Sending e-mail from the Elk Security System to your Blackberry
George Marshall September 3 2008 11:03:35 PM
I have recently installed an Elk M1 security system in our home. It is a very advanced and powerful platform. One feature of it is the ability to send e-mails from the ethernet component (M1XEP). The M1XEP is a slick device that is a ethernet device server with a RS-232 serial port interface. With it I can access my system via the web and also send e-mail messages.Here are some tips and hints for setting it up and refining the delivery of the e-mail specifically to a blackberry device.
My goal as I set out on this was to alert me and my wife of any alarm (Burglar, Fire, Medical etc) from the Elk system in separate inbox on our blackberry with a distinct notification in the quickest and most reliable manner regardless of where we may be. This is how I met that goal:
1. Get the alert as quick as possible. Since the only time we need to be notified of an alarm is when we are away I decided to use our blackberry devices which we have on us when we leave the house. With that in mind, all email from the Elk security system is to be routed to our blackberrys. I started by just sending the e-mail to my regular e-mail account which in turn forwarded it to my blackberry. The response time on this The method of delivery I chose was the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) e-mail service. Using BIS rather than just POP or e-mail forwarding satisfies my goal that it had to be sent quickly! With BIS, on average I am seeing the message on my blackberry within 14 seconds, some as quick as 4 seconds. That satisfies the quick response goal I had. Here is a document which outlines the different methods of getting e-mail on your blackberry. Again, This type of notification (BIS) is the quickest per this document:
http://www.blackberryforums.com/rim-software/680-faq-what-methods-receiving-email-blackberry.html
2. Set up the e-mail. Now that I have determined which method to use (BIS) to send alerts to the blackberry I had to set up my blackberry to receive them. In my situation my provider is AT&T. Check with your provider to see what the URL is for setting up BIS on your blackberry. For AT&T it is https://webclient.blackberry.net/WebMail/Window.jsp?WT.svl=calltoaction&site=mycingular. I had to put in my PIN and IMEI number (which you can find on your Blackberry's status screen) to set up with e-mail client. Generally if you already have an e-mail account associated with your blackberry account you will already see an entry on the website for this.
3. Limit the inbox to just Elk alerts. Now if you wanted to set up a new BIS account for just the Elk e-mails you could filter it accordingly. In my situation I wanted a separate inbox on my blackberry which was exclusively for Elk alerts and since I never intend on using this new e-mail address (myname@att.blackberry.com.) for anything else I filtered everything else out. Here is a screenshot from AT&T's BIS setup website.
I gave it the name of "Elk Security Alerts" and applied the filter based on the subject (since all my e-mails have the same subject "Email alert from ElkSecurity" (the name ElkSecruity is derived from the device name in the TCP/IP settings on the M1XEP). The other part of this is that I checked "Level 1 notification". This allows me to differentiate the Elk alerts without even seeing the message (see my note on "Setting up a distinct notification".
Once I have the filter set up on all e-mails with the subject "Email Alert from ElkSecurity" the next step is to exclude all other e-mails. This was accomplished by selecting the radio button "Do not forward messages to device" when no filters apply.
4. Setting up a distinct notification. The next step I took was to set up a distinct notification on my blackberry so regardless of what profile I had my phone in (Loud, vibrate, quiet, normal etc) I wanted to get the alert. I don't appreciate a cell phone ringing in the middle of dinner or church so I typically set it to quiet. That was I can still tell if I got a message via it vibrating, but still be discreet about it. However, in a situation where my house is being burglarized or burning down I want to get the alert regardless. To satisfy that, from the blackberry’s I selected Profiles - Advanced – Menu – Edit. Select Level 1 messages. Since I set a filter to treat all Elk alerts as level 1 messages I can differentiate the notification method on them. I applied the settings in the table below to EVERY profile (Loud, vibrate, quiet, normal etc) on my blackberry. Note - if you get a lot of SMS messages, this solution may not be optimal for you since SMS text messages are level 1 messages.
| Out of Holster | Vibrate+Tone |
| Tune | Alarm_HighAlert |
| Volume | High (set to Escalating for Quiet and Vibrate Profiles) |
| Number of Beeps | 3 |
| Repeat Notification | LED Flashing |
| Number of Vibrations | 3 |
| In Holster | Vibrate+Tone |
| Tune | Alarm_HighAlert |
| Volume | High (set to Escalating for Quiet and Vibrate Profiles) |
| Number of Beeps | 3 |
| Repeat Notification | LED Flashing |
| Number of Vibrations | 3 |
5. Set up the alert on the Elk. I then configured the e-mail address on the M1XEP. Important TIP: Include the phone number of the dispatcher serving your area. I put this in the e-mail message that gets sent to my blackberry. The reason is if I am out of state and I get an alert dialing 911 will send me to dispatch in the local area where I am currently at. I would rather put the direct number of the dispatcher in my message so I can them direct without having to look up a number and to also keep the response time on my end as quick as possible. I know this may seem unnecessary to have the system set up to send an alarm when you already have it hooked up to a central station. However, I am of the opinion that I would rather use all means necessary to notify the authorities.
I know this may seem unnecessary to have the system set up to send an alarm when you already have it hooked up to a central station. However, I am of the opinion that I would rather use all means necessary to notify the authorities. The end result is that you get a level 1 message in red bold text sent to your blackberry with a distinct tone.
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