SmartThings + Scout Professional Monitoring Now Available

So I was able to get my wife to reboot my hub…did not come back online. Ugh. I contacted support and waiting for instructions but considering that i am on the other side of the world - I guess I am out of luck. My wife has been borderline on this and now being home and it not working for a week - nice job smart things. This is not a commercial product.

Dave

I got the Pioneer package (gateway with built-in siren, 2 open/close sensors, key fob, motion camera) and added a streaming camera.

@Mbhforum I believe you can set it up as a secondary controller (at least for z-wave, not sure that’s possible with zigbee).

One of the biggest things I want to see if they can do is actually meet the 8 second delivery time for a picture of an event that they claim. If they can manage that, I’ll be extremely impressed. Here’s to hoping they deliver!

Thanks for the shout. I actually don’t use any of the less expensive DIY security systems because most of them don’t have fire detection and that’s my number one priority. I have looked at many of them.

I use one from the next tier where there is a Long-term monthly contract. Like many customers, I feel that I’m paying somewhat more than the value I’m receiving, but the service is solid, reliable, only one false alarm in about six years, and has the mix of equipment and monitoring that we require. So I look at replacing it every time the contract gets close to ending for financial reasons, but other than that I’m satisfied with it as a limited purpose system. It’s been very much “set and forget”, which was also what I wanted. But different things work for different people. :sunglasses:

I’ve also been following abode closely, they’re doing a lot of very interesting stuff with a good pedigree. But doesn’t mean my needs yet.

Zigbee doesn’t do secondary coordinators in any simple fashion (control 4 has proprietary stuff that does it but only for their own systems) so you can’t combine another Zigbee system with Smartthings.

Zwave includes the secondary controller concept in the base design, but SmartThings doesn’t implement all of the command sets like controller shift. So using a secondary gets very complicated. It’s not impossible (the minimote is a secondary), but it doesn’t necessarily work the way you would expect it to, either. There’s a lot of topics in the forums from people trying to connect outside systems to SmartThings where you can see the kind of stuff that they ran into and what did and didn’t work. Usually they end up being able to connect them, but they can’t get statuses reported easily, and will end up using additional virtual switches as stand ins.

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Can you give us a summary of how you are using it so far and how you are integrating it with ST?

Looks promising but the professional monitoring at $29.99 is steep compared to established alarm systems like Simplisafe ($14.99-$24.99). Can you leverage any ST hardware via ifttt or do you now have multiple door sensors Etc like I do with ST and Simplisafe?

Hey guys,

Please keep the thread on topic. If you want to talk about other monitoring services please start a thread about that service. Let’s keep this discussion about the Scout Integration.

Thanks guys!

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I have had a ticket open on SHM not responding appropriately to intrusions for 6 days. This issue has been ongoing for over 30 days. I first engaged ST via chat on it, but they apparently never opened an actual ticket. Yesterday, 5 days in to the official ticket, ST acknowledges the ticket and state:

“Unfortunately this is still an issue that our developers are working on addressing; …Thanks for your patience and understanding.”

This is a system that ST expects customers to rely upon and pay for “Professional Monitoring”?

Does logic not dictate that the system itself be “Professional” before it warrants “Professional Monitoring” ???

Does crap in = crap out not apply?

This is before we even get into the glaring issue of professional monitoring of a system that does not have on box cellular back. I mean, are you f’in kidding?

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Absolutely! Heck of an idea, a service to monitor how bad ST works.

I could afford the monitoring, I can’t afford the false alarms at $50ea. I’ll keep my GE Simon going for now.

That’s an ambitious plan. You’d be very busy.

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I thought we had this service.
Aren’t we currently posting to it?

I do hope that opening up the revenue streams with recommended monitoring packages will allow ST to add support staff to resolve a lot of the problems people come to this forum regarding.
It makes me wonder what other recommended paid services will come next.

http://www.bootcamp.com/interview.jsp?interviewId=2496

Is anyone actually using this?

I’m looking to combine home automation and security, looks like this might be the right thing. Sounds like many of you don’t like this idea but anyone tried it or using it? I suppose I can have separate security and automation, just seems like a waste not to connect the two.

How does the equipment come together? Can I use both smartthings devices (doors, motion, etc) and Scouts? Can it be a combo of both? Are there differences in the two?

Trying to figure out the best options/configuration. Along with door sensors, motion detectors I will also put in smart locks on the doors, connect lights, etc. Thank you.

I think lots of people like the idea. But most people probably feel that ST is currently too unreliable to be tied into an alarm monitoring service that actually requires paying for a subscription.

Admittedly, no. But if I were I might ask for my money back, because for the last two nights in a row my professionally monitored alarm system would have failed to arm itself at 11pm the way that it was configured to.

I’ve signed up for the 7 free months of monitoring with Scout ~10 days ago.

Scout is connected via the SHM app, and is supposed to call you (via third party monitoring companies, such as COPS) within 90 seconds of an Intrusion Alert (as set in SHM). Intrusions are tracked via Motion & Open/Close sensors only, in whatever combination you’ve enabled in the SHM app.

Scout provides Insurance Certificates for burglary, which was accepted without question by my home insurer.

Fast forward to last night, where an alert was tripped (motion, via a troublesome fern above forced air vent). SHM triggered an immediate in-app alert, and SMS text, but even 35 mins later, no phone calls to my named contacts (including myself).

I’ve reached out to Scout Support - Will update with any meaningful responses.

To answer your setup questions:

  • Smartthings Hub / App controls everything, via Smart Home Monitoring
  • Scout is connected via the SMH app (you don’t, technically, have a separate app). Billing is also setup there.
  • I don’t believe that you could have a “combo” running, without a separate Scout hub, device associations, and monitoring plan

Per home automation, I’m not 100% onboard with automatic arming & disarming, given the issues we’ve had with one of the Android devices in our house (not registering Presence changes accurately). I’m also reticent to tie any automation / presence tracking to locking / unlocking of the exterior of my house (as the tech is too buggy for this right now).

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FYI - After working with Support, it looks like my account wasn’t correctly activated with Scout.

I’d completed all required steps, and the App had all settings required, but the handshake between SM & Scout never occurred.

For anyone else signing up, look for the following text / icon beneath the DISARM button in SHM, to signify a correctly updated integration with Scout: “Monitoring by scout [wolf icon]

I’m not sure if this is supposed to show up before or after entering the 72 test period for all new signups, but I’d suggest that if it’s missing, contact support@scoutalarm.com

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Can you post again after you’ve had the scout monitoring active for a while? Reliability? Worth the cost?

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I know that this thread is a bit old, but was wondering if the scout monitoring would respond to a panic button. I have the Aeon Labs Panic Button on my ST system and would like to know this but couldn’t find any information by searching.

AFAIK scout monitoring only applies when a security alert is triggered by smart home monitor. And security alerts are triggered by motion sensors and contact sensors when your SHM is in armed away or armed stay modes.

If you mean through the SmartThings integration, you have to fool it by having a switch (which can be virtual) report as a contact or motion sensor.

That can be done using Mike Maxwell’s universal device type, but may introduce some additional lag. And it won’t run locally because it’s custom code.

Personally, I wouldn’t rely on it for a panic button situation, but it’s something you can consider.

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