Beep when disarm, armed away/stay?

SmartApps & Automations Automation Ideas
#3

I seem to remember when looking at SHM delay it had a feature to do beeps during the delay period. I would suggest something like Bigtalker pro or google assist relay to send a notification/sound through a speaker.

If you want something to notify you when still outside the house I would think a push notification to a mobile device may be best.

I also think the Dome Siren had multiple sounds that may have a way to trigger based on alarm status change.

Have you asked this question in the SHM Delay smartapp thread.

2 Likes
#4

Sorry I was typing from my iPhone and the auto correction or auto guessing kicked in.

What I was saying is when I set disarm, disarmed away/stay from the fobKey, is there a feature can beep on my siren to indicate the action?

#5

It won’t be part of SHM it will have to he something added to Smartthings. I have no doubt it can be accomplished. It is just a matter of deciding what route to take. What siren do you have and does it even have beep feature.

1 Like
#6

Is the reason you are asking about the siren is so you can hear it from outside?

1 Like
#7

Brand and model of the siren?

1 Like
#8

Thank to all your replies.

Let me provide more details.
On Wednesday, I got an Utilitech Siren and an Iris fobKey. I set it up with Smartthings Classic app with SHM Delay and WebCore. Now everything works really well. However, I am still looking for the Beep feature for my situation.

I have a pet sitter sometimes need to visit my home. She will enter the home when it’s armed away. I am planning to give her this fobKey so she can disarm and rearm the system. Since she will use the fobKey not a smartthings app, she won’t know if the action is done. I have a key set to push then disarm, another key set to held to armed away. If the held is too short it won’t arm away. Also, I heard some complaints about the fobKey sometimes failing. I just want something to indicate the action is run. The best way to indicate it is a beep.

I am thinking if my siren does not support beep, I may use a light or my chime (from skybell) to indicate the action by using webCore. In this case, if I do

if key push
then disarm, light blink

In this way, if disarm fails, will the light blink? or I should do

if key push
then disarm
if change to disarm
then light blink

Thank you very much.

#9

Features vary a great deal from one model to another. It’s always a good practice to read the user guide for a device before buying it and make sure you understand what features it offers.

The model you have is a basic siren/strobe. It does not offer a beep or any other alternative sounds. So I don’t think it’s going to meet this particular use case. ( it would freak out both your pet sitter and your pets, essentially the same as a smoke alarm going off.)

https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/article_attachments/115000454183/UT_IndoorSiren_manual.pdf

Do you have an echo device of any kind, including echo.?

Amazon just added a feature last week where you could now have the echo play either a sound file or speak a notification, and that can be integrated with SmartThings. So you could have the echo say “the system is now armed.“ or just play beep.

Alternatively, a lot of people use a small indicator light to indicate whether the alarm system is armed or not. There are a number of options for that. See the following thread from this week:

Otherwise, since I believe you just purchased this siren, you might want to return it and get one of the ones that can play multiple different sounds.

1 Like
#10

There is google assistant relay if you have google homes in your house. Big talker will let you use a variety of devices for text to speach as well.

2 Likes
#11

Thanks to you all a lot. The information is really helpful. I have 3 echoes.

1 Like
#12

Do you know what post concerning Amazon adding that play a file feature? I know I have seen many many posts about that being a desired function but I cannot seem to find it on here.

#13

Then I would definitely use the echoes. It will be the least expensive and give you a lot of flexibility.

#14

Amazon designed it for use with physical sensors, but because smartthings allows you to create a virtual contact sensor, you can trigger that based on anything that smartthings is aware of, and combine it with complex logic like time of day, who is home, etc. details in the thread. :sunglasses:

As far as the play a file feature itself, it’s part of the new Alexa routines (not smartthings routines), and can play any file that is in your Amazon music library. Again, that’s discussed in the thread linked to above, including an example of some sound effects files that people are using.

1 Like
#15

BTW, the Utilitech siren does beep when after I installed the batteries. It should also beep when it’s low battery. Not sure if I will be able to access the beep function. I will look into it. Thank you again.

#16

I actually already tried the new Alexa feature on some contact sensors but didn’t think about to use it with a simulated contact sensor that can associate in webcore to trigger the SHM indicator. This idea also helps me to get an idea to do the same logic for my Skybell door bell. I am going to try it tonight. Thanks!

1 Like
#17

Hmm, I could see if presence AND door open would make it work. Unfortunately, my living room Alexa device is an Ecobee 4 Thermostat and they have not figured out how to do audio on that, yet.

I would love for it to also keep in mind Away/Home/Disarm on Smart Home Monitor. When away, I would totally make it run a dog bark when my Ring doorbell detected motion, and possibly rotate them to different ones if I could.

#18

I’m tackling that one shortly for my system. The only catch I see is that I’d either need a different simulated CONTACT SENSOR for each bark sample (better to go longer files to reduce repeats) or perhaps that’s one of the areas Amazon has a random play option from a subset of files.

I also put a Samsung multi-sensor on the door as a temporary stand-in for the wired sensor which appeared to go bad and was just replaced today. While it was on there I realized it could sense a knock on the door which would also let me trigger the same files. Then I just need to basically code it so that it only happens when the system is Armed Away. I suspect Armed Stay might be a bit annoying and all the time would definitely be annoying.

1 Like
#19

My idea is to create a simulated contact sensor then in webCore, have a logic to set the sensor open when skybell button is pushed then wait 2 sec then close the sensor. In Alexa, add a trigger for that sensor. If it’s opened, then say something. I have ecobee 3 and have no idea about ecobee 4 with Alexa.

#20

I tried the simulated contact sensor, but Alexa didn’t do anything with the fake contact sensor…

#21

Please read the thread that I linked to. As I said, there are some quirks as far as how it works. It’s all discussed in that thread.

#22

Thanks, before I read yours, I tried again and it worked.

I realized each new simulated contact sensor didn’t have Amazon Alexa in its SmartApps tab section. I went to Amazon Alexa SmartApps to disable allow Alexa to access all devices, scenes and routines then re-enable it then my fake contact sensors are authorized so now everything work great!!!

1 Like

© 2020 SmartThings, Inc. All Rights Reserved.