[OBSOLETE] Visonic Powermax Alarm

Hi Charles
What do you mean by 3.3V and 3.75V levels? On the TX/RX I/O pins?
I’ve had several NodeMCUs go wonky after a while, but my investigations are leading to a bug which somehow corrupts the saved wifi connection properties in flash and makes the NodeMCU unable to connect to wifi. Once broken I cannot use them (reflash) for anything that is related to wifi, unless I completely erase the flash as others have suggested. People talk about WiFi.persistent() but I’m not shure I fully understand what is going on. Is this something you recognise?
The problem seems to show up when wifi gets disconnected for some reason, like a router reboot or similar.
I recently decided to use a Wemos D1 R2 instead to see if that helps.

If you’re connecting to the Powermax 3.75v pins for putting a NodeMCU then the chances are you will see a problem, since it is outside of the safe range for the ESP8266. The Wemos has far more voltage regulation circuitry and should connect to the 12v rails to be reliable. I’ve never once had a problem with this setup in almost 4 years.

Oh, I see what you mean now. Well, I use the voltage regulator onboard the NodeMCU. I feed it like you do the Wemos.

Hi @cjcharles - great topic - something I’ve become more interested in since my Powerlink2 stopped working (but thats another story!)

I’ve ordered a Wemos board from your shop - and will hopefully get the chance to get it connected and integrated with my SmartThings.

However - when my PL2 was working (with my UK Powermax Pro) - I had taken the opportunity to replace the Visonic external server with a “in-house” IPMP Server (on a Raspberry Pi) to send emails on receipt of a HTTP POST event.

I unfortunately can’t take any credit for this - details were shared on the Domotica Forums (link)

The actual guide can be found (here)

What I was hoping for - was to retain the in-house server to send notifications - as this has been working flawlessly - is it possible to mimic PL2 behaviour to send HTTP POST messages (to a pre-configured address - i.e. the in-house server) on alarm events - including arm/disarm?
The PL2 also used to send HTTP GET messages - as keep-alive messages - but I am thinking this would be surplus to requirements…

Any views on where to best implement this functionality - is an alternative to perform this through ST?

Yes Smartthings is a good source for sending these emails, especially if you use the webcore integration aswell. Super reliable notifications apart on my phone when my alarm is is disarmed and sounding the alarm.

I’m happy to look at how I could enable emails from the Wemos itself, so you only have a single point of failure… However given you would need an internet connection for the emails to send, it’s not that different from relying on ST to send them, which also needs an internet connection (and the platform itself has Touchwood been super reliable)

Hi, I’ve been using the powermax integration for a couple of years (haven’t updated it for a long time) and have added a number of webcore pistons to use the events but I’ve just got the notification that I have to migrate to the new ST app… is there anything that I need to do apart from the app migration? Is there anything that will stop working?
I’ve looked through this topic but couldn’t find a recent post regarding it.
Thanks in advance,
Paul

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Thanks for getting back to me - much appreciated!

The preference for Wemos to perform this would be that Alarm notifications could be sent to other email addresses (from a pre-configured Mailbox/address) - for example if I am away and someone else is looking after the house.
This would just mean a quick update to a script I have running on the in-house server…thus meaning I wouldn’t have to share my ST account - and all the other automation and control it brings - the need some a simple notification is essential for some users :wink:

My current notifications/emails are only received on Arming/disarming actions and Alarm triggers (when armed) - which would show (for example):

Priority:2

Zone:2
Event Type:Open / Close
Device Type:KeyFob
User:KeyFob-2

Arm Home (event 81) at 22:37:28 04-08-2020

Would you need any more detail? I can also share the my script I have running on the server - which responds/acts to the HTTP POST.

One question - originally it used the users pre-configured in the PL2 - I assume this can also be re-created in Wemos? Its not a showstopper - as mentioned - additional email addresses can also be added to the script.

The server address could be hardcoded - as it is static (192.168.0.200)

Hi Charles, Question = With all the changes from ST and migrating away from IDE and Old App, is this all going to still work? I’m confused by all the announcements, not sure if IDE is still available with new app etc?

Also another question = is there anyway, including webCoRE, to be alerted if the siren goes off or if the alarm goes off due to an intruder?

Hi all, Managed to migrate to new ST app fine, had to do some funky Virtual Devices to keep the new STHM in sync with the Visonic Alarm as they are not in Webcore like STM was!! Happy to share if needed?

Can anyone advise why this email alert does not work when the siren is sounds and the alarm goes off? I have got emails for armed, disarmed and at home working. Any advice would be appreciated.

