I just signed up for an Alarm monitoring service that uses a 2GIG Go!Control Panel as the system’s “brains”. It connects to the Alarm.com platform for my monitoring and maintenance (iPhone app).
The system is z-wave, so I assume that I can add my own door/window and motion sensors on as I go.
Here are my two questions:
Can SmartThings and this Control Panel both access data from the same z-wave devices?
Is there any way for SmartThings to integrate with the Alarm.com platform (including IFTTT)?
I have the same or a similar question. I would like to use the z-wave door/window sensors and/or motion sensors to set lights (z-wave and zigbee) via SmartThings.
I did a little digging - you can do some integration via IFTTT. Alarm.com will send emails and texts when certain things happen (arm, disarm, alarm trigger, etc.).
You can set the emails/texts to go to your IFTTT account when certain things happen.
Then, create recipe that says (for example): If Email tagged “Alarm Away”, Then SmartThings “turn lights out”.
This is OK, but you’re limited by what events can fire messages from your alarm and what actions IFTTT can trigger in SmartThings. Oh yeah and it’s only one way. You can’t have SmartThings events make the Alarm do things.
I was going to start a separate thread, but I guess I will just plug this in here…
I have an opportunity to buy a 2GIG-CNTL1-345
Can this unit be used to integrate a Honeywell Vista alarm system into SmartThings?
I know there is probably more to the question, but I’m not sure what else I would need to know about or ask.
Currently, I have the Honeywell/Ademco 6150 keypad control panel for my security system, and I’m looking for ways of integrating. I was thinking of getting one of the EVL-4 units to connect the whole thing at the Vista panel, but if this kind of keypad/controller can do it, I would just got this route.
Anybody know any more about these things?
I don’t have Alarm.com monitoring the system. Mine is monitored by somebody else that would charge me a lot more to ‘upgrade’ to this kind of capability from within their system.
Do you have any suggestions on how to find out what a text looks like when it is sent to IFTTT? Got it set up to send lots of notifications, but now I need to figure out how to trigger actions off of those received texts
@vitamincm or anyone else that has already tried the IFTTT integration method…
How much of a delay are you seeing on a regular basis with the triggers getting all the way from sensor-to-2Gig-to-IFTTT-to-SmartThings-to-You-and-Your-Things?
I think I may get one, and try this out.
Also, if anyone knows, how does Alarm.com compare to Monitronics for a monitoring service…both cost and features/services?
People using alarm.com, which uses the 2GIG panel (usually via various secondary service providers like Link security and others) need to put pressure on alarm.com to start opening up their system to integration via things like IFTTT.
Currently alarm.com has a very one-sided view of openness, namely allowing other devices to be managed via the alarm.com panel, but not allowing devices managed via the alarm.com panel to be accessed/controlled via things like SmartThings using IFTTT.
They seem to be living with a very closed world-view when the history of the IT world should tell them that this is a very short term view that usually ends badly for those who adopt it. Because of limitations of protocols like zWave one cannot (to the best that I can tell) even let a zWave device be managed by multiple controllers, so if you include a zWave controller in your alarm.com panel you cannot also include it in a SmartThings controller. So I am in the process of taking existing zWave switches that I have installed and removing them from my alarm.com panel and adding them to my SmartThings controller.
My contract is up with alarm.com shortly, and unless they fix this they will lose me as a customer. There remain strong arguments for many to a monitored security service, and alarm.com has one of the best including very good web and smartphone interfaces and cellular-IP connectivity so that if you lose your wired Internet connectivity you still have an alternative path. They have a compelling story for those want a monitored service, and opening up their service will only add value. But their closed-world view of their system is simply a dead-end path.
If you are an alarm.com customer, let them know that this closed system view is unacceptable.
I may have misunderstood something on this topic (either in your words or in how the 2gig panel was explained to me elsewhere), but from how I understand it right now, it seems like the limitation you are speaking of (which I have been frustrated with in my search to integrate my wired security system with SmartThings) is on the 2gig hardware/rubric side and not necessarily with alarm.com
i.e. if I’m right, it’s not that alarm.com necessarily wants to have it this way, but the device is just designed differently, and there may be nothing they can do about it (even if they wanted it to work like you and I want it to work).
Does this track with how you see it?
Does anyone else have anything more to add on this?
The reason why I believe this is under the control of alarm.com and not 2GIG is that from various alarm.com software systems (external to the 2GIG panel) such as their web and smartphone interfaces, you can turn things like lights on and off (not just from the panel). Thus, from those same software systems, they could provide an IFTTT channel that offered up similar controls over things like lights. Much the same way that one authenticates from the web or smartphone interfaces to your alarm.com account to allow you to control lights, etc., they could provide an authenticated channel for IFTTT that offered the same functionality. Your web browser or smartphone is talking to Internet servers operated by alarm.com and not directly to your 2GIG panel, and the same would be true for an IFTTT channel.
