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GSM Wireless Alarm won't message me


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Hi
I’ve recently installed an alarm system on my boat. It is described as a GSM wireless system and is of the sort readily available on eBay for around £50 or less (picture below). It’s made in China and was bought from a source in the UK, and yes I know it’s dirt cheap and maybe I’m expecting too much for it to work properly, but it nearly does! All the sensors activate the alarm including a door alarm on the engine compartment hatch where the signal has to travel through a steel bulkhead. The remotes also activate and deactivate the system from the towpath.
As I really wanted the boat to send me a message should there be an intruder or a fire I’m a bit disappointed that I can’t get it to do that (which it is supposed to do). The alarm is fitted with a 1pmobile SIM card and I can send messages to it to activate/deactivate but the alarm doesn’t want to send messages to me.
The minimalistic instruction manual is in Chinglish and is not particularly helpful. There are several YouTube vidoes which purport to help but I haven’t been able to glean what I need to know from them.
Is there anybody out there who uses this system and maybe had the same problem? Any suggestions are more than welcome.

 

GSM Alarm System.jpg

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28 minutes ago, 1st ade said:

Possibly daft suggestion but is there credit on the SIM card?

 

Could be that incoming messages get through but it can't send as no credit?

Second attempt at a reply : Not a daft suggestion at all. All suggestions welcome. The is plenty of credit on the SIM card as, though it only costs 1p per message, you have to top up £10 every three months and I'm in danger of building up loads of unusable credit. Anyone know of a cheaper option?

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What troubleshooting steps have you taken so far? 

 

I'm sure there are specialist SIMs which are purpose-made for this (ie they don't have 3 monthly credit expiry, etc) but I wouldn't know their prices so its quite possible you'd get a cheaper deal with a normal SIM (but it might stop working when you least expect it, and most need it to work).

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2 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Can you try the sim card in a phone? If it can send texts from there at least you know the sim card and 1pmobile credit is OK, which narrows the range of possible causes.

Jen

I'm not at the boat at then moment but I'll take an old phone next time I go and give that a try.

2 hours ago, Onewheeler said:

Sounds as if it doesn't know your number. Try entering it in format +447xxxxxxxxx ?

That's worth a try as well.

 

45 minutes ago, Paul C said:

What troubleshooting steps have you taken so far? 

 

I'm sure there are specialist SIMs which are purpose-made for this (ie they don't have 3 monthly credit expiry, etc) but I wouldn't know their prices so its quite possible you'd get a cheaper deal with a normal SIM (but it might stop working when you least expect it, and most need it to work).

I don't know if you'd call it troubleshooting but I've tried notifying the alarm of the phone I want it to ring using several different codes from instruction leaflet and YouTube videos. It appears that there are different models of this alarm (which all look very similar) but which use different codes. I've also ordered a replacement SIM card and will be looking to switch off and reawaken the alarm with the new card in situ.

I will look into sourcing a cheaper SIM if I can find one but, providing it works, £40 a year for peace of mind isn't too bad I suppose.

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4 hours ago, Bugsworth Tippler said:

Second attempt at a reply : Not a daft suggestion at all. All suggestions welcome. The is plenty of credit on the SIM card as, though it only costs 1p per message, you have to top up £10 every three months and I'm in danger of building up loads of unusable credit. Anyone know of a cheaper option?

I use Giffgaff for all my stuff. My heating sends me a txt when it comes on so no need to top up unless credit is low. Cant remember the last time I topped up but there is still £7.95 credit on there

Last topped up in 2016 but have had £6 outage/new user credit since then. Cost is 15ppm and 5p per txt and mb. But free to other giffgaff users for a period after every top up.

 

Just a thought can you see the alarm responding as some of these devices run on 2g and wont work on certain networks. Mine is 2g only doesnt work on 3 which is why i use giffgaff (O2)

 

Edited by Loddon
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5 hours ago, Bugsworth Tippler said:

Second attempt at a reply : Not a daft suggestion at all. All suggestions welcome. The is plenty of credit on the SIM card as, though it only costs 1p per message, you have to top up £10 every three months and I'm in danger of building up loads of unusable credit. Anyone know of a cheaper option?

Swicth to EE, only have to topup £5 once a year.

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Installation of a 2g compatible SIM card from GiffGaff seems to have solved the problem and  the boat sends me a text when it is being burgled! I'm now paying 5p per text but, hopefully, I won't have a compulsory top-up until credit runs low (we'll wait and see - the advertising is deliberately obscure). This is what I always understood PAYG to be but nowadays there seems to be little difference between PAYG offerings and contracts. Another example of phone companies attempting to maximise income at the expense of customers.

 

I suppose I was expecting the 1pmobile SIM card to work because that's what I used in an EnviroTxt device I use to monitor boat temperature where it works fine.

 

Now I'll try to rewrite the Chingish manual and make myself a list of programming instructions, codes, etc., in English which any fool (that'll be me) can understand.

  • Greenie 1
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1 hour ago, Loddon said:

You wont have to top up until it runs out. My last top up was 2016 ;)

That would be nice - but the phone companies seem determined to mislead and to push contracts mislabeled as PAYG these days. If you have to pay so much a month then that's what most people would think of as a contract surely?

 

ETA : Even GiffGaff have so-called 'Goody Bags' which are just a contract by another name.

Edited by Bugsworth Tippler
Added stuff.
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55 minutes ago, Bugsworth Tippler said:

That would be nice - but the phone companies seem determined to mislead and to push contracts mislabeled as PAYG these days. If you have to pay so much a month then that's what most people would think of as a contract surely?

 

ETA : Even GiffGaff have so-called 'Goody Bags' which are just a contract by another name.

Yes except you can change tariff monthly, or if you run out of data in less than a month just start a new month.

Been on giffgaff for a while now, this month I ran out of data and got an extra free gigabyte so cant complain.

Its a good halfway house between contract and payg with no commitment.

 

ETA what I should have done is sent you a sim them we both would have got £5 free credit.

Edited by Loddon
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