Thanks for the tips. I just connected the rPi directly to the switch and hope it will improve. I am running the alarm server since December 2017 and that is about the time i bought the switch. In the beginning the link would fail once a week so I configured a chrono task to restart the rPi once a day at 19.30, time that I am normally home in order to avoid the switching the alarm mode (you know the *1 issue). In case I am away at the time of restart and becouse at restart the mode will change from away to stay arm, I also configured a routine to run at 19.32 to change back the mode to away arm.
Regarding the switch power supply, the thing is that my switch has a built-in power supply, 230Vac cable goes in it so replacing it is not straight forward.
AC power quality might be an issue because my 10kw solar panel inverter is nearby and I believe is connected to the same distribution board. It is known that inverters produce harmonics.
I had already plans to purchase UPS which will improve the power quality before the switch, but I think it will not have any influence on the internal power supply module.
Hi,
The reason we have separate stay/away panels is so that you can tell if the device is armed stay/away from external applications. Or - so it used to be needed anyway. Basically, they both act like dumb on/off switches, so you can tell if “stay” is “on” or “off” from a high level.
I suspect with all the latest core/piston stuff that it might not even be needed anymore, but that just shows how the state of smartthings has changed the past year or two…
Thanks Jordan
I have two locations, each with its own hub, on my Smartthings Account.
Do you foresee any issue if I add the Alarmserver setup to the second location? (I’m replacing my existing alarm system with a DSC panel at the second location with the sole purpose of integrating the alarm with Smartthings at that location as well.)
Any idea why the piston referred to here is turning the Interior Panel off and immediately On again?
Thanks
Unfortunately the communication stopped only after 8 hours form connecting all devices to the same switch.
@Xero
what Cisco switches are you using?
Back home now and looking at the alarm server journal. I don’t see new entries in it, so does this mean that there is interruption of the comms between the server and the alarm or between the server and the hub?
I suspect in tge alarm server because stopping and restarting tge service restored the communication
So after much frustration I had my kids run around the house to trip sensors while I was running TCPTrack on my raspberry Pi to see what IPs and Ports were in use.
Turns out… The Raspberian image I’m running had DHCP5 installed, and even though I had a static IP configured it was also recieving a Dynamic IP from my router. So when I did -> ip addr show … I was actually showing 2 IPs for the eth0.
Once I resolved that by modifying /etc/network/interfaces and rebooting my Pi, Router, all WAPs (my WAPS are secondary DNS servers) and the envisilink the communication issue is resolved.
Thanks for all your guidance and hopefully others can benefit from my follies.
I’m new to this…I can load Python 3.7 into my Windows 10 computer. I can pip pyOpenSSL with admin command but I can’t get Python to accept the command openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 3650 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout server.key -out server.crt to generate a certificate. I get a syntax error. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Why are you trying to generate an openssl certificate?
You wouldn’t do that with python, first of all, that’s just a command, called " openssl". And it’s not needed at any point in the process of setting up this application, so it seems like you’re not heading down the right path at all…
Have you checked out the readme document in the repository?
I’m using an HP procurve at home, not actually a cisco switch, although that would be nice. It’s a “datacenter grade” switch, it’s rackmounted, internal/built-in power supply, etc. you can pick em up pretty cheap on ebay, but they are extremely loud because they aren’t really meant to be in a house, basement or closet use only…mine’s in the basement by all my wires.
it definitely means there’s a communication issue somewhere, i can’t say much more on that without something more concrete. 8 hours is not very long at all though, something is not right. You could very well have some oddball IP conflict issue or something else like that misconfigured on your network. It seems to be a running theme with many of the people who’ve been having issues, it turns into debugging home networking issues rather than alarmserver issues…
Thanks for the info. Its the alarmserver thing that is throwing me off. I am not doing raspberry. Just my Windows 10 computer. I thought I had to create my own alarmserver certificate file (per some of the other stuff I read about alarmserver). I did read the readme file its just the alarmserver thing that i don’t understand. I got the smart things DSC integrated. I guess I just need to know where I edit my alarmserver.cfg file. I edited it in my forked github file correct?
