Are you interested in a security service integrated with ST?

Hi All,

I’m curious if you are interested in a professionally-monitored security service (i.e. like ADT) that could utilize your ST sensors?

This service would monitor your motion open/close, flood, and smoke sensors. In the case of a potential break-in or fire the service would handle the incident and call the authorities. It would use location information (from your phone or presence tags) as well as ST modes for arming and disarming.

If this topic interests you: what features your would want? Do you already have a security service? Would you want a service like this to be provided directly by ST vs a 3rd party service?

Thanks for the feedback!

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There are a LOT of 3rd Party Wholesale monitoring services available for as little as $8/month (sometimes less), though they have yet to step up to support SmartThings.

As a part of the CES announcements, ST implied they will have various ways of permitting granularly permitted monitoring (and control) by neighbors and Monitoring providers, though I’m guessing that the latter may require certification.

One of the issues here is that Home Insurance companies (search for related Topics), have minimize requirements in order to grant significant discounts. And some cities require permits if you have “any” alarm system in your home.

So…
In my view, it should be inexpensive, no contract, secure, reliable, SmartThings “certified” (when and if ST offers that certification), and home insurance discount eligible.

Hard to get everything on that wishlist!

Meanwhile, there are some other products entering the marketplace that offer ad-hoc monitoring for a fee on an “as-needed” basis… I can’t think of the name… ahh… here it is: Sentri.

And many are bundled, of course, like SimpliSafe and a few others that are challenging the stature and high pricing of ADT.

In short: It is a very crowded marketplace.

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The security platform I use appears more reliable than my automation system for the time being and it serves one purpose of alerting and calling 911 on my behalf if I cannot. That’s all I want them to do. Unfortunately these alarm companies force hardware on me and try to sell me very restricted automation services that cannot do what I want or compete with ST.

My use of SmartThings started in an effort to allow me to automate without monthly fees and hopefully eventually make my Alarm.com style service obsolete and eliminate those monthly fees. I don’t like having two open/close sensors on each of my entry doors. One for ST, one for my wireless Simon alarm system. I want to get rid of the redundancy obviously.

So yes, I might pay a nominal monthly fee (maybe $5) for basic alarm monitoring ONLY (this means just call 911 on my behalf when something alerts and I can’t respond) service that is tied to my ST device setup and alerts that I create. But only as long as the platform used remained open and didn’t not impact my freedom to automate and communicate with my home devices. i.e. I own everything and the only thing I pay you for is calling the police if I didn’t see the notification or call on my phone. I must be able to add cameras and sensors and locks, write rules to make them interact, notify me, and not have to pay a higher monthly for those services.

I would not have invested into ST and duplicated sensors had my current 3rd party alarm.com system been open and allowed me to automate without increasing monthly fees. These Alarm.com type companies appear to be doing everything they can to put themselves out of business. Wrapping restrictive old school security monitoring industry practices around empowering new innovative technologies. The capabilities of the technology to the consumer far exceed the service which those security companies are trying to sell. So it’s just a matter of time before the alarm service being sold becomes “we call the police or fire when you are unavailable”.

In my case, all we need is a SmartThings compatible panel device to arm/disarm like we do with current system. (phones and geofences are not fast enough yet and kids don’t always remember presence devices etc). I would setup rules within smartthings as to when to notify the 911 service. They call me, if no answer or no magic password, they call 911. I take care of everything else.

I’d pay $5 per month for that once everything is reliable enough. Chances are I’d catch the alerts and handle it myself before needing the 3rd part assistance. But good to have this backup service when I’m on an airplane or scuba diving!

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Thanks @tgauchat. I appreciate the links.

I agree, that’s a magic combo. What do you consider to be inexpensive?

Sentri is a great looking product, I’m eager to try it out myself. I didn’t see anything on their site about a monitoring service, did I miss it?

You are describing exactly the type of service that I’m considering building @Dlee.

ST would remain an open and programmable platform, we would add the monitoring and emergency response on top. And allow you to use sensors from other home automation platforms (e.g. Nest) if you have them.

I’ve hoped that we can get away without a control panel but you make a good case that it may still be necessary. Are you concerned primarily with the speed of disarming when you get home? I think that arming when leaving home would be fine with a slightly lagged geofence.

Inexpensive is relative to:
(a) the minimum price of competition that is also insurance discounted qualified
(b) the amount of home insurance discount – If the service literally pays for itself, then this is a no-brainer.
(c) a menu of a la carte options with incremental and package pricing (e.g., a security video DVR service – but that could be in direct competition with SmartThings’s video packages).
(d) on-demand monitoring; eg, only when on vacation, child home sick from school, guests, contractors, etc… Sentri plans to offer this… Buried in their materials somewhere; it was in an open live presentation I attended.

A simple Multi-Button Remote (Aeon 4-Button Minimote $25) can be implemented as a security disarming device – self promotion of my Beta code:

Yey!

