[OBSOLETE: NEWER VERSION AVAILABLE] Konnected Security 2.0 - Connect Wired Alarm System Sensors and Siren to SmartThings - big update and new name!

This is my only gripe for what otherwise has been a near flawless cut over to Konnected 2.0.

My wife notices the increased latency it takes for the chime to be set off when a contact opens. Right now my setup is:

contact sensor-> hardwire -> Konnected -> wifi -> LAN -> Smartthings Hub -> zwave -> Zooz Chime

It works, but happy to hear any ideas to lessen the chime latency.

Been wondering for years how to repurpose my existing alarm, took about 40 minutes to hook up and now up and running, just the siren left to go, thanks @heythisisnate !!!

@heythisisnate thanks for the offer, but it was really bugging me as I figured it should be working, so… I got a old LED battery powered light, took it apart and checked that it worked when connected to the alarms 12V battery, it did. So then i tested it out with the Alarm. I connected the terminals on the light to the contacts where the Siren was connected 22(+) / 23 (-) and nothing, so then i connected it to AUX power 12(-)/15(+) (these are the ones that the keypad was connected to, and now i have the NodeMCU board connected to them). and the light came on. So, THEN i left the negative connected, connected the + (from the light) to the relay (NO) and the COM to the positive on the alarm (15), and it works. It comes on when you press the ALARM button and it comes on when SHM is armed and you open a door. So, my question, I am pretty sure i can, but, can i connect the Siren to these contacts (12/15) (via the relay!), instead of the original ones (22/23), or is there anything i am not thinking of? Cheers.

Yes, that should work. The only concern I see there is that the power from terminals 12 & 15 is rated for 500mA maximum. Your siren may use close to that much power when activated, potentially exceeding the capacity for that circuit. It should be fine for powering the NodeMCU which uses a maximum of about 180mA in my testing.

It looks like you can also try terminal 21 (instead of 15) to get unregulated DC power for the siren, that may be safer. So you’d connect COM to 21, NO to the siren red wire and the siren black wire to 23. Let me know if that works.

@heythisisnate yaiii its working! Thank you very much for your help, weird about the siren power pins. All thats missing now is I am waiting for another NodeMCU base (i am using a breadboard on the 2nd NodeMCU) and then i can tidy it all up. Nate, I really appreciate your help and advice, and highly congratulate you on all your work and the effort you put into it.

Next step, see what else i can do with my newly acquired ST Hub!

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Just a note for those about the smoke detectors. I have two Smoke/Heat sensors that are hardwired (in series) to my existing alarm panel. I also have 4 Kiddie Smoke/CO sensors interconnected that came with the house. I did this project Integrating Kidde Smoke / CO Sensors into SmartThings Properly to bring those Kiddie sensors into SmartThings.

With this project I’ve decided I rather have the reliability of hardwired so I’m going to bring in the existing Smoke/Heat that was connected to the old panel to this project but also I’m going to eliminate the two EcoLink sensors and bring both the Kiddie Smoke and CO as separate inputs to the Konnected panel. One of the EcoLink sensors is flaky…I’ve had the smoke trip three times with nothing actually wrong and removing and reinstalling the battery fixes it. Rather have the “hardwired”.

So if you have Kiddie sensors you can look at my project above to add the relays to them so you can then hard wire them into this panel, just directly wire it instead of using the EcoLinks. Might also have to use the NC contacts instead of NO.

Neat project…haven’t ordered my kit yet but planning on it after I run it by the wife since it will change how we do stuff in the house.

Saw there was mention of new hardware, how far out is that? I mean weeks or months? I ask because I could get away with 8 inputs which I think the new hardware supports but as long as you guys will continue to support the current kit I won’t worry about it.

-Allan

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We’re working on a few exciting things, but new hardware that supports more than 6 zones per board won’t be ready any time soon. We’ll definitely continue supporting the current kits.

Thanks @heythisisnate. I won’t wait then although a roadmap of features would be nice and get more people to buy into this (I would think). I placed my order and was pre-loading the github stuff. Three feature requests as I’m reading over the documentation, all device related:

  • A device type for Window Breakage sensor. I know you can use contact sensor…just think it looks cleaner having its own device type with its own icon within the app. Maybe there is a reason not to that I don’t know about but I have 4 glass breakage and 3 door contacts all separate. I plan on just properly naming them in the meantime but having separate devices would be cool.
  • A device type for CO. I plan on bringing in both a CO and a Smoke in separately (see previous post a couple up) but both should sound the siren. I made one in the past although I’m sure you could also (https://github.com/vseven/SmartThings_VSeven/blob/master/devicetypes/vseven/modified-zwave-door-window-sensor-for-co.src/modified-zwave-door-window-sensor-for-co.groovy). I will end up having two smokes and a CO when I’m done and it would be nice to differentiate between them.
  • A device type for generic binary input. Again…can probably use the contact device type but would be nice for different icon. Like the symbol for a relay. I plan on wiring a relay to the incoming voltage and bringing that in as a contact sensor to detect a power outage since I’m reusing my old panels backup battery. My hub, router, modem, etc are all on battery backup and then I will know when power is out.

I also plan on ripping out my old panel completely. That leaves me with a power brick and a battery that pushes out 16.5v. Have to do some testing of the power outputs going to the smoke and glass to verify that’s the same voltage they are getting and if so this should be a piece of cake. If not I might have to get another power brick or better yet some small voltage regulators so I can continue to use the backup battery.

-Allan

EDIT: Looking through the device types (“Konnected Smoke Sensor” for example) they look super easy to modify. Guess the question would be on the back end how they are treated.

Hi @vseven, thanks for the feedback and thank you for placing an order at my store!

The main reason we don’t have a native glass-break sensor device type is mainly because SmartThings Smart Home Monitor doesn’t support that capability. As far as I can tell, SHM only allows you to use open/close and motion sensors for the security inputs to SHM. So, my recommendation is to set up the glass break sensors as if they were motion sensors. You can customize the icon after Konnected creates the device by tapping the device in My Home view, then tap the gear icon.

A device type for CO detectors is definitely doable and should be easy. I’ll work on this soon. SHM does support both smoke and CO capabilities under Smoke

Again, for the generic sensor input, you can just use a contact sensor type and customize the icon once it’s created.

Yeah…I figured there was a backend reason for just using contact. Forgot about SHM. Good to know I can change the icons.

As for CO you can look at my example above. It’s pretty self explanatory, well it will be for you. I can write it up tonight and send it over if you’d like.

Edit: NM…sent you the device type for review and possible inclusion.

Hi,

First of all - excellent project and I hope it works out for you.

I am just testing at the moment and I wondered where suggestions can be submitted?

Suggestion - detached building

1x NodeMCU in a separate building (e.g. detached garage or workshop)
Wired sensors connected to it
connected on Wi-Fi e.g. 192.168.1.100
When sensors triggered the SmartThings event is triggered as usual

  • but also a message is sent to the main house NodeMCU to report the issue (ajax or mqtt) i.e. message sent to 192.168.1.101

1x NodeMCU in main building (already protected with existing traditional alarm)
Wired sensors connected to it (optional)
connected to Wi-Fi e.g. 182.168.1.101

  • but also one of the pins/gnd connected to the traditional alarm panel zone
  • when this NodeMCU recieves the message from the remote NodeMCU (192.168.1.100) it triggers the zone which will send the traditional alarm panel into alarm as a normal PIR senor would.

Thoughts?

Has anyone had one of these drop offline? One of my nodes went offline sometime yesterday and I didn’t find it until this morning when I noticed doors not chiming. Sure enough, I open the panel up and it’s blinking like it’s trying to connect to WiFi.

FYI - I’m researching what will be required to pull my existing panel out completely, reuse my power adapter (16.5v) and battery (12v) and buy a power adapter/battery charger board. I think it will be a lot cleaner without the old panel. Also going to get some terminal strips for wiring in and out. Plan on doing this in the next couple weeks…I’ll make a new post when I do in case anyone else is looking for inspiration. :slight_smile:

-Allan

HI @nayneyT,

This sounds like an interesting idea. You can’t connect the NodeMCU directly to the traditional alarm panel to trigger a zone, but you could accomplish this using a relay. It sounds possible, but probably not a very common setup. This begs the question – why have the complexity of one nodemcu talking to another and an existing alarm panel, when they can both just talk to SmartThings? If you just cut out the existing alarm panel from your setup, Konnected already can monitor sensors in different parts of the house (or different buildings) because they each communicate independently with ST.

@cucamelsmd15 I have had a couple reports of this. I’m working on a fix and it should be ready in the next day or two. If you want to test it out now, the updated file is init.lua and you can grab it from here: https://github.com/konnected-io/konnected-security/blob/wifi-disconnect-fix/src/init.lua

@vseven take a close look at that power adapter that’s from your old alarm panel, it probably outputs 16.5v AC. DO NOT CONNECT AC POWER TO THE NODEMCU BOARD. You will damage it!

Check out these small power supply battery backup devices that I found on Amazon. I haven’t tried one personally, but they look like they’ll do the job.

@heythisisnate - It does output 16.5 vac, verified yesterday night. But already figured it out: http://www.elkproducts.com/product-catalog/elk-p624-6-12-or-24-volts-dc-power-supply-charger-module. $20 and I can reuse the power adapter and battery. :wink:

How do we update it OTA?

You can’t yet until I make an official release. I’m looking for a few people to upload and test it manually first.

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Clarification: In the documents under wiring up the strobe/siren it says:

Note: The D8 pin, in the event of a power failure, may trigger upon reboot. This may cause the siren to sound briefly in the event of a power failure or reboot. We’re still working on ways to mitigate this problem.

Under contacts and glass breakage it says:

The following input pins on the Konnected device can be used for contact sensors:

D1, D2, D5, D6, D7, RX

Note: The RX pin interferes with the serial USB connection. Advanced users who are connecting the device to their computer using a USB cable may encounter problems using pin RX.

Is there a reason to use D8 if it has that issue or do all pins have that issue? I.e. could I use D1 for the siren then D2, D5, D6, D7, and RX for my inputs (don’t care about serial USB interference) and avoid that issue?

-Allan