Replaced My Existing Security Panel with Konnected Security - My Writeup

tl;dr - Converted existing security system to SmartThings using the Konnected Security 2.0 product and some other stuff for around $165 and a full days work.

For those interested in all the details:

This thread is to document the replacement of my current security system. I asked for some suggestions (Guardian Security System up for renewal. Switch or renew?) and I ended up deciding on the Konnected Security project (https://community.smartthings.com/t/release-konnected-security-2-0-connect-wired-alarm-system-sensors-and-siren-to-smartthings-big-update-and-new-name/) simply because I wanted a “packaged” solution. I plan on putting in a MRK1000 or Arduino for some other things but for this project I was willing to pay a little extra for simplicity. A couple things that I wanted to accomplish:

  • I didn’t want the old security board installed at all. I wanted to remove it so I had room for the new stuff without it looking crappy.
  • I wanted battery backup for the replacement system.
  • I wanted to replace my one keypad with a small Android based tablet or phone.
  • I wanted to maintain as much hardware as I could on the current system (door chime on my keypad, siren for alarms, hardwired sensors, etc).

So once I decided on the Konnected project I started to do some research on what else I would need. First my current panel has a 16.5v AC power adapter which it turns out is pretty standard for security/alarm systems. However my battery is 12v DC and is charged off of the current alarm panel which I will be removing. Also some of my existing sensors such as smoke/heat, glass breakage, and siren need 12v DC also. So I needed to find something that could not only charge the battery but convert the 16.5v AC over to 12v DC. I also needed to supply the new Arduino boards with 12v DC and if I use the existing wiring the tablet/phone with 5v DC. I ended up with this:

ELK P624 - http://www.elkproducts.com/product-catalog/elk-p624-6-12-or-24-volts-dc-power-supply-charger-module

20170812_141415

It is a general purpose regulated power supply with selectable 6, 12, or 24v DC output (defaults to 12v) and built in battery charger which can be found for around $24. At 12V DC output its rated 1.0A if supplied by a 16.5v transformer which worked out perfectly for me. Now if you don’t have a existing transformer/battery you can get a transformer, a battery, and the power supply for around $60 - $70 total. If you don’t need battery backup because you are already plugging into a UPS then get whatever 12v DC 1 - 2 amp adapter you can find. You can also just leave your old panel in and tap off of that. I got to reuse two of my existing parts and chances are if you are replacing your security system you might be able to also. So to me the $24 for the power supply is worth being able to remove the old system and gain extra room in my enclosure.

On to my system. Existing I have:

  • 3 hard wired contact sensors, one for each entry door
  • 4 hard wired glass breakage sensors, all separate zones (separate wires to old panel)
  • 2 wireless window/door sensors. These only work with the old alarm panel so I’ll have to replace these. No biggie.
  • 2 Smoke/Heat sensors, one on the second floor and one in the basement. These are unfortunately not supported by the Konnected Security system.
  • 1 Siren/Strobe
  • 1 Keypad with chime/ding

20170801_172727

I did a project a while back to integrate the existing Kidde Smoke/CO sensors in my house to SmartThings (https://community.smartthings.com/t/integrating-kidde-smoke-co-sensors-into-smartthings-properly/) but one of my EcoLink contact sensors is flaky so I’ve decided I want to hardwire each of those into the new system. That’s 2 more inputs, one for Smoke and one for CO, and works out because I can’t reuse the smoke the old system was using. I also want to know when the house loses power. I decided to use a relay on my incoming power transformer to convert the 16.5 VAC signal over to a dry contact so thats one more input. Since the keypad is going to be gone I lose my door chime so I will replace that with another chime which means I need a extra output. I decided on a cheap wireless doorbell that had 4 volume settings, 50+ chime settings, and a wireless transmitter which just happened to need a 12v battery. It was a SadoTech Model C Wireless Doorbell and the main base just plugs into a outlet. Got it on sale on Amazon for $17 and I figured I can rip open the remote button, hard wire the power, and hard wire the button itself to a output on my controller:

