Low-cost siren and touch screen

I’m looking for a low-cost siren for SmartThings.
I’m also looking for a low cost display panel something like the ones that alarm companies use?

I know you said, “low-cost” but why not kill two birds with one stone? The SmartThings ADT Security Hub:

Features a 7-inch touchscreen control panel, a built-in siren, battery and cellular data backup, and dual-encryption wireless technology.:sunglasses:

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What region are you in (North America or EU/UK)? Device selection does vary somewhat.

As far as the touch panel, I think most people use the very popular third-party app, action tiles, which can run in pretty much any browser so you can pick up any inexpensive tablet you want to use. There’s a license fee for actiontiles of around $30 per hub (not per device), But most people find it well worth it. There’s a free trial so you can check it out first.

There are also some free versions of dashboards that you can find it by looking on the quick browse list in the community – created wiki, looking down towards the bottom of that page for “project reports,” and then selecting the “dashboard” list. :sunglasses:

http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=How_to_Quick_Browse_the_Community-Created_SmartApps_Forum_Section

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Us. I was also thinking about adding a stand-alone siren. Where can I buy the ADT touch panel? Would it work without ADT service?

Amazon

Best Buy

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The ADT touch panel might be a good choice for you, just understand that it is a hub in and of itself, you don’t use it with any other smartthings hub. It does work without the ADT service, although not quite in the way you may be expecting.

As far as the siren, the Everspring, Vision, Ecolink, and Dome all have Z wave sirens that list under $35.

https://www.thesmartesthouse.com/pages/search-results?limit=24&q=siren

The SmartThings/ADT panel has a built-in siren, which might also meet your needs. :sunglasses:

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Is it better to buy a Z-Wave or zigbee siren?

Doesn’t matter as long as you have a good network backbone for the protocol that the siren uses. Either should be good.

I also forgot to mention that you can sometimes find the gocontrol siren on sale in a package of sensors and the siren that is quite inexpensive.

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AEOTEC BY AEON LABS GEN5 Z-WAVE PLUS INDOOR SIREN ZW080A17. Is this another good option but it’s out of my price range. I was thinking something like $25 for one

Yes… But the ADT Security Hub with SmartThings (I thought that’s its official name?) cannot control SmartThings at all. It just serves to show the status of your ADT sensors, and arm/disarm Alarm and Panic mode.

It’s not a customizable “view & control” Panel Builder like ActionTiles.

I still think the ADT option is currently the most reliable way to use ST as a security system, and you get all the benefits of SmartThings, including the great add on apps like ours :wink:.

I thought the ADT hub was ALSO a ST hub? You can use the ADT sensors for security on the ADT side and all the other devices on the ST side but never the two shall mix. For example. you couldn’t use a security motion sensor in WebCore to turn on Lights. You would need a second Motion sensor to accomplish that. Correct?

No, it’s better than that. :sunglasses: You can use the ADT/smart things dual logo motion sensor to trigger home automation routines or webcore. They show up in the things list like the single logo sensors. So if you have an ADT contact sensor on the window and it opens you can have the ADT panel contact the monitoring center and you can have smartthings turn on your lights. :rotating_light::bulb::bulb::bulb:

What you can’t do is use a single logo SmartThings sensor to trigger a call to the ADT monitoring center.

See the FAQ

If anyone has any further questions about how this model hub works, I suggest asking in the following thread, where there are people who actually have it. :wink:

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I think Terry’s point was that you don’t get control of ST devices through the touch screen, so it doesn’t take the place of a tablet running AT or another dashboard.

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You may also want to look at the ADT Tools Smart app for some additional integration with the panel. It expands many actions that are based on ADT Activity.

@tgauchat was right in that the panel doesn’t allow you any control of the Smartthings side unit. If you want to control that you need either something like Action Tiles, or a mobile phone with the Smartthings App.

As others have mentioned as well though anything configured in the ADT Alarm side is visiable to smart things to act on. The only real limitation is that you can’t use non dual logo’d sensors to notify ADT. If you are going to use it as a self monitored solution though that isn’t a problem. I would still use ADT Sensors when you can just so you don’t prevent yourself from having that option. They are generally very affordable.

I have been using the ADT Panel for about 6 months now and am very satisfied with it. Let me know if you have any questions

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I was in hopes that I would not have to go buy all new equipment just to get a touch screen and siren. Does anybody have a recommendation for a cheap siren on eBay and touch screen?

I don’t ever recommend buying electronics on eBay as in most cases the manufacturers will not honor the warranties and there are a lot of counterfeit and misdescribed items. :disappointed_relieved:

That said, I’ve already given you what I believe will end up being the least expensive options: a cheap android tablet running one of the free dashboard smartapps and one of the under $35 zwave sirens that we’ve already discussed. Just wait till one goes on sale and you can probably get it for around $25.

Or get the gocontrol zwave security bundle which has their siren plus four more sensors. At a typical sale price of $75, that’s $15 per device, as long as you can use the other sensors. :+1:

If you want to go cheaper than that, you’re probably going to have to buy something zigbee or WiFi from a Chinese seller with no real guarantees of compatibility.

l’m setup actiontiles for now.
How to add live video to actiontiles?

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I forgot to mention, if you already have an Amazon echo device, including a dot, you can use an Amazon routine (not a SmartThings routine) to have the echo device play any sound file of your choosing from your Amazon music library, including a siren sound.

You can probably buy a siren sound file for about $.99

So that would be cheaper than buying a standalone siren device if you already have an echo of some kind.

Tagging @tgauchat

Yeah…that was kinda my point too. That’s what you get when you try and post too late at night. :wink: