ADT partnership: ST-ADT touchscreen hub and devices (discussion thread)

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
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I have been lurking for a long time. The ADT Smarthings system has me really interested and prompted me to join the discussion!

I have an old ADT system with door sensors, smoke detectors, and a motion sensor. Negotiated a lower monitoring cost once I was out of contract and stayed with it for a long time so I wouldn’t lose my homeowner’s insurance discount. It still uses a dial-up connection. Yeah, I know. It needs to be replaced.

I also have a 1st generation SmartThings hub with lots of devices on that. The doors have both the ADT system door sensors and the SmartThings door sensors. I already bought many of the SmartThings water leak sensors. I have a wifi router with a SIM card / cellular backup and a hefty UPS so that system is already pretty well set up.

The only thing that is really keeping me from buying the ADT Smarthings system is confirmation that they will issue me a monitoring certificate for my homeowner’s insurance discount.

Does anyone know which carrier is used for the cellular backup on the ADT panel? It would be nice to have a different carrier on my wifi router backup for extra safety and especially since the ADT panel only uses it for their monitored devices.

I also wish they sold the panel by itself or with a smoke and CO2 instead of the door and motion sensors. I am considering doing only the life safety package since I already have door sensors and cameras everywhere. There is someone home almost 24/7 and I would rather monitor the rest myself with the SmartThings door sensors and cameras. (Assuming I could trigger the siren manually if needed?)

365

That would be a very interesting data point!

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I just contacted SmartThings support and they said the cellular backup provider is Verizon.

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You are only able to control the security side. All smart things/home automation is controlled through the app.

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They told me it is At&T

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Really! Not the carrier I would expect. My hunch was AT&T, based on what I think the ADT contract installer told me several years ago…

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As an alarm installer I can say there are both At&t and Verizon radio cards. Most installers carry both and check signal strength before installing it.

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That would seem like a potential downside to this diy version of ADT cellular backup.

Hopefully ADT is upfront about which network these hubs connect to if that’s usually accounted for in a pro install.

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A rundown on which sensors work with what…

Using the new ADT sensors in Home Automation rules if you also have the new panel?
Yes.

The new ADT/SmartThings security panel Essentially has two separate control silos inside of it. One is a smartthings hub equivalent which does Everything the current smartthings hub does and will see the brand new ADT sensors made specifically to work with that panel just like all the other sensors, so that they can also be used to, for example, trigger lights to come on through a smartthings automation set up in the smartthings mobile app.

So as far as home automation rules go, they are integrated.

Using the new ADT sensors with other smartthings hubs, like the Samsung smartthings hub V two, the Samsung smartthings connect, or the Nvidia shield link?
No.

The new ADT sensors Can only be used in smartthings home automation rules if you have the new ADT/smartthings panel. They cannot be paired with any of the other smartthings hub devices (Hub V2, Nvidia Shield Link, or Samsung Connect) Because those devices don’t have a radio on the right frequency.

Using other SmartThings-compatible sensors for ADT security alerts?
No.

The other control silo is used for triggering the new ADT specific responses. If you have paid for ADT monitoring, there is a cellular communications option which can contact the ADT monitoring center. These alerts follow standard ADT security rules and can only be triggered by the special new devices. So as far as security rules go, they are not integrated.

If I’m shopping, how can I tell which devices can be used to trigger calls to the ADT monitoring center if I already have the ADT/smartthings security panel?

The new ADT sensors will have both the ADT logo and the SmartThings logo on the box. And as of this writing, November 2017, the new devices all have “ADT” as part of the model number, such as F-ADT-DW-1.

The device boxes will also say “requires an ADT security hub.” Which is confusing, because it specifically means a “SmartThings ADT security hub,” not just any ADT hub.

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Don’t go just by looks, some of the devices may be using the same outer cases as devices on other communication protocols.

Remember also that the joint branded devices will not work with any hub except the ADT/SmartThings security panel.

Using ADT sensors from other ADT systems for security features with the new panel?
No.

ADT security sensors which work with the other ADT professionally installed systems will not work with the new panel.

Using ADT Pulse zwave sensors for home automation rules with the new panel?
Maybe.

ADT Pulse zwave sensors may be able to work with the new panel, but they will be treated like the other home automation Z wave sensors and won’t be able to trigger alerts to the ADT monitoring center.

