Envisalink is an interface board that links your DSC security system to your local LAN, giving you control and visibility to your system via the local network. This driver connects to Envisalink and gives you complete visibility and control over your partitions and zones within Smarthings.
06/20/23 UPDATE: Version 3 of this driver is now generally available. Please see this post.
Honeywell Systems require a different driver; see this post
Fantastic! I’ve been watching for you to post your DSC integration to see if I can borrow code, but if you’ve already done the work for Honeywell then that’s even better.
Is this particular model required, or would you expect everything to also work with an EVL3?
I’d be happy to help test the Honeywell side but I’d need that zone limit doubled. Or, if it’s possible to just choose a subset of zones to integrate, I can get below that limit.
I have done no testing for Honeywell, only DSC. I am making an assumption that the Envisalink presents the same interface for either, but we’ll need to confirm if that is the case or if any unique coding is needed to properly support either.
My reason for the 12 limit was really just a convenience thing. I am using the device Settings functionality (on the primary panel device) to define the zone types. Right now there is a bug in the Edge platform where the settings fields are displayed in complete random order, so the more I list, the more of a jumbled mess it becomes!
You can set up just a subset of your zones and it should still work ok. Any messages for undefined zones should get ignored if things are working as intended. So we can start with the 12, but know I can quite easily expand that to whatever number the community really needs.
Honeywell takes a whole different set of TPI commands. More troublesome though is that the Vista panels aren’t as chatty as DSC panels. I think the biggest issue is that it doesn’t send an explicit notice that an individual zone has cleared, and instead it takes some workarounds to figure out when to set a zone to clear. Any chance that you’re posting source on GitHub? It’ll take me a while to get my head back into this (and learn Lua), but I’d love to see what you’ve built.
Sometime during the boredom of always being at home this past year, I decided to put sensors on a bunch of windows. Kids aren’t quite to the sneaking out age, but now I feel ready for it.
Sadly, no. The top post of the thread below has what I believe is the latest documentation of the TPI for both systems. If I’m remembering correctly, they used to sell different versions of the hardware for Ademco and DSC.
I’ve removed references to Honeywell in this topic title and initial post. I will post the code to github in a day or two if there is anyone who would want to use it as a starting point to develop a driver for Honeywell systems.
I’m interested. I’m currently running an envisalink 4 on a DSC 1832 panel currently using @rtorch fork of alarmserver and the DSC app.
I have 13 zones but the 13th zone is a motion that I can live without integration to Smartthings while helping to test. My system is still actively monitored so I utilize the integration primarily for automated arming and to gain access to those contact and motion sensors in Smartthings to be used in automations or with legacy smart lighting functions.
I know the writing is on the wall for IDE so I think it’s time we start moving toward the new options.
If you have rtoch’s very latest version of alarmserver, then you can actually run this along side your current setup. Alarmserver has a built-in proxy server to allow multiple connections to the Envisalink (my understanding is that the Envislink normally only allows one connection at a time.) All you need to do is configure my Driver to point to the IP:port of your alarmserver package. Otherwise, you could always temporarily stop alarmserver and then point the Edge driver directly to the Envisalink address.
Regarding the 13 zones, boy I chose unwisely when I set the current driver to 12! As I had mentioned in an earlier post, I can easily bump that up when the time is right. For now, you can choose to configure whatever number (up to 12) of your zones and see how that goes. It’s good to have a mix of zone types. Do you have any smoke, co, or water sensor zones? Those are as-yet untested, but the code is all there to support them.
Shoot me a DM and I’ll provide the channel invite link and instructions.
You are my hero! My first attempt to install an Edge driver. Can’t believe how easy it was. Five minutes to get this up and running. So far, no issues with your driver.
I previously used AlarmServer, but it was a real challenge for me as a non-IT person to set it up. I am no fan of the Raspberry-pi setup - I had to redo the setup twice because the SD cards don’t seem to last more than a year. After a second SD card failure, I gave up on the Alarmserver setup at my holiday home.
I hope you’ll be adding multiple partition support so that I can stop using AlarmServer at my home as well.
Is the panel supposed to show up in Webcore? I can’t seem to find it as a device to add to Webcore. (The sensors are, however, available in Webcore.)
Thanks again for this.
That’s awesome! Sorry to hear about your SD card failures. I’ve know that happens, but I’ve been lucky to be running for several years without a failure yet (using ScanDisk Ultra Plus). But it makes me nervous and I’ve been thinking I need to switch over to SSDs…
Regarding multiple partition support, can you elaborate on your setup? Do you really need multiple partition support (running off the same DSC board) or do you have a separate system in each home? Do you have a smartthings hub at each location? If you need to just be able to install two drivers on the same hub, then I could provide a second driver so you can run two in parallel (I think that work…)
What shows up in webcore is whatever webcore recognizes in its standard list of device types. The panel is defined as a switch category device, so it’s strange it’s not showing up. Can you use automations or rules instead? If webcore is critical then I can see if there’s a way to get it to show.
EDIT: I’m pretty sure it’s because the panel device uses all custom capabilities. If I add a standard one like ‘refresh’ I could probably get it to show if you really need it.
Now a question for you! Do you have smoke, carbon monoxide, or water detection zones in your system? I’d like to hear how those are working since I hadn’t been able to test them here. If you have anyway to set those off while the system is both armed and unarmed, it would be good to test.
Thank you for your reply.
Sorry, I was not clear about my setup. I’m running your driver at my holiday home (that is where I’ve had multiple R-Pi failures.) At my home (separate ST hub and DSC/Envisalink alarm system), I’m still running AlarmServer. At home, the panel is divided into two partitions (both with their own Away and Stay modes). I’m not sure why the alarm was set up like that. Probably because of too many zones?
To help explain, this is the relevant portion of my alarmserver.cfg file (I changed the names of the zones for privacy reasons):
Partition Definitions: Only defined partitions will be generated in the
smartapp. You can use regular panels, or the simplifed panels, or both.
Uncomment and adjust per your preference. Add more [partitionX] sections
I, unfortunately, only have motions sensors connected to both the system. Sorry, I can’t help there - would have loved to contribute something to your project.
OK, so that is really two partitions. This is actually good, because I’ve been looking for someone to help me finish out the multi-partition functionality. If you are willing, together we can get it done!
I’ll set up a separate shared channel for testing and start looking at what still needs to be done in the code. I’ll get back to you with a DM within a week.
I’m going to need you to install the SmartThings CLI if you don’t already have it. It is the only way you can view the driver logging output, which is going to be critical for us to diagnose things.