It’s about being “normal” for the majority of the world that doesn’t browse this forum for example. A simple method to turn it off and on securely. For family or for the house cleaners (if I had one), something that everybody can instantly understand and use without error.

That was just one example. We have a ways to go to be reliable. Another issue, alarm.com motion sensors have never given me a false motion alert while armed in five years of service. My SmartSense motion sensors, Monoprice motion sensors, Aeon motion sensors all go active on false motion every single day from my cats or sun/shadows, and every other day with my robot vacuum. We need better motion sensor hardware before this platform could compete.

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I’d just prefer someone integrate a device type that interfaced with the eyez-on EVL-3 module. A lot of what people want is already reported from established home alarm companies, its just the ST interface that doesn’t work well.

That is awesome, a very elegant solution. A wall mount might be useful to keep the remote near the front door.

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Unless you live alone, a keypad has to be fixed to the wall. A wall mount won’t do it because if it can be detached, someone will detach it. Last thing you want to do when you enter your home is desperately look for a tiny remote knowing that your alarm will go off in 30 seconds.

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I tried having my HA ST linked with my L5100 and them sharing z-wave devices and it just ended up being a hassle. So I have them seperate. ST handling all z-wave devices and the security system being the security monitor for it’s devices. I have added a fibaro window/door sensor to the trigger output so that ST knows the status of my security system. I am not trying to get ST to change modes according to that sensor so I do not have to mess with two or do more then one action to get my house armed and disarmed without an issue.

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I would be interested but only if there is a way to integrate my existing alarm panel and all of its sensors. Whoever can figure this out has a truly differentiated offering. I think this will open up the market to new adopters and give a real reason for those paying alarm dot com or one of its dealers. if someone can offer the ability to integrate existing infrastructure, this would solve many problems and really give the ST hub more value to the user. Same goes for sprinkler systems… Rainbird isn’t making an Internet gateway, we need some hardware that will get in the middle of ST and the existing installed technology.

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My 3 minimum requirements for any security system intended to address notifications for life and death emergencies:

  1. it works when the power’s off

  2. it uses cellular communication (not talking regular phones here, probably 400 MHz, which is typical for the security industry. But not wifi or Internet.)

  3. it has 24/7 professional monitoring authorized in my state to call emergency services but which checks for false alarms first)

I also need a one touch panic button since I can’t use a phone.

(BTW, I have all this now, there are many options available in the marketplace that meet these requirements. ST is a separate system for me. I’m very happy with it, but I use it for convenience, not monitoring life threatening emergencies.)

But that’s just me, security is one of those areas where people have very different “must haves.”

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@floridabuyer I have designed a module that exactly does what you said here - It integrates your existing hardwired sensors with SmartThings - Currently it works for DSC, GE and HoneyWell - I have to test more panels and probably modify design accordingly to accomodate as many as possible. As of now I have prototypes in about 10 homes and they are all working great! My current prototype is more of a intermediate solution (but still works) - I am working on getting to the final product that will integrate to SmartThings via WiFi. If you are interested, then let me know and I can send you a prototype to try it.

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Hi Ashutosh

Yes, I would be interested. Since I posted that I had comcast install their alarm system. They added an iControl PIMV2 to talk to their wireless alarm keypad. The panel circuit board has no name but the main chip says Honeywell and it is the existing panel I had before comcast came in.

I don’t know if your solution will allow me to have access to the hardwired sensors if Comcast is already connected to them. I was thinking maybe there is a way to piggyback on their connections to the iControl.

As I said in my initial post, I think whoever comes up with the ability to do what I’m trying to do will have a very strong offering and can market to the comcast alarm customers which I assume will be a growing user base.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks
Todd

@ashutosh1982 will this work with the GE Concord 4 control panel? if so I would be interested in getting more information. Thanks!

@floridabuyer Yes, the solution I have will let you have access to your hardwired sensors, but like I mentioned in my previous post, the current prototype is limited , and will to this --> It can combine multiple zones into a single zone , Ex: All your doors will be reported as one contact sensor (You will still need a zwave or zigbee contact sensor that works with SmartThings). The current module support upto 3 combined zones. So you can have one contact for all your doors downstairs, one for all your windows downstairs and then one for all your windows upstairs - Alternately have just have one each for all doors and all windows - For most people, they want their doors or windows monitored from security standpoint. So it does not matter which door or window was breached as long as you know that a door was breached.

I think it will work with your honeyWell panel --> Can you send me a pic of your panel? And send the model No etc? If possible?

The final version of the module will give you the capability to support upto 32 individual zones, without the need to add a zwave contact to talk to ST. The module is currently being finished and then we will start working on integrating it with ST.

@pmusselman It should work with your panel. Again, this is more like beta testing phase, and I would like to get some help from you guys to assess the module and provide feedback.

@erenfra … Renato, i guessed that you would like to be on this conversation as well.

I have an olders DSC panel that I would like to integrate with SmartThings.