I just got my ADT ST Hub starter kit hooked up and will be using it without paid monitoring… The door sensors, motion detector and hub seem to work fine and notify me as they should. I believe i have paired my Iris Utilitech wireless leak sensor successfully (using Everspring Wireless Leak Detector on ST app as they don’t have Utilitech and have read its the same thing) and Utilitech wireless indoor siren. They show up on ST app showing 100% battery and controller version under information, but i cannot click configuration under the leak detector? I’ve put water on the sensor and it only sounds on the device but doesn’t alert me through ST app or text through ADT (I’ve read that only ADT products do that). I also do not see how to get my wireless siren to sound when my ADT alarm is going off?
As i mentioned i’am coming over from Iris where no programming was required. You’d just click and tell it everything you want it to do. I also have 0% knowledge on coding, programming or even how to set anything up but the initial app it came with.
I will just be using my system for the alarm, water, siren and garage door opener. I am thinking ST may be too complicated for me and possibly return for a system like Iris was which was already programmed. Adobe looks to be more of what i’m looking for, Any opinions on it?
You meant “Abode,” right? ( my spellchecker changes that to “adobe” all the time. )
Abode seems to be a well-designed system, with good security options. It’s not as powerful or versatile as smartthings classic was, but then neither is the new SmartThings app.
Note that the abode system limits you to a total of 160 devices and a total of 100 rules.
If you won’t need more than that, it might be a good match. Smartthings does not put a limit on the number of rules you can have, and the limit on number of devices is just based on some technical limits, but it’s way more than 160.
If you’re looking for an even simpler security system, the ring security system is a decent candidate, but it doesn’t combine with the home automation devices in the same way. And it doesn’t have the same range of devices: no glass break sensor, and I think no door lock and no garage door opener integration. Basically sensors and the base station.
The following is a good comparison of abode versus ring versus nest except she didn’t go into issues with fire monitoring.
Different things work for different people, and choice is good.
As long as you stick to devices on this list and keep your automations simple you shouldn’t need to ever use the IDE or any code. Once you step outside officially supported devices it becomes a very heavy “it depends” on if you will need to play with code.
Using only the official features, there is no way to get your third-party siren to directly mirror the ADT siren Built into the panel.
However, you can probably use the same events that are triggering the ADT siren to also turn on your third-party siren. This does mean duplicating your rules in a sense, so it’s more work than it seems like it should be, but you can definitely do it without programming.
This is because the dual logo ADT sensors which are allowed to trigger a panel alert can also be used in a home automation rule using the official features.
For example, the third party siren usually looks like a switch to smartthings.
You can use the official rules engine built into the smartthings app, either through the official smartlighting feature or through the “custom automation” feature And set it up so that your third-party siren will go off if your ADT motion sensor detects motion. This rule will be considered a home automation rule rather than a security rule, but it has the same end result.
( I don’t know why smartthings hasn’t written this up as a how to for people coming from Iris. They should. They should explain that if you want to use third-party sensors or third-party sirens or lights you can use all of those with rules that you create through the custom automation Creator or the smartlights feature, both in the new smartthings app. The only thing they won’t do is trigger the ADT specific features, which includes the siren in the panel.)
Custom automation creator in the new app:
Official smartlights feature in the new app:
So for your leak detector, if it is not an ADT dual logo leak detector, you can’t use it to trigger calls to the ADT monitoring center or to set off the siren in the ADT panel.
But you can set up your own rule in the custom automation creator in the new app so that when the leak sensor goes off, your third-party siren goes off. And/or you can get a notification on your phone. Or any other smartthings event that you want to trigger when the leak sensor detects water.
You can also use some of the smart home manager features with the ADT panel, but that gets more complicated, and to be honest I just don’t know the details about that.
OK, all of that is stuff you can do without using any custom code at all.
If you do want to start using custom code, you can do even more by using Webcore or “ADT tools 2” or some of the other custom code created by the community. But you don’t have to use that to get this kind of basic functionality out of the system.
The smartthings app is not necessarily intuitive, and I do wish there were a lot more documentation and tutorials, but you’ll probably find that you can do a lot more than you think once you get into the habit of checking the official smartlighting feature and the official custom automation feature in the new app.
Thanks so much for all this information! I was able to get my water detector to send alerts to my phone from you explaining the Custom Automations in the SmartThings App. I’ve been able to add my siren but cant figure out how i would make that trigger my door sensors if the code is not entered within a minute during away or trigger it instantly if my motion detector is triggered? Here is another thing I am confused about… If i armed my system from the ADT HUB i cannot disarm it from my phone and when i arm it from my phone it is not armed on the hub? I keep seeing things about ADT Tools 2 but i take it that is a app i would have to add? I know nothing about creating code as i mentioned earlier… Would ADT Tools 2 give me the functions i need if i learned how to add that app ? Much as i would love for this system to work i just don’t think it is going to workout how i need it haha. Abode is looking like my best bet I’d say for my little automation and add ones I have I think?
@ Mavrrick58 It looks like you created the ADT Tools 2? Anything you can recommend for me as well for my pretty simple set up and or how i can learn installing your ADT Tools 2 and what not??
You should be able to arm or disarm your ADT system from the app as long as you have set it up correctly. That doesn’t require any custom code.
Here’s the official ADT hub FAQ:
It sounds like you might have set up the “smart home manager” features in the app without setting up the ADT – Specific version of that feature. That’s the only way I can think of that the two arms/disarm methods would be out of sync.
You can talk to people in the following thread about the ADT hub model and they should know more. Make sure you tell them whether you are using the new version of the SmartThings app or the classic version, and that you don’t want to use any custom code at this time. That way they will know best how to help you.
As far as using custom code, here is the FAQ for that. It will explain the terminology and the basic process that applies.
Note that you will have to be using the classic version of the app in order to use custom code. Which in your case will probably mean that you need to use two different versions of the SmartThings app for now. (I know, more confusion. )
I did a factory reset of the hub and now it is working. I have everything working how I’d like it except for the Indoor siren. But hopefully ADT/ST will come out with a siren in the future i can add to it. I have a Halo Plus smoke/CO detector i used with Iris. I know Halo went under and will no longer offer updates but was still able to pair it for alerts with Iris. I see on the Classic ST app it still shows Halo Plus under devices i can add but when i go to pairing instructions the page is no longer on Smartthings support page and comes up invalid. I wonder if i can still pair it for non alarm notifications under ST as i did with Iris?
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