DSCAlarmServer + Smart Home Monitor

SmartApps & Automations
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I just got my DSC panel integrated this weekend. I used the information from this thread: DSC -> EVL-3(4) -> Alarmserver -> Smartthings

Honestly, it’s a bit of a bear to get working. The major problem is that SmartThings is very limited in the types of IP communications that can be sent/received from a SmartThings app, and unfortunately there’s no way a SmartThings app to talk directly to the API provided by the Envisilink4 board. So you end up needing an additional piece of software (AlarmServer) running on a PC of some sort that acts as a translator between SmartThings and the Envisilink. So you end up with the following major components:

  • Alarm Panel
  • Envisilink 4 - Small board that is installed into the alarm panel. Gives a connection to Envisilinks web site for remotely controlling your panel. Also has a local IP API which is what you’ll be using to integrate to SmartThings.
  • AlarmServer - This is a small piece of software that runs on almost any kind of computer. It acts as a sort of translator connecting to the Evisilink and providing an https API that can be used by a SmartThings app.
  • SmartThings app and devices - SmartThings devices and a SmartThings to control your panel. The one you can download from the thread I linked to above also includes integration to the SmartThings “Smart Home Monitor” (basically the “Dashboard” page in the SmartThings mobile app).

AlarmServer is the hard part to get running. It’s a pretty primitive script that requires some amount of experience setting up Python script on whatever OS you decide to run it on. Everything is configured via a text file and there’s a ridiculously complicated process you need to go through to get the authentication keys needed to allow it to connect to SmartThings.

Another unnecessary complication is that there’s a ton of different versions of AlarmServer and the associated SmartThings apps. It seems like periodically someone comes up with a newer enhanced version of one or the other and for some reason nobody ever seems to put any effort into pulling all the changes into one authoritative, long lived version. :frowning:

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