So our home was all zwave everything already, it all went through our security system - ultrasync. Then Alexa arrives for Christmas… Now I want to be able to tell my lights to shut off using her, not the clunky app… BUT she doesn’t work with ultrasync. So I bought a smartthings hub and put all the lights on that rather than on ultrasync. Sort of sucks having two apps… But what is this multi channel control? Is there any way to bounce it back to ultrasync!!!
The short answer is no. Your switches will need to belong to either Ultrasync or SmartThings, not both.
The long answer is really long, and not very helpful, because basically neither of these platforms really like the idea of a secondary controller. Security systems don’t generally like that because it can affect the reliability of the security Functions. And SmartThings just doesn’t want to do that because it complicates their multiprotocol approach and they now say it’s not recommended.
If I were in your situation I would ask Interlogix if they have any plans for either an IFTTT channel or Alexa compatibility and see what they say.
I have had the Smarththings V2 hub for quite some time now and use it mostly to control a few lamp modules and my thermostat for now. I got it mostly to do the Thermostat in particular to help reduce my energy bill (so far in the last year or so I’ve managed to decrease my monthly bill by $50) and have been slowly expanding with new devices. Then a few months ago I picked up a Ultrasync Self Contained Hub and learned it in a secondary controller for my SmartThings, everything has been functioning fine except if you have “virtual devices” set up the ultrasync doesn’t see those…
I have set up scenes on my Ultrasync that turns lights on or off and turns thermostat up or down when I arm or disarm the system and all of this is based on a schedule so it’s only during certain times. In the evening when I’m home I can arm the system in stay mode and it doesn’t affect anything but if I leave in the afternoon and do the same thing it adjusts my settings (we also have a dog that could wander the house and I don’t want alarm to go off).
Once I get locks set up I’ll be able to automate that as well based on status of alarm system. You can also do things like make your lights flash a few times when alarm goes off and each one at different times which maybe could confuse the thief and I’m sure there is more, if you have the latest firmware (V2.3 from Dec 2016) on the Ultrasync you can use the Security Devices to control Zwave devices it may have also been introduced in V2.2 I can’t quite remember. Open front door and living room light turns on for example but I think this “feature” is listed as being beta and they cannot guarantee functionality.
As for IFTTT and Alexa support that would be awesome and they could be looking at that down the road as they are trying to stay competitive with other offerings.