20170812_135811

I’m up to 10 inputs for hard wired sensors (again couldn’t use the existing smoke) and 2 outputs for a hard wired siren and chime/doorbell. So I ended up with the 2 panel Konnected Security kit (“12 Zone Complete Kit” - https://store.konnected.io/products/wired-alarm-system-smartthings-conversion-kit?variant=47062122964). I debated the 18 zone kit in case I want to bring more hard wired things in but everything in my house is finished including all but a storage room of the basement so any future sensors I’ll just do Z-wave or with another Arduino type board mounted somewhere else in the house. Opened up the kit and here is what I got:

20170811_200225

Everything looked ok, little bit of left over flux and solder residue that I scrapped/cleaned off. One of the boards has some missing plastic from whatever that thing is in the center of the bottom board but the coil part looks solid so I didn’t worry about it. The mounting board doesn’t have any holes pre-drilled so you can mount as you see fit. Because I will be doing the door chime I will need a second relay for this.

On to the assembly. Since the kit came with one relay and I need a second I purchased the same type to make sure it was compatible, a icstation 3V relay with optocoupler which you can find on Amazon. I’ve also decided, in the interests of cleanliness, to use terminal strips in and out of the system so I can properly label everything. The old panel was kind of a mess, both for the alarm system wiring and for my network/coax install. The Vonage box jammed in there doesn’t help…at the time it was a easy way to push the phone line to the entire house since I had a short run of wire.

So first I moved my vonage box out, rewiring the phone line back into the panel, and put that outside the enclosure with the mine field of other network devices I have. The backside of this wall is under my stairwell so I pushed back the slack of anything I could and put that back into the wall for more room. Now I got real lucky, my house is a little over 3 years old and all the wires are labeled with a two digit number and the installer left the legend. So I’m not going to bother labeling my wires but if yours aren’t already labeled I highly suggest you do. I yanked the power adapter and battery so I didn’t accidentally short anything, disconnected all my wires, and pulled the old panel out. I also ran a 18-4 wire from where the EcoLinks were interfacing to the Kidde Smoke and CO relays so I can bring those in. Did some wire ties to clean it up and its looking much better:

I coiled the old smoke alarm wires up and pushed them back into the wall just in case I either figure out a way to use them or I sell the house and someone wants to use them. Now to test fit everything. I have a little slack on my incoming/outgoing wires but as I mentioned I am going to use terminal strips so I cut off the extra once I figured where I’d mount them. I can also nicely label the strips to make it easier if I ever sell the house and take my SmartThings stuff with me…someone else can put in a alarm system and reuse everything. Knowing the battery and power adapter will end up in the same spot I do a quick fitting and mark-up of the enclosure:

I opened the door chime remote and found what I expected, what I thought would be some easy to solder to terminals for power (12v DC) and a not so easy push button. A couple tests confirmed that the “top” pin on each side of the button connects to the “bottom” pin on each side and it doesn’t matter which side you jumper out as either will activate the button. So I break out my soldering iron and get to work adding two wires to jumper the button. I tried adding two wires for the power but I was not able to get the solder to run, the battery contacts were acting as a big heatsink and my small soldering iron couldn’t overcome them. I gave up and just wound some wire around them. I also notch the plastic at the bottom for the wires to go through so I can put the cover back on it. Of course afterward I realized I notched it where the cover latches…oh well. In retrospect I would have notched it on one side, ran the wires out, and put the cover back on:

I think my layout will work so I hold my pieces in place, mark the hole locations, and do some drilling. I mounted all the terminal strips, the power supply, my RIB to detect power failure, the door chime remote, then go through writing down what is landed where and wiring all the sensors and outputs up without the Konnected panel in yet. I put the battery back in, hooked it up to the power supply board, wired it to my terminal strip for the power area, then plugged it in. Power supply LEDs showed AC and DC correctly. Tested the door chime using the push button still on the receiver and it worked. Tested it by shorting out the contacts momentarily on the terminal strip, it also worked. I then pull out the AC adapter, the RIB relay goes dark and the stuff continues to be powered from the battery. This all looks good so far:

