HomeSeer Alarm Panel - Concepts?

[ezmaass]

Hi,

I'm looking to create a virtual alarm system within HomeSeer. Some of the concepts seems straight forward, but I could use some insight from others who have done this to get over a few hurdles. Here's the path I've been taking:

- Create a "virtual device" that represents the alarm system. Within the device I've created a few states: (a) disarmed, (b) armed - home, (c) armed - away, and (d) code correct. My intention is that the device would change states as these modes are requested. The last mode, "code correct," would be set only if / when the correct code was received by the HSTouch keypad.

- Within HSTouch, I've created a key panel for entering a code that gets captured into a text box. Now, this is where I'm getting hung up. I'd like to have HSTouch essentially try to set the state of the virtual alarm device to the value of the text box. Presumably, only if the code matches the "code correct" state, would an event trigger that disarms the system. I can't seem to figure out how to pass a text value as a device state, though. Looks like it may be possible to do via a script parameter, but I didn't want to go there if not necessary.

Perhaps I'm making this more complicated, though, and overlooking a much more simplistic approach? I'd appreciate any insights on how others have tackled the design of a virtual alarm. I'm aware that there's also a BLSecurity plugin (that appears to handle all of this?) - but I'd enjoy doing it from the ground up, while also avoiding the need to rely on a plugin.

Thanks!

[Eman]

Are you adventurous? Do you use Node-RED?
I know of one, all need to do is to modify it with the HomeSeer Nodes and off you go.

Eman.

[jmaddox]

Are you adventurous? Do you use Node-RED?
I know of one, all need to do is to modify it with the HomeSeer Nodes and off you go.

Eman.

which panel works with node red?

[Eman]

What do you think of this? : https://proknx.com/nodered/security-...ection-system/The Key Pad thing could be crafted at the input end (That assumes you are good at Node-RED) You can give it a try. It looks interesting! But if you can't adapt that one and want to start from scratch there is this one : https://flows.nodered.org/node/node-red-contrib-alarm


Eman.

[pcburcham]

I'm using a Fire HD 8 tablet with Google Play store installed, Michael McSharry's mcsMQTT plugin, Mosquitto broker on the same host as HS4, and setup with MQTT Alarm Panel: http://thanksmister.com/android-mqtt-alarm-panel/ Pretty well documented and it looks and works great. It's geared toward Home Assistant, so it may take a minute to get your head around how everything would work in HS, but once you do it's fairly simple.

McSharry's plugin creates a virtual device that you can use to monitor the state of the control panel. Your events will fire based on that state. The control panel is controlled by issuing the MQTT Topic/Payload command sets (which are documented) through HS events. You won't even need a virtual device for these unless you want them, but I opted to limit the physical interaction to the alarm panel for simplicity.

i.e. Alarm Home is activated on the control panel > status device in HS reflects change of "Armed" > Event watches for a door or window sensor to open > Event fires an MQTT command topic of "Pending" once a sensor is tripped and a timer starts > code is entered on the keypad and alarm is disabled > status device updates to "Disarmed" in HS and the event containing your alarm actions is cancelled > Or, the code isn't entered on the control panel and the timer runs out, sending an MQTT command of "Triggered" and all heck breaks loose when your alarm actions event fires.

It is very fast and has been extremely reliable for me. I bought a molded wall mount on Amazon when I bought the tablet and have it powered up with PoE via adapter. Plugged it into a UPS and it has been good to go. The site links to the apps you'd need and the project on GitHub. Once you get it set up it's great. It just requires some planning and scenario testing.

[fresnoboy]

Personally, I like my automation subsystems to work standalone mode and can function if the automation system (HS or anything else) is updating or offline for some reason. An Elk or DSC system with plugins is highly useful when connected to HS, and the set of sensors available, esp in terms of wireless ones, is much greater. Plus, for home resale value, it's a lot easier for the new homeowner not to have rebuild it with a conventional system.

You can still build virtual keypads in HS and the rest if you prefer to use those interfaces, but when you figure the total cost including time into it, I think most folks will be better offwith a traditional panel that is integrated instead of building it into hass.io or HS.

We have an Elk M1G system, and really like it. More important than the panel is making sure the sensors and contacts that are wired into the panel are useful and work well. The M1G has been super reliable and I have window/door/motion sensors wired in to it that make it really useful using the M1G plugin to HS. I have heard good things abouT DSC as well.

thx
mike

[JRose]

Personally, I like my automation subsystems to work standalone mode and can function if the automation system (HS or anything else) is updating or offline for some reason. An Elk or DSC system with plugins is highly useful when connected to HS, and the set of sensors available, esp in terms of wireless ones, is much greater. Plus, for home resale value, it's a lot easier for the new homeowner not to have rebuild it with a conventional system.

You can still build virtual keypads in HS and the rest if you prefer to use those interfaces, but when you figure the total cost including time into it, I think most folks will be better offwith a traditional panel that is integrated instead of building it into hass.io or HS.

