Our house is currently wired up for all the security sensors and what not. There is no controller installed for all of the them though. What is the best way to integrate the existing sensors with ST? I would hate to have to go out and buy all new stuff if it is already wired up in the house. Fairly new to all this automation, but want to try to get most everything in the house running of ST.
Thanks!
If those are wired contacts they won’t work directly with ST.
There is a way to get them to work using specific Z-wave contact sensors. You just need to get the Ecolink or Schlage sensors and they have the ability to add in wired contacts. I believe I’ve seen done where you could do multiples in series if you had side-by-side windows you wanted to monitor (essentially monitoring 2 windows with 1 sensor)
and also this thread uses them (albeit for a different purpose, but same concept)
Do you have a link for the sensors? The doors and windows all have recessed sensors and this is the only similar sensor I can find online.
They are using the Ecolink sensors found here: http://www.amazon.com/Ecolink-Z-Wave-Window-Sensor-DWZWAVE2-ECO/dp/B00HPIYJWU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450121936&sr=8-1&keywords=ecolink+door
It might be more of a challenge with them being recessed because that means all the wiring is completely hidden within the walls (which looks great, but makes it harder to re-use)
Do you happen to know what the max distance they can be from the contacts before attenuation occurs?
I do not. I have not used this for any project myself, just am aware of the concept as it has been used by others for various projects.
Cool, thought I would ask. Thanks for sharing the knowledge 
If you love banging your head and are technically inclined you could get a DSC alarm and fire up alarmserver on a PC. There is a tonne of info here on getting this running but it is a head scratcher.
Any specific hardware I should start looking at from DSC to get started? Would a DSC PC-1832 paired with a IT-120 be on the right path for getting it monitored?
I have a DSC-832 (older I guess) and the Envisalink EVL-3 installed in the same box to give it an eth port. I use an old laptop running alarmserver and integrated to ST through the community apps and OAUTH.
I’m one of the people who has used the Ecolink open/close sensors to connect to my old home alarm wiring. My old system had 6 zones, but many more sensors…some are daisy-chained together. All of them are hidden/flush magnetic reed switch-type sensors, and all of the wiring (windows, doors, siren) is centrally located in one of my closets. Therefore, I bought 6 Ecolink sensors and wired them to each of the zones in the closet. Works perfect. I haven’t noticed any attenuation/distance problems and some of wiring is pretty long. I did have to cycle each zone once for the Ecolink to report the “state”.
Additional note: I purchased my Ecolink sensors with the GoControl Premium Security kit (3 sensors, 1 motion, 1 siren), since I also wanted a siren and this was the cheapest route. I bought two kits, so I currently have 1 spare siren and 2 spare motion sensors.
I also have the Envisalink EVL-3 but I use their online solution for arming/disarming. Anyone using Raspberry PI for integrating this? I would like to know more about the how to.
OK, cool that’s what I wanted to hear. Now to buy one and trace out what each wire is to - no one ever labeled the wires.
If your wires are still tied to an alarm panel motherboard, you should be able to see the “zone” there. My old DSC alarm board had the zones labeled (Z1, Z2, etc…each zone had 2 wires…one to the zone #, and one to the COM).
PS: you have to drill a hole in the sensor to access the screw down connection within the sensor. The sensor has a predefined “hole” marked just for this.
There is another way to do this, and that is to use an Arduino with a ThingShield. The Arduino has digital inputs and the ThingShield talks to ST over zigbee. Check out this topic: Announcing the "ST_Anything" Arduino/ThingShield Project
Thanks Bruce…that looks very interesting.