I then drilled the mounting plate. Mine came with a protective layer on one side but not the other. Since the holes on the boards are evenly spaced (mirrored side to side) I used the uncovered side to drill through then once I was done I pulled the sheet off and mounted the boards to the other clean side. At this point I decide to run through the instructions for the panel. I’m not going to detail the steps for this as you can check out the documentation at http://docs.konnected.io/. But in general I added the GitHub repo for the smart app and devices before I even started wiring, I hooked up power for the boards, got them connected to my WiFi, then did the device discovery. It found my two devices and I went through setup assigning everything how I wanted it. I set the door chime up as momentary output (this may not be released for the public yet…I have been talking to Nate about it and I’m sure it will be soon). Once everything was assigned I wired the Konnected panel to my terminal strips. Here it is all wired up:

Once everything was wired I went around the house and tested, opening each door and smacking the glass breakage sensors with the handle of my screwdriver (saw the installer do the same thing …it works). Everything seemed to detect correctly so I then added them all into SHM. The two wireless sensors I had on the old system before were replaced by two new z-wave sensors to cover everything the old system did. Then once everything was in SHM I armed the system and opened a door which caused the siren to blare proving that worked so I then quickly disarmed the system.

Overall this project took me about 8 hours including a couple hours of research beforehand plus some time for photos and this write up. In general it was “easy” with the Konnected Security product since it was pre-programmed and packaged although I did have to do some planning ahead of time (getting the terminal strips, power supply, etc). It also helped that my old system was clearly labeled for it’s wiring and everything fell under security system standards that I found online (devices all 12v dc, power supply 16.5v ac, etc). I will look into doing the Scout monitoring because I do want a outside company looking at everything especially in case of fire but happy I can get rid of my $48 a month Guardian Security bill with there cell modem that goes out every couple weeks.

I did not wire up the tablet yet mainly because of costs…I don’t want to spend more then $60 or $70 and I’m hoping to find a decent used Galaxy Tab 7 or 8. That and I can’t find a good way to mount it without a $100 wall mount. What I’m looking for is some type of tablet or phone that has inductive charging where I can just glue a cheap $20 wireless charger to the back so you never see the wires and mount it over where the old keypad was. Once I figure it out I’ll post it.

When it was all said and done this is what I ended up buying:

  • Konnected Security 2.0 12-Zone Complete Kit & Monting panel - $89 (store.konnected.io)
  • ELK P624 Power Supply - $24 (eBay or Amazon: Elk P624)
  • SadoTech Model C Wireless Doorbell - $17 (Amazon: SadoTech Doorbell)
  • Terminal Strips - $19 (Home Depot)
  • Relay (RIBU1C) - $16 (eBay)
  • Replacement Wireless for unusable wireless contacts on old system - $0 (Had some multi sensors lying around I used)

NOTE 8/14/17: The Konnected Security project is working on the momentary output for the door chime. As of this writing Nate had it figured out and I’m running a beta version of the software testing it.

-Allan

14 Likes

This is awesome, @vseven! I love the idea of hacking the wireless doorbell for the door chime. Thank you so much for this writeup.

Yes, I’ll be releasing a door chime feature enhancement capability soon in an OTA update to everyone using Konnected. I’m glad it worked out so well for you.

1 Like

Awesome! Thanks. This is exactly want I want to do.

I wish there was some way to reuse the panel’s to chime when a sensor is open, but the wireless door bell is a cheap creative solution. Like you I will look to see what options are for putting a tablet or touchscreen panel where the old alarm panel is.

It would be pretty badass if there was some sort of add-on panel that could be added to the konnected system or smartthings. So time to research some of those.

1 Like

Great writeup! :sunglasses:

I think those will work, especially for $15 shipped from Amazon. Now to find a decently priced tablet. Think I’ve given up on the wireless charging and will just find a right angle micro USB adapter so its not as noticeable. Should be able to reuse the existing wires that the old touch pad used also.

I would like to use the momentary output for a door chime also.

Please let me know once it is available!

Very soon. I had to get the 2.0.4 OTA updater fix out first, which I just released today. The switch/momentary output and official support for a door chime is the next thing.

2 Likes

While researching options, I was thinking that if I could find a zwave controled NC (Normally Closed) controller with dry contacts, I could automate it in Smartthings to open the circuit whenever a door is opened, and then use the existing alarm panel to chime every time a zone opens.

