I wouldn’t want to use the Elk as a secondary z-wave controller, but instead to provide status information for smartthings. For example, if I walk past the hardwired Elk kitchen motion detector, smarthings would turn on the light. Or for smartthings to know when Elk is armed and to put the house into “away” mode by turning off lights and putting the ecobee thermostat in a reduced power mode. Most of us have a ton of sensors attached to our alarm systems, that it seems duplicative to also put new z-wave door, window, and motion sensors just so smartthing knows their status.
For me, minimum functionality would be for smartthings to read status of zones, outputs, and alarm state. I suspect it would do this by connecting to the local ethernet module like the homeseer script does. I can probably find the homeseer script if it is helpful.
I don’t need any additional features else, but others would probably like the ability to arm and disarm the system.
I’ve had a ton of requests for this for konnected.io. It’s on our roadmap for next year to create a product that can support connecting a wired system “in parallel” with a functional traditional alarm system.
If you have some electrical engineering skills, you theoretically can do this now with my DIY Prototyping kit and some additional resistors or other components. Unfortunately it’s not something I can officially support or provide documentation for at this time, but I know others have done it. There’s some discussion in this thread:
You’ll all be the first to know when we have a “productized” offering to do this.
Do you have the Ethernet module inside your alarm already? This looks like exactly what I’ve done for the Visonic series of alarms
It looks like I can create a similar module for the Elk series and potentially reuse the DTH with minimal modifications which might be nice given the time I’ve already spent on it!
Yes I do have the Ethernet Module. If it is an easy port that would be great! If I can help out let me know. I think there is a manual called the ASCII protocol and interface manual which details the how to integrate to the M1 system. Let me know if you need it.
It wouldn’t be an easy port but it would be easier thanks to the code I have already done.
The challenge to getting this working is access to a elk device/panel, the arm and disarm is probably doable remotely but zone sensor change might be hard due to the subscription requirement. I wonder if anybody in the UK had a panel I could borrow for a week (sadly they are quite expensive when I checked eBay).
@HGupta Would you share access to your panel through a VPN or port forward (I can give you a static ip from my side)? I understand that presents some risks on your side, but if you are happy then I am happy. Alternatively if a panel can be purchased and sent/borrowed then this will be doable from the checking that I have now done.
Edit: the integration with the serial connection (I.e. Without Ethernet module) is also possible from the looks of things. Which is more useful? Would you look to keep your Ethernet module anyway given you have it? Or does it have minimal usage at the moment?
I also have an Elk M1 Gold that I use strictly for home security panel, currently with Vera, but moving to Smartthings.
I haven’t done any development on Smartthings yet, but am a software developer and willing to help develop/test. I have the ethernet module, which I use currently for Vera (via a plugin) to access arm/disarm and arming state data on the Elk.
@cjcharles this is an actively used panel, so I’m unable to share access to it, but willing to help develop/test. I’ll take a look at your plugin example tomorrow.
There is a plugin for Vera (http://code.mios.com/trac/mios_elk-alarm-panel) that integrates it (for me) over ethernet. It’s pretty flaky though, as it seems to lose connection requiring a restart of one or more of the devices to get things working again (not sure which side the issue is on, though my guess is Vera/plugin, as the Elk remote programming app still works when vera no longer does).
I don’t have a smartthings hub yet, will be delivered on the 3rd.
Anyone have luck with the integration? I finally found the script that I used to use with homeseer. It worked very well, and was extremely fast.
This webforum has a freely available script for homeseer. The developer suggests that it would be pretty easy to adapt to other systems. Hopefully that means that it could be adapted to smartthings as well.
Hopefully this will help point you guys in the right direction. I haven’t programmed in 20 years, so I am pretty useless.
I did some of the integration and am currently stuck waiting for a bit more time. I have created a device which can plug into the serial pins and is capable or arming and disarming the alarm, but it doesnt yet do more than that!
I want to have a look at supporting the ethernet connection aswell as serial, since as mentioned above I think that is possibly more common?
It does support firmware updates, so it is easy to upload new firmware when ready.
Excited to see some action on an Elk integration, I was actually looking at giving up on Smartthings today and decided to check the forums. Surprise!
I have an Elk M1 and the M1XEP Ethernet interface. Happy to install and test anything thrown in my direction and provide assistance where I can. Technically capable, but no programming skills.
Would love to be able to arm/disarm, and use all the wired door and motion sensors already installed.
I’ll set up something to share this week, it won’t be perfect as I have no test device(!), but hopefully some things will work and we can go from there!
CJCharles, I don’t know how I missed this post earlier.
I am happy to share access to my panel through a port forward since I am not actively using it as my primary alarm. Let me know the best way to share the information with you.
