[OBSOLETE] vivintSmartHomeManager SmartThings Integration for vivint.SmartHome Security Systems

Correct, the lowest polling is at 1-minute, so real-time processing and triggers aren’t really available as far as your Vivint system and devices go. You can control certain devices (lock, panel, garage door), but can’t react to them until the system has been polled for device status.

I looked into the motion sensors on my own system as part of developing this SmartApp and DTHs. The motion is reported to Vivint only when there is movement and stops immediately once there is none, rather than reporting motion for, say, 3 minutes. So without being able to subscribe to the device changes for real-time processing, the motion sensor likely won’t be able to do anything other than show that it has been tampered with and report battery level (I hate that Vivint doesn’t show you the device battery level until it is dead and/or near dead).

My setup is mostly to be able to control devices and have sensors available that I can react to based on if and/or how long a sensor has been left open. This also allowed me to be able to automate certain aspects based on the rest of my home automation desires.

One scenario in particular was that I wanted to be able to tell Alexa, “goodnight” and have her perform a number of steps, including arming my Vivint security system. Prior to writing this smart app, I had to do some hacks to get to my end solution. I would tell Alexa, “goodnight” and she would perform all of my device changes (turn on do not disturb, close shades, turn off lights, etc), and then one of my echo devices would:

  1. exit do not disturb mode
  2. announce “Alexa, ask Vivint to arm my security system stay”
  3. an echo device in close proximity would hear her command and initiate the process and respond
  4. re-enter do not disturb mode

This was annoying and always scared my cats because there was another voice coming from the kitchen all of the sudden, haha. As far as I know, there is no way to arm the security panel with Alexa outside of voice commands.

There is a timestamp value that is returned on motion devices that appears to show the last time motion was activated, so it might be possible to overwrite the status and report motion for n minutes after timestamp, but I don’t really use my Vivint motion sensors for anything else and haven’t ventured down that route. It would also likely necessitate a separate device handler for the motion capability.

Ok man, and as far as the arm system that would have been really cool to arm the panel in let’s say a goodnight piston, I use google assistants and can tell it to arm, but like you I thought it would have been nice to include it in my time for bed piston. Lol my only other workaround to include the arm system was to use a switchbot to physically press the stay button on my panel in my room to include in the piston. I haven’t done that yet because it seems a little silly to me but hey I may try it anyway, never used switchbot so I’m not sure how good they work. Thanks again man the smartapp is great, good job with it.

Ok soooo I just saw the lock feature on the panel, that’s exactly what I needed man hell yeah. I didn’t realize it would do that, that’s badass dude! Now I can def. put it in my pistons to arm on goodnight routine.

Haha, yeah, sorry about the confusion there, too. I got carried away in my story of how things used to be. With this SmartApp and DTH now, both SmartThings and Alexa (if you do that integration) can see the panel as a “lock” device which you can default to arm “stay” or “away” based on your preferences and include in any automation pistons, scenes, etc.

Also, I did just push an update to the panel DTH today to fix the lock reporting status of the panel, so make sure you have the most recent update installed and published and you should be good to go.

Awesome man ok one last thing then I’ll stop bothering you lol do you know of anyway I could say arm stay in one piston For my goodnight routine but say like if I used presence sensors for when we are away that I could have it arm away? Seems like the lock feature only sees one or the other. regardless if there’s a way I could do that this is exactly what I’ve been looking for to be able to arm my panel using a piston for goodnight routine.

Are you referring to webcore pistons? If so, I’m pretty sure you can set up and call any command that’s part of the DTH, including armStay and armAway.

Well damn you sure the hell can lol sorry for bothering you bro. Thank you for the quick replies too!

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Wow thanks man! Just bought a ST V3 Hub today and was able to connect it really fast… im extemely green on this platform but this is perfect! better than doing the pairing thing with the panels! i can see all my wired sensors!

Glad to hear! I created this because I could never get the secondary controller pairing to work with the Vivint panel and SmartThings hub but still wanted certain options/sensors/controls to be available.

Great work!!! I’ve long been frustrated with the Vivint system I inherited when buying this house. This gives me the additional insight and control I’d been hoping for. Thank you!

By the way, when I create an automation to disarm the alarm (based on a motion trigger), I get an error message. I imagine someone here knows why that might be… and maybe even a workaround???

Cheers!

@natekspencer what would it take for your help to add in the vivint thermostat and smoke detectors. These are the only pieces I have left to bring over, other than cameras which is a whole different beast.

I’m happy to help point you in the right direction to decipher the data and/or the endpoints I know of to communicate with the Vivint API for thermostats. Smoke detectors should just come through as wireless sensors, but there may be some new equipment codes since I last worked on this SmartApp.

GitHub - natekspencer/vivintpy: python library for interacting with vivintsky API contains all that knowledge, albeit in python if you wanna peruse that.

I may be missing something… does this work with 2 factor enabled on the Vivint account. Doesn’t seem like it at first use.