cameras with built in sirens so you can have the light come on if the camera has one as well as sound the siren on the camera, such as with the ring floodlight camera (which has a speaker/siren and floodlight)
When I told SS before placing my order that this was one of my ‘must haves ‘ for a system, I was explicitly told that an external ‘bell box’ (highly visible like other systems have) was coming within months. I then ordered the system believing what I was told at the time. This was 2 years ago and needless to say a bell box never came out… When I called SS to follow up on this no one knew of plans for such a product. Should have known better than to trust their assurances…
Recommend that the next generation of keypads have a small low power led that blink every 3 seconds or so when on home mode. Help understand by glancing if the system needs to be armed or disarmed.
Right now the main indicator for the armed state of the system would be the Base Station - exactly for the reason you said: to save battery on the Keypad. But I'll pass this on to our dev team.
Thanks. Shouldn't the base station be kept out of view to prevent an intruder from quickly finding it and destroying it before the base sends an alarm signal?
I know the base can light up, but the LED on the keypad is in a more visible location next to the entry doors.
The Base Station's light does turn off when an alarm is triggered, and it doesn't make any sounds until the main sirens start. We wouldn't say the Base Station needs to be totally out of view, just out of immediate reach from any points of entry.
In our family we are coming and going all the time. It would be nice if SimpliSafe could make a sensor that let you know with the alarm is active, especially for any instant type alarm setting. This would be a great addition for customers with multi level home with entries on both floors. It could be as simple as offering a sensor you could place near the main entry with a light (Red for active) to let you see the alarm is active. Of course it would need a better power source than the little wafer battery on the current sensors
Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation
originally titled Alarm light
@skippy36g right now no, we do not have a component that has a strobe light function.
For users who could benefit from that kind of notification, for example the hard of hearing, we encourage the use of Smart Alerts through the SimpliSafe app. Don't forget that alerts for cameras and alarms are available even without a subscription!
The outside alarm is good and loud, however with the sound echoing among the houses many times it is hard to determin which house has alarm. It would be nice to have a very bright LED strobe light on the alarm. This would help identify the house when alarm activates especially at night. The best would be if sound and strobe could be turned on/off seperately when alarm activated. Some situation would work best if just strobe without sound and other sound without strobe.
Actually, this would be a good addition as some communities require that a beacon light be on the exterior that is visible to the street for emergency responders to locate easier when an active alarm is going.
It would be nice of there was a an addon status light that you could mount below, above, or to the side of the keypad to indicate when the system is armed (maybe showing a dim red light).
Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation
originally titled status light
I set up something like this using a smart bulb on my alarm.com system and it has been a lifesaver. There are five of us in the house and someone is always going in or out late at night and it's easy to forget to check the app to see if the alarm is armed and even then, at least with alarm.com, the app is not always up to date so you'd also have to remember to refresh the app status. So many many false alarms until I rigged this up. It's not like we are some kind of Norman Rockwell nuclear family that all go to sleep at the same time and tuck each other into bed. I'm astounded that this isn't a standard feature for alarm systems. I'd like to migrate to simplisafe but this one feature is holding me back. My request for simplisafe would be just a dedicated status light that could be wall mounted. My fancy smart bulb often gets disconnected from the system after power outages and then I have to go through this whole "learning" procedure with alarm.com. I'd happily pay extra to buy something like this from simplisafe.
Right now the main indicator for your system status is the Base Station. You can find a list of the colors and their state in our Help Center article here.
In the meantime, I'll pass this along to our dev team as a feature request.
A simple LED light that mirrors the base station’s LED to indicate the current state of the system in a visible location. It would be great if it also included a speaker to mirror the base station’s voice prompts but the latter isn’t strictly necessary.
Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation
originally titled Arm state indicator
Can it really be that difficult to come up with an external strobe? It doesn't need to be that large, but bright enough to distinguish in which property, within such a close knit community of houses, the alarm is going off!
Many people have been asking for this for over 2 years!
Come on SimpliSafe, pull your finger out.
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glenbarrington
216 Messages
3 years ago
Maybe, as a stopgap, they could even program the base station lights to blink when the 'countdown' begins. (I don't know if that happens or not, I've got the light turned off) That would weaken the base station security a bit but I don't think significantly so.
I love the blinking light sensor idea though, I'd put one in my Living room, one in the basement, and one in my bedroom. It should trigger when the doorbell rings as well. I agree that SS is missing a significant amount of revenue. As we age, two things almost certainly happen:
1) We become more concerned with security. I've studied the martial arts for 15 years, at least, but at the age of 70, I am NOT the fighter I used to be.
2) We lose some amount of hearing and eyesight.
There is a synergy there that ALL of the security monitoring systems seem to ignore.
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0
sevensiamesecats
Advocate
•
2.2K Messages
3 years ago
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rosspatterson
1 Message
2 years ago
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rfas
6 Messages
2 years ago
That being said, there is one feature I REALLY miss from my 2Gig days, and that is being able to tell at a glance from across the room whether or not the system is armed. The 2Gig panel glowed red when it was armed and green when it was not armed. With the Simplisafe, you have to walk up to the panel and push a button, or at least get very close to a button, before it wakes up and displays its status.
Why is this important? Say I'm upstairs getting ready for bed and my wife says "hey honey, did anyone arm the system?" The panel is downstairs, so if you're not sure you have to go downstairs just to check. With the 2Gig you could tell at a glance from a distance.
Similarly, if I want to open say my back patio door and I'm not sure if the system is armed or not, I have to actually walk over to the panel to check, where in the past I could tell by just glancing in the direction of the panel.
Some sort of red/green indicator that stays on full time would definitely be helpful.
5
darndale
4 Messages
1 year ago
Just wondering when you'll have available an external alarm box similar to the one released by 'ring'.
I have five of your external sirens - but they are no deterrent in the dead of night. Nor are they any assistance when the siren is ringing as there is no strobe or flashing light to identify the property where the alarm is sounding from.
Please could you look into providing such a solution.
I am a premium subscriber even though I cannot avail of the monitoring I am very happy with the system - just get me an alarm box please!!??
Best regards,
David
Honorary Simplisafe Ambassador Ireland
3
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deldawley
5 Messages
1 year ago
Recommend that the next generation of keypads have a small low power led that blink every 3 seconds or so when on home mode. Help understand by glancing if the system needs to be armed or disarmed.
3
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oldingr
2 Messages
10 months ago
In our family we are coming and going all the time. It would be nice if SimpliSafe could make a sensor that let you know with the alarm is active, especially for any instant type alarm setting. This would be a great addition for customers with multi level home with entries on both floors. It could be as simple as offering a sensor you could place near the main entry with a light (Red for active) to let you see the alarm is active. Of course it would need a better power source than the little wafer battery on the current sensors
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skippy36g
2 Messages
10 months ago
Is there any way I can have my Simpisafe system trigger a strobe light?
Is Simpisafe developing such a strobe light?
4
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billfasoli
2 Messages
9 months ago
It would be nice of there was a an addon status light that you could mount below, above, or to the side of the keypad to indicate when the system is armed (maybe showing a dim red light).
2
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ironi
2 Messages
7 months ago
A simple LED light that mirrors the base station’s LED to indicate the current state of the system in a visible location. It would be great if it also included a speaker to mirror the base station’s voice prompts but the latter isn’t strictly necessary.
1
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Pystlepakka
1 Message
2 months ago
Can it really be that difficult to come up with an external strobe? It doesn't need to be that large, but bright enough to distinguish in which property, within such a close knit community of houses, the alarm is going off!
Many people have been asking for this for over 2 years!
Come on SimpliSafe, pull your finger out.
0