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Hybrid alarm system with monitoring

4K views 13 replies 2 participants last post by  nostriluu 
#1 ·
I want to have a basic alarm system set up with monitoring, but also extend it with home automation. I can get the first part for about $600 up-front and $170/year for the monitoring, but from there the companies I've talked to in the Montreal area either don't know how to or can't be bothered to help, or want to do it all for very high prices. For example, the Chubb affiliate I spoke to, with their Simon XT system, can only sell a z-wave package if it's based on cellular communications, which excludes internet access and costs an extra $190/year. The internet is reliable enough given there's still a siren that I don't need a cellular based system, but I want monitoring since it adds value and is not expensive, especially after the insurance discount.

What I want from the basic package is door & window sensors (wired sensors are already installed in the home, though they are apparently decades old), two to three motion detectors (two are already installed), a small, subtle keypad, fire detectors, and basic monitoring. I would prefer a professional calibrates the system and ~$600 inclusive for this part is acceptable.

For automation, I want open standards (z-wave) based door and garage opening, and other features such as thermostat and light control in the future.

I guess at a minimum the alarm and z-wave networks need to connect to coordinate door locking with the alarm (eg the door lock's keypad can toggle the alarm), and I don't want to have to use multiple apps.

I have Philips Hue now and have written some standalone scripts for it, but at this point would need to commit to some kind of automation ecosystem, which I guess would be used to bridge the alarm and z-wave network.

I strongly prefer systems that support open source (they're all probably based on it under the covers), I can write software and do basic wiring, but don't have very much time and the alarm part has to be completely reliable and hassle-free.

I'd be super happy with a Montreal based alarm company sympathetic to this use case. I'm ok with spending up to around $1200 up front if it covers everything I'm looking for.

Thanks for suggestions!
 
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#2 ·
Find a local company that installs DSC or Ademco Vista (now Honeywell) based systems. DSC is preferable in this case. Then get EnvisaLink EVL-4 board and contractor can connect it to the alarm board (or you can do it, it's simple). That covers you on both ends. They can monitor what they installed, and you get all the signals via EVL-4. Pair it with one of the home automation systems on the market (open source or not) and you can go wild extending it with your own wired or wireless sensors.
I have done the same and paired it with HomeSeer. Works treats. HomeSeer is not cheap, but twice a year they have 50% off event (next one coming on Black Friday). That's how I got the server software and Z-Net Z-wave controller.
 
#3 ·
@753951 That's interesting, thanks. But I really should have mentioned I don't want a cloud-based system or any unnecessary dependency on proprietary third parties. It's baffling why it would be necessary when it could be completely self-contained. All I need is a simple real-time API I can connect to, to check the current alarm status, enable or disable it. Then the alarm is just a self-contained component of the overall system. Is there such a thing? The "best" option I see for this device is you have to scrape requests to their cloud based service, which is unreliable (they could change it at any time, go out of business, etc) and just gross.
 
#7 ·
One of Canadian smart home automation and security stores lists the following models as tested with EnvisaLink EVL-4:

Tested and working with the following panels:
PC1555 / PC1555 MX
PC1575
PC5010 (Power832)
PC5020 (Power864)
PC1616
PC1832
PC1864
Vista 10P
Vista 15P
Vista 20P
Vista 21iP
Vista 128P
Vista 250P
Not compatible with DSC PC1550 Classic or older, Alexor, Impassa, 9047, Neo
 
#8 ·
Yes, it's "TPI". And it's much better for DSC systems, than it is for Vista's (not EVL-4's fault, but rather the nature of how each system exposes itself to outside world).

In the beginning I used telnet to connect directly to my EnvisaLink and issued commands (more like sending code sequences) directly. Since I have Vista, it took me a while to get hang of it. But guy who developed plugin for HomeSeer has done fantastic job. It's fully integrated. You get full control of the system (arm, disarm, bypass zone, etc.), plus you get instant event notifications (motion detected/expired, door/window opened/closed, etc.). You get the picture. Writing event handlers to react is then easy.

For example, I have Z-wave enabled door locks. So, 5 minutes after door is closed, it is automatically locked. When alarm is put into stay or away mode, all doors are instantly locked. List goes on...
 
#9 ·
That's great to hear, thanks. I've worked with complex servers so as long as the basics "just work" I would much rather go the open source/local server route, I see there are libraries that provide the necessary functionality, or I could set up with node-red, and EVL-4 seems like the only choice right now.
 
#10 · (Edited)
I have an alarm installer I like working with, who does installations and sets up the monitoring via connect2home. He's installed a DSC/EVL-4 setup for me at one location, but didn't provide me full access (though I have the code for "user 40;" doesn't that provide full access?). He claims that would be a liability issue. Is that normal?

The house I'm in does have an existing DSC 1832 system from ADT, and the installer was able to reset it, but apparently it's hard wired to use the phone line, so it seems I will have to buy a new system.

The installer hasn't worked with smart homes much, but is evaluating the Interlogix Simon XT, which has its own z-wave based smart home system called Ultrasync.

Is that a totally proprietary (aside from using z-wave) system? I want "one app," but not if it's a limiting proprietary ecosystem where only a subset of z-wave devices can be used without full programming language level access. It at least needs to have a reliable API that's available from a local (behind my firewall) application (OpenHAB looks like a good choice for the application). The supposed contact email for developers at Interlogix doesn't work, and I suspect their "published API developer's program" is for a closed community. This is about the level of information I've got so far: https://www.whosampled.com/sample/2...My-Sleeves-Interlogix-SIMON-XT-System-Basics/

If it's not suitable, I'm wondering if I'd be better off with AD2USB, The AlarmDecoder Store than the EVL-4. The reason being I think it provides more ability to program, in conjunction with OpenHAB. For example, I have a couple of in-window air conditioners in the house, I'd like to be able to exclude them from sensors at times. The installer has suggested using magnets for this purpose, which seems dicey. I don't think EVL-4 would enable reprogramming sensors via a program, but the AlarmDecoder would.

Thanks!
 
#11 ·
Not giving out admin code to end users is a norm. I don't like it either. But I'm not sure it has anything to do with liability. I think it's more about protecting their turf.

Consider EVL-4 like programmable equivalent of your alarm system keypad. Anything you can do with keypad, you can do with EVL-4 via API. For example, if you can bypass any sensor via keypad, you can do the same with EVL-4. You don't even need admin code if you don't need it for keypad to bypass sensor (and most systems are set up to not require admin code for bypass).

For example, this is how portion of my EVL-3 setup looks like in my home automation server:



All actions you see as buttons are available in event handlers, scripts, etc. You can query properties (like state, timestamps) of each device, etc.
 
#13 ·
Once EVL-4 is activated on EyezOn web site (one time process) you connect it to the security system control board (there is PDF document on EyezOn web site that you can download that explains how it's connected).

Once connected, as I said, it behaves like additional, programmable, keypad/control module. You are basically, programmatically, sending keys to the security system. Just like you type on alarm keypad. You do have at least one user code to disarm your system, don't you? Well, that's the code you would send via EVL-4 to security system. Of course, not having installer code, you can not execute every supported command, but, normally, these are not needed in day-to-day use. All normal functions work with your user code.

That's on the lowest level. Home automation servers usually have higher level functions (natively or via add-on modules or plug-ins) that encapsulate these low level calls, and present them to the user like I showed on the picture in previous post. That's very similar to the "arm" button on your keypad. It's just more user friendly way of typing bunch of codes.
 
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