Arlo Pro with External Siren

Devices & Integrations
1

How do I setup an External Siren to Arlo Pro system such that both the Arlo Pro Base Siren and external siren will sound?

The topics on the forum so far are choppy and I would really love to get some step-by-step expert advise including additional HW required, Sirens you recommended, SW links etc. Disclaimer: I haven’t own a single ST device yet (new), but would love to explore the possibilities. Thanks a lot for giving time for help.

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What are you using to trigger the alarm to go off. ie Arlo conditions, Smart Home Monitor, or ADT Alarm.

If you get the ST ADT panel I have a few smart apps that allow you to integrate alarm devices into a pool and then you could trigger them based on alarm actions. Just look for the smartapp here called “ADT Tools”. This was actually one of the requested reasons the smartapp was expanded just beyond notifications. I also updated a for of Arlo Pilot to allow for arlo integration into the setup.

Not sure what others would say, but i would also look at Dome Sirens. They seem to get allot of positive feedback.

If you are looking at security and don’t have anything I would strongly suggest using the ST ADT panel. Using Arlo to try to trigger activities in Smartthings could be problematic since that involves a cloud to cloud to hub integration to trigger it. SHM though a decent attempt at an alarm system is missing some key features. You would need to add smartapps like SHM Delay and a few others to get similar functionality to a actual alarm system. I am not saying it can’t be done, but there is allot of hacking and finding the right parts to make it work. The ST ADT panel is basically a ADT Alarm and Smart things hub in one. The ADT side functions completely local and is technically independent of ST. This makes it very reliable. You can get monitoring from ADT which isn’t the cheapest but also isn’t to bad for cost. It is also contract free. The smarthings side can use all of the ADT Panels sensors along with any sensor that normally works with Smartthings. The only limitation with the ST ADT Panel is that only Dual Branded SmartThings ADT sensors can trigger monitoring.

My advise on how to set this up.

  1. Get the arlo setup you want to use. However many cameras and such you want to use.
  2. Get the ST ADT Panel. It will come with 2 Contact Sensors and a Motion sensor.
  3. You need to decide how far you want to go with security. I have animals and believe perimeter protection is best. You may feel you don’t need to do that so up to you. Get Smartthign ADT Dual Branded sensors for every window/door you want to be part of the alarm system.(This just ensures you have ADT Monitoring for security items). Get Motions sensors if you want them just keep in mind Motion Sensors are disabled when the alarm system is in Armed/Stay Mode.
  4. Setup the ADT Alarm system side with proper configuration on entry and exit points for delays.
  5. Install ADT Tools and Arlo Pilot in Smartthings. I would suggest you setup integration with Github to make udpates easy.
  6. Log into Arlo’s website and setup any modes you want to integrate with the alarm system. Leave the siren out of the configuration.
  7. Finish setting up Arlopilot to change the modes with the alarm. My fork just uses the SHM mode change option in Arlopilot, so that will need to be enabled.
  8. Now setup the ADT Tools child apps that apply to your setup. You would probably want to configure the Notifier child app to get information with the ADT Panel changes between armed Modes first. Then Install the alert child apps. While doing so make sure you specify your ADT Alarm siren for the secondary alarm to be activated. You may also want to setup the ADT Mode Change Child app to allow you to manage the ADT Alarm Armed status from Smartthings.
  9. At this point you should have fully integrated Arlo with the ADT Alarm and Smartthingss setup.

Hope this helps.

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Below are some URL’s on information for the ADT Tools app. It has certainly be a growing app for functionality so please read through the threads or data for the latest updates.

ADT Tools thread

ADT Tools Wiki @ ThingsThatAreSmart