Well although Chinese, the TP link switch I have is business model, with internal power supply and 19 rackmount. I am busy totaly reconfiguring my home network, I bought ubiquity edge router long time ago but I didn’t have much time to configure it. I will try to create separate networks that will limit the trafic so I hope the things will improve. I also read some people on my internet provider (Telenet in Belgium) faced issues with the provider’s DNS servers so I changed them to Google.
I will keep you posted if any progress. Half way in reconfiguring I do notice improvements.
OK, I read through the DSC installation guide and found the reference to what you’re mentioning and yes it sounds like that is the issue. From the DSC Manual:
Press [*][1] when the system is armed in the Stay mode to change the armed status to Away mode. The system will add the Stay/Away zones back into the system after the exit delay time expires.
This is exactly what is happening.
Greg
I have taken the plunge and modified the alarmserver.py to not send *1# on login. Here is the code I commented out:
def handle_login(self, code, parameters, event, message):
if parameters == '3':
self._loggedin = True
self.send_command('005', self._config.ENVISALINKPASS)
if parameters == '1':
self.send_command('001', '')
time.sleep(2)
-----> # I think this is causing the panel to go from stay to away
-----> #self.send_command(‘071’, ‘1*1#’)
if parameters == '0':
alarmserver_logger('Incorrect envisalink password')
sys.exit(0)
From the DSC documentation :
Press [*][1] when the system is armed in the Stay mode to change the armed status to Away mode. The system will add the Stay/Away zones back into the system after the exit delay time expires.
I don’t see a reason to send *1 on login, if there is a reason for this, please let me know. It does not re-arm in away mode when I reboot the pi running alarm server anymore and seems to be functioning. I’ll monitor it and post back if anything weird seems to happen.
Yes, you can easily comment out the code to not send the *1 anymore, it basically means bypass status might not get updated correctly when the system starts up. That is the reason it is sent. *1 also makes it send bypass status updates. That might even be an EVL specific thing, you’d have to see the EVL docs as well.
I’d like to try to come up with a better fix for this (like not sending it when the system is armed or something). Otherwise I suspect bypass states won’t get updated until an action is taken that would explicitly force them to update.
Yes I like that better too. I don’t think I understand the code well enough to make that modification yet. My experience with python so far is reading the tutorial. I’ll keep studying and see If I can be useful. If you make the addition before I get to it though I’ll move on to something else.
Thanks!
No problem, and you’ve got it working “well enough” for your purposes i’m sure. i’d still like that 100% fix, some day.
I probably should have mentioned you could just comment it out in the interim (as the function it breaks is minor, at best), but my mind was in a totally different place (trying to figure out how i want to determine system states to conditionally avoid sending it, etc)
Is there a guide on how to set up the alarm server on a Windows 10 pc?
Hi there!
I have been using this app for over a year now. Everything has been working fantastically, thank you so much!
It has been working so well that I have been scared to update anything haha. I remember spending a little time getting it to work at the beginning.
Is there an easy way to backup everything before attempting an upgrade? I’d like to be able to “revert” to the current working configuration in case things don’t work right away
Thank you
Hi!
I’m new to SmartThings, but am very familiar with DSC/Envisalink, and fairly technical. I’ve been running a DSC system I installed and programmed for many years, and added an Envisalink 2DS a few years back. I’m happy with the Envisalink web interface for arming/disarming, etc., but am looking to interface it to SmartThings to set up some motion triggers for lights, etc.
That being said, I’m running into a couple hiccups trying to set Alarmserver, etc. up, and could use some guidance.
I went trough the readme (I’m not sure what all I must do just to use zone statuses for triggers, so I’m doing everything), but ran into a couple snags.
-
I noticed in the discussions that you must install the apps on SmartThings classic first, not the new app.
-
When I log into the old app, it asks for a code to set up my hub (It was all set up in the new app, however). The issue is I have a new 3rd generation SmarThings Hub, which from what I’ve read, doesn’t have a code (what I have read points to just using the new app).
My questions:
- Is this a chicken and egg situation, and can you actually get through this process with a new 3rd gen hub?
- If I can get past that, if I am just using this just for zone status for triggers, do I need to install the apps, etc?
Thanks in advance!
Once you set up your hub in the new app, go into your classic (old) app, log in as existing user and use the same credentials as in the new one. Then select the location from drop down menu. Now you can do whatever you need to.