Alarm panels are typically powered by 12V DC. You’d need a 5V voltage regulator to power your tablet. For example, this:
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Just to clear things up. I just want to use the wires. There is no power I was planning on hacking together a USB cable to each end and plug one end into the wall via the tablet’s charger.
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Depending on the length of the wire, you might get a significant voltage drop if you are using a USB power source. You might actually be better off using a 12V power source and a step-down converter for the 5V USB side. You can buy automobile-to-USB step down converters that already have a micro USB plug on the output side.
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I’m not sure if this is anything that anyone here would be interested in, as a lot of you have solutions you are happy with. But there is this video intercom that works with smartthings. I am not entirely sure how much functionality or control you’ll get over smartthings devices, but I personally do not really care. It also works with skybell. Doorbell ringing? Video straight to this.
It’s still preorder so there’s no way to tell what features it will actually have. Also when it was first announced at CES 2015 they said there would be a $99/year service contract for some of the advanced features like voice recognition. But nothing on the website now says one way the other.
In fact, it’s exactly the kind of website that I hate for preorder products. There’s no technical information at all. There’s no real pricing information. Just a lot of pretty pictures and talk about how we’re in the 21st-century now.
Also “send mom to an old age home”? I don’t know who writes their advertising copy, but they need to really work on who their target audiences are. And use language appropriate for the 21st-century. 
I like the look of the tablet itself, and the fact that you can preorder it at Amazon is a good sign. But I don’t think anybody can say how or if it will work with SmartThings yet. For now, like most pre-release products, it’s all just marketing. Once it’s actually shipping we’ll know a lot more.
lol. i didnt catch the send mom to a nursing home bit. Well, it doesn’t look like you can order it from their page directly, but yeah, as you said, it’s up on amazon at 250 for one or 400 for two. The FAQ on their site says no fees, period, end of story. As for the smartthings/nest/insteon/skybell/ring integrations, I have found that in numerous places in my past hours of frantic information gathering. Now I can’t recall if their website was the source of that. I have put in an email to them with questions on this, as well as sonos and skybell. When you say technical, do you mean outside of pricing and integration?
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Technical including integration.
A lot of people are surprised that SmartThings does not allow for live video streaming inside the official mobile app except for the feature in smart home monitor which only works with a few cameras.
SmartTiles can show video but only if there’s a URL to go to.
So I’ll be really surprised if this video intercom actually works in any meaningful way was SmartThings. But who knows? I’d love to be pleasantly surprised on this one, but I’m not holding my breath.
The Amazon listing for the pre-order says “compatible with Insteon, nest, and SmartThings.” Since those are three completely separate protocols, I’m guessing that they’re just assuming that there’s some browser level integration, which isn’t actually how SmartThings works.
I think there was a mention of Skybell in some early publicity, but it’s not mentioned in the Amazon listing.
Again, we’ll see what it can actually do once it’s shipping.
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One of the lessons that we can learn from other people’s experience in the community is not to read anything into marketing materials that isn’t explicitly spelled out.
Basic and Premium Tiers
One common business model for a lot of home automation is like in-game purchases for an app – – you get basic service without a fee, but you have to pay more for extra features. Even iris by Lowes does this. If you want to use their rules engine you have to pay an extra $10 a month. (And SmartThings plans to add extra fees if you want video storage.)
The Nucleus FAQ doesn’t say “no fees.” It says you can “use it” without paying a monthly fee.
But they might still have that premium annual contract to use some of the additional features as was announced when they first came out at CES 2015.
http://www.techhive.com/article/2864224/nucleus-aims-to-reinvent-the-home-intercom.html
Handsfree or not?
I myself am quadriparetic, use a wheelchair and have very limited hand function. So handsfree use is very important to me. In their original release notes, they said they would have handsfree use, but only for customers paying that premium annual contract.
So both could be true. You might get basic usage for free, but that could require pressing the icon on the tablet. And it could have an annual contract that had additional premium features.
Or they may have decided just to drop the premium features altogether. That’s part of the information that’s missing from the website – – does it offer hands-free use now or not?
A lot of people might not care about that at all, for me it’s a major feature. 
Well, I harassed Nucleus into an answer about fees and integrations. Here is what they had to say.
"Happy to answer here though! There are no service fees required to operate Nucleus! And while we won’t have any third party integrations in place at launch, we are hoping to provide integrations with other smart home products in the not too distant future. "
I guess that still does not say there are NO functions that come at a cost. I will get clarification.
When I asked Skybell about the integration, they told me they had heard about the integration as well, but didn’t really know. That was a strange enough answer. But they said they would forward it to the next level or whatever.
