Honeywell Vista 21ip & home automation advice needed

Devices & Integrations
1

So, I am now trying to finish up my alarm setup with a (hopefully) well thought out home automation controller attached to it.

I currently have:

vista 21ip (will most likely be monitored by Ethernet - not sure if I want TC or not)
VAM (it kinda sucks)
Single Z wave plus device (but adding more soon).

After replacing my 2nd VAM under warranty, it seems to be finally running in a stable fashion but boy are there a lot of bugs to be worked out here.

The issue I am having here, is that I am under the impression that I need to buy a home automation controller like Viera or Samsung Smart Things in order to really modernize the Vista panel and be able to do the “cool” things that I keep reading about.

I am hoping someone here has gone through this process and can recommend a good path for me here.

The way I see it I have a few options in order to connect the panel the outside world and get home automation/ Z-wave under one belt.

  1. Samsung Smart Things
  2. Viera
  3. Envision Link 4
  4. Alarm Decoder (usb or adruino version?)
  5. VAM ???

Currently I own an Amazon Echo v2 and who knows what else in the future I might replace that with.

Does anyone have experience with the Echo + TC2? If I did subscribe to TC2, would the above be a waste of effort/money?

Thanks in advance!

2

Check out this thread.

That’s what I have set up but instead of using a raspberry Pi I have the local server inside a “jail” in a FreeNAS box. Running for a couple of months now without issues. I have an EVL4. I do have Scout Alarm for $20/mo just in case I can’t be reached and there is a burglar alarm.

I used to have a MiCasaVerde Vera Lite. Is that what you are talking about? It was NOTHING like SmartThings. I am glad I upgraded to ST. That was also when I used to pay $50/mo for monitoring and used TC 2.0. The alarm panel was not integrated into my home automation at the time. Long story short: the alarm company would not let me touch my panel so I ditched them and installed my own and set up the integration linked above.

Good luck!

3

Thanks for the link. I have lots to read now!

Good to hear that you prefer ST over the MiCasaVerde. I have signed up for monitoring for $12/mo which includes TC 2.0 (basic). I can give it a try and see if it’s worth the $2/mo or come up with another solution. I still would like to integrate the alarm to a “hub” and open up the endless possibilities.