We have an Elk M1G system, and really like it. More important than the panel is making sure the sensors and contacts that are wired into the panel are useful and work well. The M1G has been super reliable and I have window/door/motion sensors wired in to it that make it really useful using the M1G plugin to HS. I have heard good things abouT DSC as well.

thx
mike

Agree!!! Everything works stand alone and HS just ties it all together without the cloud. Elk M1G with UltraM1G3 plugin works great.

Jeff

[Eman]

Notice that the OP is experimenting with software? On several times he mentions "virtual alarm".

Hardware alarms are the must have and it's all good to the extent that you own the property (Let's assume he doesn't and reserve judgement on that too)

It's also worth mentioning that the more you can tinker with HomeSeer, gives you the pleasure out the pretty penny you paid for the License and that there is so many ways you can "skin a cat" in HomeSeer

You could also roll your own hardware version using this gear :https://www.unipi.technology/ (Can work as stand alone but you can also interface the project with HomeSeer using these nodes : https://flows.nodered.org/node/node-red-contrib-homeseer and https://flows.nodered.org/node/@unip...rib-unipi-evok)

But you could also go really economical and use Arduino or Raspberry PI


Eman.

[ezmaass]

Thanks folks for the interesting feedback.

Yes, Eman - I'm primarily playing with the idea of a fully software based "virtual alarm" in HomeSeer. I do own the property, so hardware isn't necessarily a problem, but I do like the idea of a fully custom approach, especially where I can modify it as time goes on. I have door contacts and motion sensors already integrated into HomeSeer, so I'm also trying not to duplicate those with custom devices specifically for use with the alarm - I like the idea of serving both automation and alarm with one set of devices.

I haven't yet played with node red or MQTT, but I'll look into both as potentially good glue for doing something here. For the most part, I feel I can get very close even without them, but I was getting hung up on essentially taking input to a device control state from the tablet's virtual keypad that I built. Does anyone have any suggestions on passing data to a device from HSTouch?

Thanks!

[Eman]

AllHailJ demonstrated a keypad for HStouch here : https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...ad-for-hstouch I guess he can provide more insight on that.


Eman.

[fresnoboy]

AllHailJ demonstrated a keypad for HStouch here : https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...ad-for-hstouch I guess he can provide more insight on that.


Eman.

The M1 keypad in that thread looks very cool. Still, I would hate to see my wife's reaction to the alarm going off accidentally and the HS keypad down because of some mandatory windows update taking all the virtual keypads offline. Security is something I think needs to work in standalone mode...

[Eman]

The M1 keypad in that thread looks very cool. Still, I would hate to see my wife's reaction to the alarm going off accidentally and the HS keypad down because of some mandatory windows update taking all the virtual keypads offline. Security is something I think needs to work in standalone mode...

That can happen if you have designed the whole system around one server that is HomeSeer. But also don't forget that the software side is used as input and visualizing the status of the incorporated hardware. So to mitigate that you design a fail safe into it. (A simple example is not to wire the siren on the NC of a relay) That part in the brackets explains a lot. Even a solid state relay can't trigger until it's instructed Or if there is loss of power the siren doesn't go off . So in case of the Elk M1G keypad, it's directly controlling the relays (It's a self contained micro controller/computer)

Optional :

Solid State Relay vs Electromagnetic Relay



Eman

[jgreenberg01]

Notice that the OP is experimenting with software? On several times he mentions "virtual alarm".

Hardware alarms are the must have and it's all good to the extent that you own the property (Let's assume he doesn't and reserve judgement on that too)

It's also worth mentioning that the more you can tinker with HomeSeer, gives you the pleasure out the pretty penny you paid for the License and that there is so many ways you can "skin a cat" in HomeSeer
Eman.

This.

I was in a situation that I needed to be near my dad for an unknown period of time. This was in an area that I did not want to live permanently. I wanted to design a software-only solution, aside from the z-wave sensors and sirens, that was not only portable, but easily customizable/expandable for when I moved out of the rental and into a home that I own.

I use a ton-o-virtual devices to set up zones that can be set as immediate/delayed alarm, have the ability to bypass, and be renamed by any user (so no coding would be necessary). I opted to keep the passwords and phone numbers (for sms/Pushover notifications) separately in an ini file, but also editable from HSTouch screens.

Scripts and events drive the system, but HSTouch is used to maintain how the system is set up, starting from this screen:



System configuration is accessed here:



Zones are configured from the Zone Management screen:



And the status of all of it can be seen on the main screen. Right now all windows and doors are green to shown as closed, when a zone(s) are opened, the wondow/door turns red:



It worked out really well - when I finally bought my next home, it was a breeze to add & rename zones and cameras as needed.

Aaaand, as Eman says... I feel o-so-much better about the investment in HS3!