I’ve been searching the internet and this forum for awhile but can’t get a clear answer. Right now, I’ve got aeotec recessed door sensors due to the fact that my trim around the door sits higher than the door making it impossible to use simple adhesive door sensors. I also have fortrezz sirens that I use to set my home in an armed state. I don’t want ADT monitoring, but desperately want a panel that my wife and others can enter in a code to disarm the alarm or set it with a delay and leave the house. I’ve read I will have to pair any sensors/items I want to communicate with the ADT panel, but will those be able to be part of the “arming” scenario with the alarm and panel, or will they not be able to be automated with it? I’ve got the box sitting here but really don’t want to go through the hassle of opening and changing over devices to just learn it won’t work. Can anyone save me some grief?
Check out the smartapp ADT Tools. It may help you do what you want to do. I would still urge you to try to use ADT dual Branded Sensors for alarm related stuff. ADT Tools will allow you some integration with sensors that are not dual branded, but there are gaps I haven’t found a good solution for. The one that comes to mind right now is entry delay.
There is actually a use case presented for someone that is invested in other sensors at the link below.
I don’t think the ADT panel works without professional monitoring.
It does work without professional monitoring. The only thing you dont get is a call from their office and them calling the police if needed. Cell backup probably wouldn’t work either.
You can still use the ADT half of the panel without ADT monitoring? I don’t know about that. I know you can use the ST side of the panel without monitoring but I’m pretty sure to use the ADT half you need an ADT subscription. Plus, the ADT side only works with ADT sensor natively.
Yes you can. I have it and did so for a period of time. You just dont get there monitoring services. The panel will run like any other unmonitored solution. That means once it goes off it is the owners responsibility to notify police and such if needed.
You are right that only the ADT sensors work locally to trigger alarms on the ADT Side. In the use case for the OP, ADT Tools works with the alarm panel to manage Smartthings location alarm characteristics based on the ADT Alarm status. Then the alert app monitors devices and responds with the setup actions. It is certainly better to not depend on the cloud and use native ADT Dual Branded sensors if you can, but that is at least an option. Considering the OP mentioned having recessed Aeotec door sensors and Fortezz sirens I figured that was the best direction to direct him/her to.
It’s not clear by the ADT page on “Works with ST” that it doesn’t require professional monitoring for the ADT side.
Do you even have the panel. I have had it for 7 months used it monitored and unmonitored, and created ADT Tools to fill some integration gaps which we are talking about.
Huh? All i said was it wasn’t clear from the page that you could do that. That’s all. Why so hostile?
Not hostile. Just asking what experience you have to make that statement 4 times after I have said it was incorrect each time.
Why not just arm/disarm with SmartThings presence sensors or via Android presence detection?
Because I don’t want to give my smartthings login to every single person that may be at my house. We have 2 teenagers that live with us, a two and a half year old and many family in town that stay at our house to watch him; not to mention a dog. Creating an automation to trigger alarm statuses just on presence sensors via phone is just not practical or feasible. What would be really nice is a simple panel that we can enter a code and give that code to family members to be able to arm the alarm as they come and go. It’s not a huge deal to me, but it is to my wife who is used to a simple home security system that allows you to hit “stay” or “away” and give you a 20-30 second delay to leave the house. It’s something so simple that smarttthings haven’t developed themselves. I’ve also asked them to make user accounts we can manage to give certain permissions too without getting full control of the house. But basically my wife wants a touch panel to set the alarm easily as she pleases and honestly, it shouldn’t be some huge complex problem. Smartthings should have already put out a simple screen to manage smart devices. I am/was hoping this ADT panel would be the solution.
Mavvrick, you’re saying that only ADT branded alarm sensors will set of the siren in the ADT panel correct? Is there a way I can pair my sensors and sirens to the ADT panel/hub and use them in automation to set or disarm the alarm via the panel? Did you also say that using my current described setup, there is no way to have an alarm delay?
I understand completely. This is one of the reasons I migrated my system to Homeseer. The possibilities on that platform are only limited by your imagination. I was able to tap into my Honeywell Vista hardwired security panel and import all those sensors into Homeseer, which allowed me to cut ties with ADT. My plans are to replace the old physical keypads with virtual keypads using iPads mounted in their place. If I wanted to get fancy, I could use face recognition or iris scan and a regular family member wouldn’t have to touch anything to disarm. I could also pipe security cameras to the iPads, local weather, CNN or whatever.
SmartThings is great at what they do, and it’s what I recommend to people that are going to do basic home automation with lights, doors, locks, leak sensors, etc. But if you get more involved or like to do things outside the box, then your HA software really needs to be locally hosted on a dedicated device and more flexible than SmartThings.
To trigger the ADT Alarm you have to use ADT Sensors. There is no way around that. There is no way you can set off the ADT Alarm from Smartthings. But Smartthings can take some queues from the ADT side of the system. That is what ADT Tools leverages. It looks at the Alarm panel for queues on how to handle certain things on the smartthings side.
Your second question is a little confusing. So I will say this. One of the child apps that is part of ADT tools called ADT Mode Change manages some integration for interacting with alarm state. It uses simulated buttons to trigger each alarm state. Those buttons can then be used in automations to do what you want. They can also be used in Actiontiles if you like. The alarm alert action child apps all provide integration with triggered events to trigger certain activities. Right now you can trigger switch devices to be turned on, or flashed, sirens to be activated, and on some of the apps cameras to record(will get this to all eventually, newest feature)
There are two sets of alarm action apps with ADT tools. The first set use the ADT sensors and depend on the ADT Alarm to trigger before any action takes place. Because they require the ADT Alarm to trigger they will use its entry and exit delay. The second Alarm action. App is what I call the any sensor alert app. Because it is intended to use sensors that can’t trigger the ADT Alarm side it has some limitations. The two big ones in my mind is it is cloud dependent and I have yet to find a good way to do a entry delay. Some sirens do have a method for it. I know the Dome siren does. It does have a exit delay in a way though.
You may want to try out life 360. It would allow you another method to setup presense for those with phones that you dont want to have to log into you smartthings stuff. I use it for my daughter.
You can use presense with ADT Mode change and the buttons you setup for it to automate arming and disarming. I actually do that myself.
Also if there is a function that you feel would help, let me know and I will see if I can get it added.
You probably should take a good look at Actiontiles. Once you setup the virtual button and the child app for managing the alarm states you can integrate them into action tiles. You can then share Actiontiles panels to users so they can have access only to what you want them to. This can be a great alternative virtual keypad device. It can be a little complicated if you are setting up different panels for different people, but it will give you a bunch of control.
You can also use the SHM security panel in Action tiles to know the security state of the panel. Just make sure you set that tile as view only anywhere it is used.
Just make sure you setup security on the disarm button. I have this already setup and it works well.
You have made a comment a few times that you use fortezz sirens to set your home to a armed state. How does that work exactly? I must have missed that before. Is it via some sort of automation? What triggers from the siren to put your home in a armed state?
The sirens are just zwave sirens. Right now when my SMH is armed, if those door sensors open, it makes the sirens strobe and go off. I currently have routines to turn the SMH on and off at certain times.
There’s an FAQ that should be of interest:
Everything @Mavrrick58 has said in this thread has been confirmed by other community members who have the panel and are using it. You can speak with more of them in the following thread: