+1 on the idea of some kind of device that would let me bridge embedded hardwired door/window sensors to SmartThings’ intelligent hub. But I really don’t care about re-using old electronics – I’d just like to reuse my existing sensors & wiring, which might be the case applicable to the largest number of people. (Although I don’t know what kind of pre-existing embedded sensors I have let alone what kind of obsolete electronics is here. The sensors look like smooth flattened coins/slugs in the door/window frame, so I assume there are matching magnets embedded in the window & door. I haven’t found the central location where all the wires feed to yet, but I will eventually.)
Well if ST ever get Ethernet as a natively supported protocol it should tie right in with the DSC IT100. I have a 1632 with an IT100 and a cellular GSM communicator. It talks to Vera just fine.
EnvisaLink 3 https://www.eyez-on.com/EZMAIN/envisalink3.php has an TPI.
http://forum.eyez-on.com/FORUM/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=301
If one has to write interface with ST any idea what is required and where to start ?
I doubt it is much help for getting a SmartThings interface working, but the MicasaVerde Vera Controller has a DSC plugin using an IT100 or Envisalinck 3Ds someone might could use as a starting point.
Looking at purchasing a Smartthings but was wondering if anything every happened with this DSC integration?
Thoughts on this…
I’ve been examining my ADT"box". I haven’t done any actual testing as I’m a little afraid of setting off my alarm but it appears that all the “zones” (door, window, smoke alarms, etc.) are just single wires in. I would assume (as I mentioned haven’t tested) these are just binary digital pulses to the box that just tells ADT if something is “open” or “going off”. My though is if I’m correct I should be able to tap into this wire and bring them in as a digital input on an arduino card. From there I can easily integrate the contacts with smartthings.
The touch panel / arming / disarming will be more complex but that’s not my primary concern.
Can anyone confirm or argue that this should / shouldn’t work? If so I might start playing over my holiday vacation.
2 Likes
+1 on the DSC integration notion. Home is all wired and I have a DSC-1832 panel and an IT-100 module. Nothing’s connected to the zone boards or programmed yet. Plan was to finish it and connect it to Homeseer. Now wanting to get that system turned up and integrate with Smartthings. As someone else already mentioned, ST has a lot on their plate. My guess is that any alarm integration by ST will first come in the form of them working with someone they can cloud-connect with. Maybe Alarm.com etc.
But yeah, Ethernet (or even serial) connectivity to the ST hub from other devices (DSC and other alarm panels, irrigation controllers etc) - would be a beautiful thing!
Jim
I got tired of waiting for local network access about a month ago and wrote device types which I exposed using the endpoint tutorial. I then found AlarmServer, which is written in Python at https://github.com/juggie/AlarmServer. I modified it such that it calls the endpoint every time a relevant event fires… So I have my doors and motion sensors wired up and firing through the smartthings app. I was going to enable arming and disarming, but decided against it as I can not do it securely through https.
Now when I walk into my downstairs living room the light comes on when it senses my motion 
That sounds pretty cool.
Good find! I’ve got DSC serial interface (IT-100). It shouldn’t be too difficult to hack AlarmServer to talk to it. Could you share your app code or at least elaborate how you’re handling alarm events, i.e. do you just send SMS or push notifications when they fire?
Generally, I’m thoroughly underwhelmed with ST hardware and like an idea of bypassing the ST hub entirely. But I don’t mind using their smart app backend for fun and profit, as long as it’s free.
i don’t own any ST hardware myself, but been playing with the app through coded device types.
In AlarmServer at alarmserver_httpget I added this:
if self._config.ZONEOPEN[int(parameters)]!=False:
if code == “609”:
response = urllib2.urlopen(str(self._config.ZONEOPEN[int(parameters)]))
html = response.read()
elif code == “610”:
response = urllib2.urlopen(str(self._config.ZONECLOSE[int(parameters)]))
html = response.read()
609 and 610 are the ones we are interested in for zone open and zone close.
Then in alarmserver.cfg I created new variables, zoneclose[x] and zoneopen[x] that correspond to the zones i have and assign them the URL I generated from the endpoint tutorial using the devicetype below.
As for the devicetypes, I just made a stub devicetype like below:
/**
- DSC Motion
*/
// for the UI
metadata {
tiles {
standardTile("motion", "device.motion", width: 2, height: 2) {
state("active", label:'motion', action: "motion.active", icon:"st.motion.motion.active", backgroundColor:"#53a7c0")
state("inactive", label:'no motion', action: "motion.inactive", icon:"st.motion.motion.inactive", backgroundColor:"#ffffff")
}
main "motion"
details(["motion"])
}
}
def active() {
log.debug "Motion detected"
sendEvent(name: “motion”, value: “active”)
}
def inactive() {
log.debug "No motion detected"
sendEvent(name: “motion”, value: “inactive”)
}
Thanks for sharing your code! One question though. Why did you have to create your custom device type? Can’t you just use existing “Motion Detector” device type? I can create a new Motion Sensor in “My Devices” without associating it with ST hub. Just give is some fake network address, like “DSC.01”.
It never crossed my mind, but I suppose that would have worked as well.
Any step by step out there to using alarm server. Wanted to play around but not sure where to start…
I was able to get my DSC alarm system fully integrated with SmartThings and works quite nicely. The device implements the switch (for arm/disarm), contact (to monitor zones) and alarm (for triggering panic alarms and monitoring the alarm status) capabilities.
Source code and detailed information can be found on my GitHub repository. I am still working on it and will be making some improvements but it works well enough to share.
Vassilis
4 Likes
Vassillis - Since I don’t have and Envisalink, THIS is exactly what I was looking for when I started with SmartThings. Thanks so much!! I am going to get this going on my side too as soon as I get a protoshield. Please post any other pics and other docs you can. Please also join the project over here at http://build.smartthings.com/projects/dscalarm/ - I’d love for you, myself or others to post some step by steps over there too.
1 Like
@Jason, glad you found this useful. I added a few pictures in the GitHub repository, the connections should be straight forward but I can add a block diagram if needed.
@Vassilis Thanks! That is helpful. Whats the Red board that is directly on top of the Arduino? The proto shield?
The red board is the prototyping shield, I was using it for another project so it has some hardware I am not yet using (LEDs, temperature sensors etc).
Gotcha. It looked a little complex to be a protoboard so I wondered. I got everything setup with the hardware, code and on the smartthings side. Just need to get a male-male serial cable tomorrow. (wish I had a gender changer).