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If it’s convenient see if you can find out if they’re going to have hands-free activation (whether it’s at a premium cost or not), or whether they just dropped it.
Back in early 2015, they were saying this:
It’s voice activated, so if you’re in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on dinner, you can reach out to someone in the bedroom by saying “OK Nucelus, call bedroom”
But I’m not seeing that in the current materials.
Again, a lot of people might not care, but that’s a big feature for me.
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I asked them about hands free features just now, and they have become pretty responsive so I am sure they will answer. Although, I breezed over voice control when I asked about what is included in the cost of purchase (no monthly or service fees). All of the features THAT I MENTIONED to them, being voice control, home to home, and mobile to home are included in the purchase price. So right away, I would wager this would be a good fit for you if you only want it for the voice activated calling feature.
They then told me they will be rolling out certain features involving third party integrations post launch, and at this time, they are not planning on charging for this. It would seem incredibly silly to charge for integration. I am new to this entire thing, but do not think I have ever heard of such nonsense as a fee for connecting two services. But as soon as I hit reply I’ll think of the most obvious instances.
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All of the automated device in our home… CAN be controlled by a ‘tablet’. But they ARE all controlled by the phone. It’s in your pocket 24/7 and you have it there and then… so just use it. you said it… need or want!
There are a number of Home automation systems which let you buy extra plug-ins or hardware modules to add additional integrations. It’s fairly common in the industry. Vera, zipato, Homeseer, several others. Even Logitech Harmony offers a $99 “extender” to allow for direct control of some Z wave and zigbee devices. It’s considered a benefit to consumers because they only have to pay for the pieces that they actually want in their own home.
For example, I’m pretty sure that if SmartThings offered a $75 dongle that allowed for direct Lutron integration, there would be a number of customers who would be happy to buy it. But people who didn’t have Lutron, wouldn’t need to pay for it.
But it always comes down to two things: perceived value and what the competition offers. 
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Hey. So I wanted to let you know what I now know about nucleus, since it’s in the house. It is actually a pretty nifty little thing. I’m assuming you already have an echo from some of the things you have said, and perhaps I’m off base, but Alexa is built in at no extra charge to use. No need to have an echo, just the app. This is my first go round with Alexa and I haven’t given it much experimenting yet, but if I remember correctly, you said voice activation was your number one priority. Well, it’s got that. If you have any questions, feel free to message me.
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Glad to see it’s actually shipping.
My first question would be can you use the intercom totally hands-free? (apparently even the Alexa service is not hands-free on the nucleus. 
)
As far as “not needing Alexa,” I use a lot of voice technology, and have tried the Alexa service on other hardware including the Trilby, and the thing is that the far field recognition of the microphone array in the Echo hardware is just amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it even on very expensive systems. It can recognize me from across the room while the television is on, and that was definitely not true of the Trilby. There’s also the fact that the nucleus costs more than an echo. Also, just like Trilby, The Alexa service on the nucleus device does not support all the same home automation features as the echo:
Note: When active, get Alexa’s attention by tapping the Alexa button. Nucleus does not currently support Spotify, Pandora, Belkin WeMo and Philips Hue with Alexa at this time.
So my interest in the nucleus would be for the intercom feature.
I see from the Amazon reviews that, as is typical, they dropped a bunch of features before actually releasing it. Apparently there’s no groupcast even though the product description still says there is. So you have to specify which room you want to speak to.
We are working on a feature to “broadcast” to all rooms at once, but is not available at this moment. It is a high priority for us and will likely push a software update to include this feature soon."
It also appears that none of the direct home automation integration was delivered with the first release. Again, they’re “working on it.”
I may get two to play with and see how it works just as an intercom, but before I do, can you use the intercom totally hands-free?
Thanks!
I spoke with (the? one of the?) a ceo from Nucleus on the phone today. I have been struggling with what combination of words to use to get alexa to function. I asked (if alexa activated room to room calling was available), and he said that is the most highly requested feature, but at this time, no. That REALLY bothers me when the little videos they were circulating had that function involved.
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Did you ever get the APIs? I’m trying the same thing and can’t get the tiles on the MM2. I have the iFrame module in the right folder with the iFrame.js. I have the iFrame config in the config file as well. I think I need the API.
Might want to check out open-dash.com and GitHub.com/opendash. Full API smartapp and a locally running diy dashboard solution currently in alpha.
I wish I could use the action tiles. I love it, but with Magic Mirror there is no way to login to the acct. I am going to try pstuart’s open-dash to see if I can get the tiles on the MM.