Ive finally had some time to read up on the new app and it seems that nothing has changed:

  • ST have given no detailed documentation on migrating device handlers to the new app, most of what they have provided is to guide new integrations, which sadly doesnt seem possible here since the APIs cant easily be setup
  • Custom tiles (that this integration relies on) are not yet possible, and they have given no guidance on when/whether this will be possible (needed in this integration for displaying extra information or triggering commands such as the setup processes)
  • It is possible to use the new app, but you will have no ability to change settings or create child devices without bodging it through the IDE. Once everything is setup then things do work for checking motion/open status and alarm status (off/siren/trobe/both)
  • They have said the IDE is going to be stopped, but seemingly not until 2021 at the earliest, and they have not provided * ANY * information about this change.

No idea what to suggest, but would definitely recommend keeping smart logic in Webcore rather than ST since they seem to have no idea what they are doing. Meanwhile I will keep using the Classic app for the time being.

My gut feeling says they will keep the Classic app working for longer… It is mind blowing that they can expect all developers to change device handlers with 1 month notice, if it needs anything more than superficial changes (especially since there is NO information about custom tiles/capabilities yet).

@arvs - Ive looked at adding SMTP to the Wemos, so it can send the emails directly, but its just not powerful enough to deal with SSL certificates required by most email servers nowadays. (It can be done but it requires hard coding and wouldnt be a good solution). That said Webcore does offer sending emails, and as you can see in @adavison007 's screenshot above you can customise which addresses receive which emails, and then play around with the content of the subject/body.

@adavison007 Im not sure why that piston is not working, can you look at the event logging in ST IDE and in Webcore aswell?

Thanks for the details. I’ve managed to migrate and sync everything including the STHM even without the API, I’ll share details and screen shots later.

With regards looking at the logs for the piston and ST, is there a way of testing the siren sounding without my alarm upsetting the neighbours?

Ah, so you use STHM for checking the home/away/alarm status of the panel, and the child devices for the zone information, hence it doesnt cause a problem that the actual Visonic Alarm device just shows ‘Connected’ and nothing more… I guess it makes sense, though disappointing given how much it could show! I assume Webcore was pretty easy to update so it changed STHM status rather than SHM status?

No sadly no way to trigger the alarm and keep it silent, though you could take batteries out of an external siren so it isnt quite so loud! Or just be ready to disarm it quickly and you normally get a couple of seconds of ‘quieter siren’ depending on how you have configured the zone which gets tripped. You can probably trick the ST device into going into alarm mode by manually changing it in the device, and that will check your Webcore automations, but once you tell ST how to trigger the Wemos/Alarm then it will make a noise!

Batteries out, simple, but Genius, thanks!

No STHM is locked down, it’s not in Webcore and it won’t have an API according to the information from ST!

So I worked a way around, so much more config, but finally got it working… I’ll share a full post laters, after the F1 has finished :slight_smile:

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Hi @cjcharles all tested working fine… i had hit my 50 email alert limit yesterday within Webcore… LOL

Question - When I arm with a Visonic Remote, I get the squark from the siren telling me I have armed the house, when I do it from the Smart Things App, I don’t… is there a setting I need to change in the Wemo or ST code? Thanks

Does it not just announce “Arming Home/Away” and then start beeps?

Please do, would love to hear how you’ve done it

@cjcharles Yes, the behaviour is exactly as you describe doing it from the app, doing it with a remote is the same + “Squark” beeps.

Squark = Quck beep from the outside alarm

Hi @cjcharles - I may be over simplifying this - however I was of the understanding that we don’t need to the Wemos to act as the mail server (nor did the Powerlink?) - that functionality has already been replicated by the in-house server/raspberry pi…However it relies on a HTTP POST call being sent from the Alarm (via PL or now the Wemos) - (taken from the guide I linked above):

When an event occur, PL2 send an http (POST) call through 8080 port to an another php script in the Visonic server (http://212.179.58.186:8080/scritpts/notify.php)carrying a XML data stream. This call must be responded with another XML data stream.

Note: The Visonic server is replaced with the in-house server (192.168.0.100)

This allows a pre-configured mailbox to be responsible for sending the emails to other Inboxes.

I need to look into the WebCore Integration - all new to me - just received my Wemos - so will set that up in the first instance to make sure I can “walk before I run” :wink:

Correct, you would in theory not need the Wemos to be doing the SMTP part, but it makes it more useful for other people if it was possible, while sending a call to a random home server on raspi is a lot of effort to implement if it only benefits a single user. Especially as knowing Visonic, it is anything but a standard XML message…

I’m hoping webcore can do everything you need, and I think it can! Bolting on random web requests is a nasty implementation!