Using Hardwired sensors to trigger ADT security features with the new panel?
No, but you should be able to use them on the home automation side in the same way as you do with the Hub V2.

As far as hardwired sensors connected using konnected.io or a similar method, those can be used exactly as they are used with the SmartThings V2 hub, but they cannot be used to trigger calls to the ADT monitoring center or with the other ADT – specific security features of the panel. Also note that they will not be able to trigger calls using the cellular module in the panel.

Example

This is why you need to be really specific in the questions you ask.

Let’s say you are paying for the ADT monitoring. You have one of the new ADT motion sensors. You have one of the original smartthings branded to zigbee sensors. You have one gocontrol Z wave motion sensor.

Using the smartthings mobile app, if you go into smart lighting and say you want to have the lights come on when a sensor triggers, you will see your list of sensors and all three of the sensors will be available to choose as the trigger.

But alerts to the ADT monitoring center can only come from the special ADT motion sensor built to work with this panel. Alerts from the smartthings brand motion sensor or the gocontrol Z wave sensor cannot trigger a call to the ADT monitoring center.

And the cellular connectivity is available only for calls to the ADT monitoring center. You can’t use it if you are self monitoring and you can’t use it for anything else in SmartThings.

So you can see why you have to get really really specific in your questions, because what works when is pretty complicated.

More Questions?

If you have further questions, I would get in touch with SmartThings support. ADT support seems to be pretty confused about how the new DIY system works. As are many Best Buy employees. Hopefully that will get fixed overtime.

https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us

Official support article:

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I am new to ST and Forums so I may not know how to post appropriately. I am replying to this because I don’t know how to post to just this thread,

Anyway, the ADT panel interests me for one reason and that is that I know of no other panel that you can set your alarm and ST knows about it. Please correct me if I am wrong and I may just have to buy the thing to see if it works the way I want. When I leave the house, I want my alarm to tell ST that I am AWAY and run all the routines setup for that. Then when I get home I require a serurity code which it does have to deactivate and tell ST that I am home. I am assuming the panel sets all the proper security triggers. Does anyone know ?

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Can you disable the disarm button so it requires you to enter a code at the box?

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@RobDal

The way the alarm system is currently integrated into ST you can’t really have ST react to the status of the alarm system natively. However, it can easily be done through the use of webCoRE. The easiest/most intuitive way to do this is to create these two pistons:

  1. One piston should be created that monitors the status of the alarm system and changes the SHM mode accordingly (e.g. If alarm goes to away mode, set SHM to away mode too).
  2. Another piston should be created that does the opposite. In other words, the piston should monitor SHM and if its status changes it should change the status of the alarm system to match it (e.g. If SHM is set to disarmed, disarm alarm system.)

In my humble opinion, this is pretty much the first thing anyone should do when they get the ADT system because this truly makes the alarm system fully integrated into ST. This may change in the future though (ST may choose to implement it natively or block it altogether)

Scroll up to see my posts/screenshots on webCoRE. Once you get the alarm system synced up to SHM, you can do virtually anything (e.g. trigger activities/routines/device actions based on status of SHM and subsequently the alarm system itself).

The panel requires the PIN by default in order to disarm. Arming the system in either stay/away does not require a pin. A pin is also not required if you use the ST mobile app to disarm.

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377

I did find it interesting that the latest ST update added Touch ID support to the iOS app.

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I don’t have any Apple products so I didn’t notice that but I noticed it added fingerprint support on my Samsung S8 too.

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As an update, I did receive my two ADT yard signs + stickers via UPS this morning. Success!

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I am a little surprised at how much interest there is in the ADT/ST system. I hope that ST does not take this as a sign they should not improve SHM.

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I just got a sales call from ADT (because I am a former ADT customer) wanting to come out to my house and tell me about the new options they have. I specifically asked if they have the ADT Smarthings system and they said there have been a lot of people asking the same thing. As I expected, they were only offering the ADT Pulse system.

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382

I think they’ll give the new ADT system six months or so to see how it does, but given that they’ve already changed all the “security” links on the website to go to a description of that system, I would not expect to see much more investment in SHM in the future. There are too many low-cost security competitors out there now, and as long as SHM remains cloud-based without cellular communications, I just don’t see how it can compete in that niche.

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383

So, if I want to update to the ADT/ST hub, I am supposed to replace all of window/door sensors and re-pair all 120+ devices to the new hub? I would not be a happy camper!

384

That is correct. Good times!

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