I do admit I don’t know if the software systems that provide web and smartphone functionality are actually written or provided by alarm.com or 2GIG, but my understanding is that alarm.com does have access to that code and it runs on servers under control of alarm.com.
In fact, if anything, the current extensibility they do have and are using to allow new devices to be controlled by the 2GIG panel requires that the actual code in the 2GIG panel to be modified, whereas what I’m proposing I believe can be done totally outside of the 2GIG panel. So the limited “openness” they are providing by incorporating new third party devices under control of the 2GIG panel actually requires a higher degree of cooperation with the 2GIG panel than what I am proposing, and they obviously have that ability to make those changes.
OK, I guess I’m not at the same level of understanding (of either system), but what I do know for sure (because I asked 2gig directly), is that the 2gig panel that I was looking at and was thinking about using it as a way of integrating my wired system into SmartThings/etc) is not, in and of itself, capable (at least, as of right now, with the way 2gig has it configured from the factory) of allowing SmartThings to access and control smart devices that are connected to the 2gig panel. They said the only way to control those devices (if they are connected to the 2gig) would be through the 2gig interface.
There are other devices that can be purchased to connect wired alarm systems to SmartThings, and that is what I will probably do eventually. For now, I’m skipping getting a 2gig panel since it won’t actually do what I need/want.
I totally believe that the 2GIG panel cannot easily support IFTTT or Smartthings. That’s why the only practical integration is for alarm.com to use the interface/API it already has into the 2GIG panel (which is how both
their web and smartphone interfaces control the panels including turning on and off switches) to offer something like an IFTTT interface, and why pressure needs to be placed on alarm.com.
When you use either the web or smartphone interface to control your 2GIG panel, you are NOT connecting directly to the 2GIG panel. Instead, you are talking to a server on the Internet which is then communicating with the 2GIG panel, which is exactly how an IFTTT channel would need to integrate.
Makes sense. I wasn’t even thinking of the context of using alarm.com…I was just still stuck in thinking about what it is like using the 2gig on its own.
Certainly, if they (alarm.com) have the ability to do it, it would make a lot of sense, because there are a lot of people trying to do this, and I imagine (though a lot of people may want to integrate their wired setup for the sake of getting rid of the monitoring service charge every month, and with them this idea breaks down, but…) many of us who are still going to maintain an external, human-managed monitoring service after integrating with our SmartThings system will be more likely to just go for their service for the sake of covering two things with one service.
Curious if anyone else has had any more luck on controlling alarm commands or anything of the like.
I had 2gig controlling zwave then once I went to smartthings I decided to just remove everything from 2gig and have more integrations with the latter. Only missing piece is triggering from alarm settings or maybe other way around.
Just curious, I got another year on this alarm system
Well i have been able to do some things involving NFC and my alarm system. i found that alarm.com has a ‘wap’ friendly pda version of the webcontrols. by going to https://www.alarm.com/pda/ you can get some actions. for security sake ive not tried seeing if one can auth by https://username:password@www.alarm.com/pda/ but if so, you may be able to control lights or other things via ifft.
The 2gig panel you are looking at is an all in one style alarm system. If you currently have a Vista with a 6150 keypad, that is also an alarm system. The 2gig is not going to want to play with the Vista. I assume that you are wanting to control your alarm with your smartphone similar to ADT’s Pulse package. In that case, the EVL-4 seems to act similar to the ADT pulse hub, the only thing I cannot tell from the EVL-4 site is if it has native Zwave support, which the Pulse hub has. If you are looking to have an alarm system that can control your home automation as well then ditch the Vista and go with the 2gig for everything. If you are going with the EVL-4, double check your Vista version and make sure that it will be compatible. Older Vistas are not compatible with Pulse so I suspect that it may be the same with the EVL-4. I am an ADT installer and the Pulse platform is very effective and has potential. Vistas running pulse can also use the HS101ADT touchscreen which is really slick.
I love my Alarm.com and like the fact that it’s not connected to anything but it’s self. It makes the home more secure.
With that being said, you can set up commands via IFTTT (sms), SmartThings and Rule Machine (SmartThings App) and creating virtual switches in the developer section.
When Alarm.com function is done, set up sms notification to your IFTTT, have that switch on you virtual switch (VS),
Have your VS set to a rule that was setup in Rule Machine to perform what action you want the switch to do with the function to turn the switch back off within 3 seconds.