That would require you to keep the alarm panel, but I wasn’t planning to get rid of it until I hooked up another source for power and found a solution to having the chime. Plus it would chime on both of my existing keypads vs where I put the door chime.

Because the door chime method is cheaper ($17 vs $60), i’ll probably wait to see what options you have before moving ahead.

I like Sugru for a tablet mount:

It will take a two packs, so around six dollars. Comes in about eight different colors, very cool stuff. :sunglasses:

2 Likes

For those of you following this thread for the official support for the momentary switch output that @vseven used here … you heard it here first! Konnected 2.1 is almost ready for release, but you can beta test it now from the konnected-switch branch on Github: https://github.com/konnected-io/konnected-security/tree/konnected-switch

This release will add a bunch of new capabilities for outputs, including a generic Switch, a Momentary Switch and a Beep / Blink Switch for pulsed output. All of these Device Handlers can be used by attaching a relay module to the NodeMCU board running Konnected. Make sure you update the SmartApp and Device Handlers from this branch.

If you’re running v2.0.5, you can update to this branch OTA by making a request to the device at this address:

http://<your-device-ip>:<your-device-port>/settings?update=true&force=true&commitish=konnected-switch

Please try this out and let me know if you have any feedback or trouble!

1 Like

So after lots of playing the wireless doorbell I’m using, and I’m assuming most wireless doorbells, don’t like having the transmitter put into a big metal box. :roll_eyes: Who would have known. So I’m going to either figure a way to extend the “antenna” outside the box or just move the transmitter out. With the cover on I’m getting like 10’ range, cover off it’s like 20’. I need about 30’ to get the speaker into a good central location so I’m gonna play with moving it.

Just a heads up in case you are going this way. I’ve also considered using the old wiring that went to the keypad (it had 4 wires) to do the transmitter so its in a good spot on my first floor but I’m gonna try the extending the antenna or moving it outside the enclosure first.

Is there enough power to run more than one tablet off this setup, assuming you’re using existing wiring?

I would not try to power a tablet off of your existing power supply. Most tablets are gonna use 1 to 2 amps and in my project the power supply is rated for 1 amp total. This is fine for the boards, glass breakage sensors, siren, etc, but adding a tablet or 2 would kill the power supply. The wires should be fine but I would add another power supply for tablets even if it’s just the standard plugin one that they come with and then reuse the wires between your panel and the tablet hanging on the wall.

I have box nearby my alarm - was thinking of converting 110v to 12v with
more amps. Would I fry the boards with something like this?

http://a.co/eT1xTbQ

Otherwise, I was just going to put a plug in the alarm box and have two
power supplies - one for the boards and one for the tablets.

That should work fine but personally I’d have a separate power supply for each.

What do you use the tablet for?

Nothing yet, just arming/disarming through the app right now.

I’m leaning heavily on using the Koala mounts (https://www.amazon.com/Damage-free-Dockem-Smartphones-eReaders-chrome-plated/dp/B008E0Q0C0) along with a Amazon Fire 7" tablet and using the existing 4 wires that went to the old keypad for power. I’m currently doing the 2 week trail of Action Tiles ([RELEASE: v6.7] ActionTiles (formerly called “SmartTiles V6”)) and I think it will work to replace my keypad. The only variable is the time delay on Smart Home Monitor which there is a SmartApp for ([Release] Smart Home Monitor Exit and Entry Delays) but I really wish SmartThings would just build the delay into SHM properly (@slagle seriously…) . I’ve put in a support request for it and I suggest everyone else does also.

1 Like

I have an Xfinity Keypad, use Actiontiles and think it is a really great product. However, while I can set the AlarmState with SmartTiles, I’ve not found any way to use it as a keypad with pin codes.

As far as SmartThings adding delays to SmartHome {BIG SIGH}

I’m not sure if we are talking the same thing since I’ve only been playing with ActionTiles for a couple days but there is a pin option that can be added to the SHM tab which I think works for me.

I tell everyone to put in a support request asking for it. Eventually they have to add it, right? Right?? :roll_eyes:

1 Like

I want multiple pins that I can issue, update, burn, and revoke. Currently ActionTiles offers one pin.

As they say in southwest Louisiana: “Yeah, you right”