Communication between alarm and HS

[IanIreland]

I have HS4 and a Cytech Comfort house alarm.
I have the Cytech Comfort plugin, but the developer is not doing any further development on the plugin :-(
I want to get feedback from the alarm into HS when some things change state or an event has happened that is not 'covered' by the existing plugin.
One thought is that I can switch an Output on the alarm on and off. The outputs are 12v with positive being the always-on terminal. Is there something I could connect to output that I could then monitor the changes in HS?

[mulu]

You could use an Arduino if your PC that runs HomeSeer is close by/same room. You will have to get the 12V down to 5V and you will have to purchase the Arduino plugin.

[Wade]

A zwave sensor with external input capability (some door/window sensors for example) combined with a relay with 12VDC coil might work.

[Michael McSharry]

There is a multitude of ways to interface a binary input to HS. I recently described in a motion sensor thread use of a RF device that sells for a couple dollars that is often used as the guts of the four button RF remotes. It has pins for 5 to 24 volts, ground, and four discrete dry contacts. When the input is activated it sends a digital code corresponding to which of the four inputs are activated. A RF receiver such as Sonoff/MQTT or RFXCOM is used at the HS side.

zwave solution or any favorite technology will have a digital input notification device. I prefer WiFi for cost and flexibility using something like $5 Sonoff basic if you can plug it into mains power. If battery operation is needed then a Zigbee door/window sensor is a good choice where your 12v activation drives a coil to create magnetic field to take the place of the magnet. It could also be done with other sensors that have a binary state.

The idea of a wire from the alarm to HS does not appeal to me as that is the most constraining and least flexible.

[mulu]

<snip> I recently described in a motion sensor thread use of a RF device that sells for a couple dollars that is often used as the guts of the four button RF remotes. It has pins for 5 to 24 volts, ground, and four discrete dry contacts. When the input is activated it sends a digital code corresponding to which of the four inputs are activated. A RF receiver such as Sonoff/MQTT or RFXCOM is used at the HS side.
<snip>

Do you have a link to that thread? I don't really have a need for this at this time but it might come up in the future.

[Michael McSharry]

Post #10 https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...-motion-sensor
Also described in mcsMQTT manual https://plugins.homeseer.com/guides/410_mcsMQTT.pdf Section 17.16.2. My Sonoff RF Bridge was flashed with Tasmota/Portisch to bridge RF to WiFi with MQTT protocol. The QIACHIP It is about the size of a Penny or Nickle.