AAS 300 Wireless Home Security Alarm System Kit DIY (R)

by AAS

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 7.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B002JFL24W
• Item model number: AAS 300
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 28, 2009

Product Description

The AAS Security System provides you and your family the piece of mind that only the most advanced wireless alarm system can provide. The AAS Security System is the most affordable, technologically advanced, sophisticated, yet easy to use and install wireless home or office security systems available today. The wire-free AAS will monitor your property continually whether you are home or away. A full-featured wireless security system that combines the most popular security features in a convenient and economical package. This system offers all the bells & whistles you need to effectively protect your home from burglars.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Adequate but Challenging Alarm to Protect My Wife and Kids in California, December 22, 2010

By 

Delailah Lee - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: AAS 300 Wireless Home Security Alarm System Kit DIY (R) (Electronics)

(Delailah is my wife's name) I moved from Scottsdale (upper end area in Arizona) to Victorville, California (federal prison, lower end type town) because of a great job offer. I am married and have 3 young children. I did not want to hire a commercial home alarm company or sign up for a service. The last time we did this and I moved ealier than expected, I paid a $600 penalty to buy-out of the contract with the alarm company (the big one with blue signs that look like little stop signs).

So I did a lot of online research. I am a Harvard-trained physician so I am very particular and careful. Though obviously there is no perfect system, the AAS 300 Wireless Home Security Alarm System seemed to offer the most bang for the buck.

It has many of the features of expensive professionally-installed systems. Here is a summary:

1. The components are reliable, robust, and well-packaged.
2. You can easily expand the system by buying additional sensors, detectors, etc. tax-free and with no shipping costs directly from the company (website included in instructions).
3. I have read the complaints about numbering the remotes and I believe they are unfounded. If you read the instructions carefully and understand the system, you will understand why there are certain numbers dedicated for certain types of sensors/detectors.
4. Read the instructions 2 times BEFORE starting set-up.
5. Lay all the parts out on a table and take your time. You will see the door/window sensor are assigned certain numbers while motion and glass break sensors are assigned different numbers. This allows the system to keep track of sensors that should be on when you are at home, and sensors that should only be on when you are not at home - so the system will NOT respond to motion detectors while you are at home. (You would activate the "Home" rather than "Away" button). Otherwise, when you got up in the night to get a drink of water, you would set off the motion detector and trigger the alarm. When you press "Away" the motion detectors are recognized.
6. After you assign each sensor to the alarm system, you then install them at each door and window. i.e. Sensor 01 Front Door, Sensor 02 Kitchen Window, Sensor 03, Girl's Bedroom, etc. Type the numbers and assigned areas out and tape the printout to your main system's keypad. When the alarm is triggered you will know which area has been breached.
7. There is a back up battery in case electrical power is shut off. The loud alarm will still function without electricity. In fact, my alarm system went off. I went home to find out that the electrical company had shut off electrical power to the neighborhood for maintenance/repair. So I believe the system is designed to alarm when it detects that electrical power has been cut off.
8. When programming your system, I would NOT connect your sirens like the instructions tell you to. Do that LAST as if you accidentally turn them on while programming all your equipment, you will find out the hard way that they are VERY LOUD AND EAR-PIERCING (PERFECT to scare burglars but painful when 2 feet away and aimed directly at your ear).
9. There is a strobe light that turns on to further scare off would-be intruders. The strobe unit also has a siren sound.
10. The burglar could unplug your main siren, but the strobe light/siren unit would serve as a backup to continue making a sound. If you want, you could order several of these and scatter them throughout the house, hiding some behind the bed, etc. The burglar would be confused and probably woult not take time to hunt down each one and unplug.
11. The remote controls are encased in a beautiful pearl white case, simlar to the paint jobs on certain Lexus vehicles. The remote allows you to activate Away, Home, and Panic modes.
12. I ordered a dedicated Panic button remote for my kids. It has a BIG RED button that they can run to and press to activate the alarm. We keep this Panic remote at home at all times (the other remotes are on our key chains - they have 4 buttons and the kids might not know which little button is the panic button on the standard remote).
13. The system can call up to six telephone numbers when the alarm is activated. It was easy to program and it works. I programmed 2 cell phones and 2 land lines and it sequentially called all 4 numbers. It will keep calling until you deactivate remotely by phone (see instructions).
14. There is even a way to call out from the alarm system utilizing wireless communication, but you have to get a chip and a wireless service. I did not bother with this.
15. You can link the system to a smoke and gas detector alarm as well.
16. You can get pet-friendly motion detectors so your pets do not activate the alarm.
17. You can set up so the alarm will go off if the phone line is cut/interrupted or of another device is operating on the same frequency. (I did not do this because I live in a duplex and do not want the neighbor complaining if the phone service gets cut off during a storm (for example), but if I were in a stand-alone house with a large yard, I definitely would activate this feature).

