Choosing a high-quality and reasonably priced burglar alarm control panel is crucial for the alarm monitoring center. Once the burglar alarm control panel is selected, it not only relates to the user’s property and life safety, but also determines the after-sales maintenance workload and service cost of the alarm monitoring center. However, facing various burglar alarm control panel brands in the security market, there are certain difficulties in mastering the selection criteria and making the right decisions based on them. In order to make the right choice objectively and conveniently, based on our years of experience in research and development, production, and use, we believe that the following 4 aspects should be used as the basis for judgment.

1 Convenience of operation

The convenience of operation is an important criterion. No matter how good the equipment is, if the operation is inconvenient and difficult to operate, it is impossible to receive positive feedback and welcome from users. The professionalism of burglar alarm control panels is strong, especially for large burglar alarm control panels, which have a lot of operation content, so whether the method is simple is even more important.

(1) Operation method: If the burglar alarm control panel can adopt multiple operation methods, it will naturally bring great convenience to the user. Multiple methods include wireless remote control operation, keypad operation, remote landline and mobile phone operation, alarm monitoring center remote control operation, etc. If it is a simple deployment and removal of defense, it can also be controlled by changing the triggering status of the defense zone and using simple normally open or normally closed switch contacts.

(2) Regularity: The application of burglar alarm control panel, including program design and regular operation, should pay attention to regularity in the design of its embedded software, and conform to the user’s psychology and habits, making it easy to remember and operate. The operation should be closely combined with sound and light prompts, with clear display meanings, and not easily misunderstood.

(3) Daily maintenance: In addition to regular operations, equipment maintenance should also be taken into account. Some burglar alarm control panels are equipped with specialized engineering installation and testing programs, making maintenance work simple and convenient. Some burglar alarm control panels are equipped with dedicated wireless remote controls to achieve patrol function (on-site reporting when an alarm occurs).

2 Prevent human damage

Human damage includes two types: operational errors and conscious damage, such as interface line misconnection, short circuit, open circuit, electrical parameters exceeding pointer specifications, improper load utilization, etc. Unlike household appliances, even if it is a human error, the burglar alarm control panel should still have strong fault tolerance, which is due to the special requirements of the security industry.

The burglar alarm control panel should have strong anti destruction ability. Even if some circuits are in an abnormal state due to human factors, other parts can still continue to work. For example, in the case of a forced short circuit in the auxiliary power supply, not only should the power supply itself be in a self-protection state, but the communication of the burglar alarm control panel should not be affected by the auxiliary power supply. In this case, even if an illegal intruder intentionally damages, the burglar alarm control panel can still ensure communication and timely report the alarm situation to the alarm monitoring center.

3 Data and services

Whether the relevant data of the product is complete and whether the pre-sales and after-sales services are good is an important aspect. The main content should include the following.

(1) Files: To check the product’s license certificate, such as safety certificate, product certificate, etc. Whether the packaging of the product is formal, whether the user manual and spare parts are complete, especially paying attention to the instructions for use. Immature products often have non-standard user manuals, and there may even be many typos, incorrect sentences, or inappropriate descriptions. Pay attention to the qualifications of the enterprise itself. If it has an ISO international quality certificate, it can naturally increase the credibility of the product.

(2) Commitment and measures: The factory’s services include pre-sales performance introduction and training, after-sales warranty time, maintenance after the warranty period expires, as well as the institutions and measures to implement these commitments. If there is only a promise without any system or measures to ensure it, this kind of promise is just a marketing tool.

4 Product price

Price is naturally an important factor to consider. The principle of selection is to choose the best product when the price is basically in the same level. Alternatively, if the quality, functionality, service, and other aspects are basically the same, choose the product with the lowest price.

In the process of evaluating electronic products, people often use performance to price ratio as the standard. For security products, their performance and quality are of greater significance as they directly relate to the safety of users’ lives and property. If there is a quality defect, even if the price is cheap, it is not usable. In this situation, talking about cost-effectiveness becomes meaningless.

In order to quantify the applicability of burglar alarm control panels, it is recommended to use a scoring system when selecting and comparing them. But this kind of rating is not exactly the same as adding up simple scores. If any of the four aspects mentioned above have significant issues, it will have a significant impact on the overall burglar alarm control panel, just like having a “veto” nature. And the proportion of each aspect in the total score is adjusted by weighted values. As for the specific score of each item, the proportion it should account for in the total score will vary depending on the differences in standards mastered by each individual. Please assign corresponding scores to each indicator based on actual usage requirements and give a comprehensive rating to the burglar alarm control panel.