Hello - I just received my smartthings v2 home monitoring kit yesterday. I bought it knowing that it wasnt quite where it needs to be, but I think this platform is in the best position to create a good security solution without requiring a monthly fee in the future.
First let me say I was pleasantly surprised to see that smart home monitoring will work to some extent with no internet connectivity. I armed the system, disconnected the internet, triggered a door sensor, and was pleased to see that the outlet triggered as I set it to under the light controls for an intrusion event. I dont have a siren to test the siren function with, but I can only expect that any whitelisted siren will also work in this configuration. Can anyone confirm?
So good job, smartthings team. It looks like you guys have made good progress towards creating a valid security system. Keep it up
Now, in my opinion the bare minimum requirements for a good security system is:
ALL Local functions still work without internet or power.
Keypad to arm and disarm hub
There should be a delay before arming and a delay before alarming upon intrusion
I am aware of the smart home alarm app but I dont really want to run any third party apps until I read and understand all of the code, and also this wont work when offline.
I dont think you can really market smartthings as a security system until it has these things.
It seems for this we need a whitelisted keypad that will work locally, and smart home monitoring needs to have a delay function. This phone thing doesnt really cut it as a long term solution. How do I disarm my alarm if the internet is out?
Features which would make the alarm even better:
A siren relay board. From what Ive seen these z wave sirens are jokes. Id like to see a simple 12V relay board that I can hook up my own 12V attic siren to. I could probably make this myself with the arduino but this should be popular enough to warrant a real product.
Different entry zones - The alarm should go off instantly if the back door is opened when armed, but should still have a delay on the front door.
A whitelisted glass break sensor
Let me add more than one phone number to be notified of intrusions via text message.
Does anyone know if smartthings is making any progress on any of the items in the “must have” list? Apparently the smartthings team is working on officially supporting the iris keypad, which will be awesome!
You can add batteries to the V2 hub so that it will work w/out power. Keep in mind your devices that you need to work when power is out also need to be battery powered or on UPS backup.
The new Lowes IRIS keypad works. It doens’t it’s device type is not local yet. But there has been some mention that SmartThing is working to provide official support for the new IRIS devices.
This has been requested many times, I would guess that it’s gonna come.
Unlike most purpose-built security systems, SmartThings cannot send any notifications if operating on battery power when the Internet is down. This alone would prevent it from being UL listed as a security system. So it is not true that the battery power alone is enough to operate “all functions.” Most security systems typically have battery-operated cellular connections.
I believe SmartThings also offers no way at present to arm/disarm the system when the cloud connection is lost, although I may be mistaken on that one. I do know the phone app and IDE controls cannot communicate with the hub without the cloud connection, there is no direct LAN communication.
Yes, I know the hub works offline but what I mean is that currently, the extra smartapps and custom devices necessary to do the security system right wont run offline.
Yeah my point is that we need this to be officially supported - I mentioned that I had heard they are working on it and am excited to see it come to fruition
@JDRoberts I believe you can arm/disarm the system with any local devices. I have an Aeon Panic button that is tied the “Good Morning” routine for the express purposes of turning off the alarm in the morning, if our WiFi / Internet is down.
According to ST staff, Routines don’t run locally as of today. So if you unplug your internet, you should find that pressing the panic button will not run that routine.