NOTE: THE MOTION DETECTORS SENSE HEAT, AND I HAD SEVERAL FALSE ALARMS WHEN THE HEATER TURNED ON, CAUSING HOT AIR TO BLOW IN THE SENSING ZONE OF THE MOTION DETECTOR. SOLUTIONS: 1. EITHER SHUT HEATER OFF WHEN LEAVING HOUSE 2. IF YOU NEED TO HAVE THE HEATER ON (i.e. SUB-FREEZING TEMPERATURES TO PREVENT PLUMBING LINES FROM FREEZING, CRACKING, AND LEAKING) THEN SHUT THE MOTION DETECTOR SWITCHES OFF (SWITCH ON SIDE OF ACTUAL MOTION DETECTOR) 3. OR YOU CAN HIT "HOME" INSTEAD OF "AWAY" MODE (EVEN THOUGH YOU AREA LEAVING THE HOUSE) AND THE MOTION DETECTORS WILL NOT SENSE THE HEAT FROM THE HEATER - BUT YOU LOSE PROTECTION HERE BECAUSE IF AN INTRUDER BREAKS THE GLASS AND DOES NOT ACTUALLY SIDE A WINDOW FRAME OPEN THEN HE BYPASSES YOUR ALARM SYSTEM. LIKEWISE, I WOULD NOT PUT MOTION DETECTOR IN THE GARAGE AS IT MIGHT SENSE HEAT AS IT BUILDS UP DURING THE SUMMER, TRIGGERING A FALSE ALARM.

REDUNDANT LAYERS OF PROTECTION:

1. If any window or door is opened, the alarm turns on. This is your FIRST LAYER OF PROTECTION.
2. The sensor only activates the alarm if the window is opened. If the window is broken and the intruder enters WITHOUT sliding the window frame open, the sensor will NOT activate the alarm. THAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE MOTION DETECTOR. It will be your SECOND LAYER OF PROTECTION. The movement of the intruder will activate the alarm.
4. You need to place motion detectors strategically to cover all major zones in your property/house.

TWO CRITIQUES:

1. The glass break sensor that I purchased separately was a disaster. While programming it something happened to the alarm system. Even when it was OFF (DISARMED) it would suddenly go off. The alarm system indicated the glass had been broken. Even after unplugging (deactivating) the glass break sensor, the alarm system was stuck in this mode of thinking that the glass had been broken and kept alarming EVEN WHEN DISARMED. I had to deprogram ALL THE SENSORS and reprogram them. As I did this, I found it very touchy. Pressing the wrong button while re-programming each sensor on the doors, windows, and the motion detectors caused the alarm system to "jam" again and keep alarming even when DISARMED. I had to re-program the system about 11 times. Not only did I have to clear all the sensors, I had to RESET the system to the FACTORY SETTINGS and I lost all my programming data. When I meticulously focused on reprogramming, I finally got it right - except I did not have the glass detector programmed any longer. I am returning this unit and obtaining 2 more motion detectors to replace it. SUGGESTION: DO NOT USE THE REMOTES TO RE-PROGRAM THE ALARM SYSTEM SENSORS IF YOU HAVE TO ERASE THE SENSORS FROM MEMORY. IF YOU DO AND PRESS THE WRONG BUTTON ON THE REMOTE, THE ALARM SYSTEM MAY GET STUCK IN A MODE AND KEEP ALARMING EVEN WHEN UNPLUGGED AND EVEN WHEN DISARMED (If this happens, turn the alarm OFF - the switch is inside the key pad unit, found through the little rectangular hole at the bottom). WHEN DOING THIS, OF COURSE UNPLUG ALL THE SIRENS (NOISE-MAKERS) UNLESS YOU WANT TO HAVE HEARING DAMAGE. RE-PROGRAM ONLY USING THE KEYPAD ON THE MAIN UNIT.

Because I had to reset it to factory settings, I had to reprogram all 4 remotes, all the sensors, the time-delays, my personal 4-digit pass code, and the auto-dialed phone numbers. It was very frustrating, but in the end I got it to work. Plan on spending 4 to 8 hours to fix the system if it gets "jammed" like mine did.

