Konnected: running locally on Smarthings or in the cloud?

Hi Folks, as had title says, Im trying to find out whether Konnected - running through the smartthings hub - is executing locally or via the cloud.
My concern is that smartthings has been down a lot recently, and if it’s executing via the cloud that might make it for an alarm system unreliable …?

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All custom code currently runs in the cloud, including WebCore and Konnected.

In fact, much of the stock code runs in the cloud, Including all routines, mode changes, and much of smart home monitor, including the ability to change the armed state.

Right now, with the exception of the ADT model line, the only stuff that runs locally is some of smart lighting and a few bits of smart home monitor. And no notifications, not even push notifications to a phone on the same LAN, will run unless both the Internet and the smartthings cloud are operational.

The ADT model line, on the other hand, does run the parts of the system which communicate to the ADT monitoring center locally and has its own cellular communication module for notifications. So it can work as a low-cost security system.

Anything based on the other smartthings hub models, including Konnected, runs into exactly the issues that you mentioned.

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While that’s true, as with any solution like Konnected or the EVL3/4 / Alarmserver integration, you are using a dedicated security system that should work fine on its own. Konnected or Alarmserver just provide integration to SmartThings. So while it’s true that the custom smart app and DTH code added to SmartThings won’t work if the cloud goes down, the dedicated security system continues to operate as designed. It will still arm and disarm from its console and it will still protect property. It just won’t report state to SmartThings until the cloud comes back up.

This is the exact reason I’m using this kind of solution.

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Good point, it depends how you intend to use an integration.

There are quite a few people who have replaced their panel altogether with Konnected, Particularly if they moved into a home with a pre-installed system Which they themselves never had activated. In those cases, the cloud dependency of Konnected is a real issue.

On the other hand, if you have an existing operational system with its own panel and you were just using something to get additional convenience integration with your home automation, it’s going to be less of an issue, although you still need to be aware of it in your planning. :sunglasses:

(As noted in the posts below, The currently available version of konnected does rely on the cloud and does replace the alarm panel. There are some other projects for security integration which don’t replace the panel but just try to trigger from the same alarms. These two different approaches will be very different as far as how a smartthings outage might affect you. )

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Konnected cannot currently run in parallel with another alarm system.

@heythisisnate can elaborate.

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Hi @nathancu thanks and can you please explain? Looking at the instruction videos it seems that the old board is getting disconnected/replaced with the konnected board. Will that konnected board arm/disarm/sound an alarm when intrusion is detected and the hub down? Thanks.

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Im watching the videos you mentioned - I was apparently very wrong about how connected works. (my apologies, this is why I frequent the forums I learn everyday) It does indeed replace the entire alarm board. Now I have the same question you do, but this post on thier site seems to answer the question: Installing a Siren Cut-off Switch

From the page:

cell coverage is spotty or you find out there is a problem and SmartHome Monitor doesn’t seem to be responding for some reason

So this tells me it (Konnected) very much relies on SHM, which is cloud only BTW and therefore Konnected will suffer from its deficiencies (i.e. lack of keypad delay) and anything else that knocks it out or hangs it up. (Enter slew of solutions from the community for how to bolster SHMs deficiencies - our community rocks and have built a ton of things around these issues)

Given that, it looks like here’s the pros / cons list

Cons:
Looks like cloud issues will make it inaccessible - at least the interface, but there are workarounds
Same deficiencies as SHM, again, there are workarounds

Pros:
Easy to install
Reusing existing sensors
Supported and maintained

The way Alarmserver works, you add an EVL3/4 board as an additional keypad then everything else in the system stays the same. You interface to the EVL board through alarmserver (usually running on something like a r-pi) and finally a smartapp that connects to AlarmServer.

Cons:
Needs additional-additional hardware (r-pi in addition to an evl board)
Needs additional programming/admin expertise (Python and r-pi)
Need to poke a hole in a firewall
More moving parts to break
More DIY

Pros:
Completely insulated from ST outages

@heythisisnate, @tgauchat - does this seem correct now?

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thank you VERY MUCH @nathancu I very much appreciate you taking the time to think this through. This gives me some good options to explore.

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Thanks, very helpful!

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This is a good and accurate summary, @nathancu. Thank you.
You are correct that Konnected relies on Smart Home Monitor, SmartThings cloud, and an internet connection to function properly.

At this time, Konnected does not work in parallel with a traditional alarm panel like the EVL does. We’re working on a new product that will address this.

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Look forward to that!!! Konnected is still running flawlessly in conjunction with my current alarm system for a year. With the help of @heythisisnate and @ogiewon I was able to use resistors and run Konnected in parallel by disabling the (pullup resistors). The only downside is that I am on a older version of Konnected but I look forward to the new product line!!

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@kamran Can you tell me more how you accomplished running it in parallel?

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@heythisisnate thanks and is there a timeline for when that product will be available?

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This was a custom setup specific to my system but you can follow the process here: Connect wired alarm system sensors to SmartThings with a NodeMCU ESP8266 [deprecated]

But I am not sure if it will work with the current version of connected since I am not sure how to disable the pullup resistor in the current software.

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I’m actually interested to run the konnected in the cloud only. What I mean by that is I would like to avoid purchasing a smart hub and just use the smartthings app to run konnected. Is that possible?