2. The delay time for the alarm to activate sirens and strobe lights once it is triggered by a sensor can be set from 1 to 30 minutes. If you program a 60 second delay time, this is good for when you return to the house. You open the front door and you have 60 seconds to shut the alarm off by punching your 4-digit code in. However, even in the "Home" or "Panic" modes, when the alarm is activated there will still be a 60-second delay before the loud sirens and strobe lights are turned on by the system. If you are at home and someone opens the window, you probably would want the alarm to make noise and flash bright lights immediately and NOT wait 60 seconds. You can set the time to 0 seconds in which case the siren and strobe lights would sound right away. The trade-off here would be that you would have to use your remote to shut off the alarm BEFORE your open the front door. If you forget, the alarm will go off as soon as your open the door (even in the "Away" mode).

In addition to this alarm system, you can add your own deterrants.

Buy a chime/noise maker that detects motion when someone is at your front your back door.
Buy a motion detector that... Read more ›

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Alarm System, February 9, 2010

By 

AmazonJunkie - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: AAS 300 Wireless Home Security Alarm System Kit DIY (R) (Electronics)

I purchased the AAS 300 alarm system for my daughter's house since she lives alone. I was a little wary of buying this system, at first, because I found so little information on-line and Amazon's link did not go to the AAS web site ( I don't know why but it should). The price was right, though, so I took a chance. The kit came in the mail in only a few days and after overcoming a somewhat confusing programming manual, I had the system installed in about two hours. It was surprisingly easy to install and I was able to place a sensor in every entry window and door in the house along with the motion sensors. I did have some minor problems...a battery in one of the sensors was dead, one of the sirens didn't appear to work, and I mistakenly disabled the key FOBs because the image of the program sequence for recording the outgoing message was misplaced under the code sequence to disable lost FOBs. A dollar for a new battery and a trip to Home depot fixed the sensor. Downloading then printing the programming manual in proper format revealed my programming error related to the FOBs. I then sent an e-mail (the address is in the manual) to query about the non-working strobe siren and received a response back the next day. They wanted to work with me over the phone to get it working. When I told them it was difficult to get off work during the day, they offered to call AFTER HOURS to resolve my problem, which they did. A very nice person by the name of Fei determined the transmitter was bad in the siren and advised me they were sending out a replacement siren immediately, only it would be an upgraded (more expensive) version which they would provide for free to make up for the trouble I had. I received the new and better siren in two days which installed and operated perfectly. My daughter now has a fully functional, very well designed security system. Any intrusion and the alarm is set up to call me, my daughter (if not at home) and her neighbors. I have yet to have a false alarm and like any new "gadget", we've tested the system under every condition with perfect satisfaction.

Given the exceptional quality of the system and the ease of installation I would have given this product 5 stars from the start but then I thought of subtracting one star because of the minor problems I had encountered. But, because of the amazing response by this company's customer support and their quick action to address any and ALL of the problems I had with the system, they earned back their fifth star. I highly recommend this system to anyone who wants to avoid paying for overpriced, over-rated monitoring contracts.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FEELING SAFER ALREADY !!!!!, May 14, 2010

By 

Jesse Wong - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: AAS 300 Wireless Home Security Alarm System Kit DIY (R) (Electronics)

I just finished installing this system. It was rather simple, however, it did take me about an hour to figure out how to properly mount the door/window sensors. Tip: Make sure you install the magnet so that the contact is to the right of the sensor or it won't trip. You'll know when you have good placement when you trip the sensor and the little red LED on the sensor lites up.

After installing it, I have come up with a simple way to install it without much effort and running around form room to room.
1 Unpack everything and lay out neatly.
2 Mark all door/window sensors from 12 on up.
3 Mark motion sensors from 01 on up.
4 Program motion sensors FIRST (after you finish programming, MAKE SURE YOU TURN THEM OFF)
5 Match up door/window sensors to a magnet.(put them together and bring them apart to see if the battery is still good )
6 Program all door/window sensors.
7 Once you properly programmed all, THEN install them.

Tip: If you use the double sided tape they provide, test placement first before you stick it down because it sticks GOOD !

After you've mounted all the sensors, test them. You can carry the central unit with you as you go from sensor to sensor. Change the delay time to 0 so you don't have to wait so long. Turn the alarm ON and trip each sensor. If you programmed it correctly, it should read the number you marked on the sensor.

There's no right/wrong way to install the sensors, just as long as the contact is on the correct side. I did read from another buyer that you may want to put the magnet piece on the actual glass. So if the burglar breaks the glass, this will trip the alarm. As oppose to installing in on the frame of the window, the burglar can simply break the glass and get in without having to slide the window open.