So like so many others, I have a pre-wired home full of contact sensors. Doors/Windows. Is there any way to report that into SmartThings? 2Gig makes a take over module that takes your wired sensors and sends its status to 2Gigs Control Panels. If one was to set that up, could you then pair the 2Gig Go Panel to SmartThings hub and see these sensor status?
Does anybody make a Z-Wave Take Over module? By passing going another panel and therefor making it possible to connect it to a z-wave hub…
I’ve seen some suggestions about taking your wired sensors in the Box and hooking it up to a zwave contact wireless sensor and monitoring that. The problem with that is i don’t want yet another battery device to worry about. Can those be wired into AC Power, fail over to battery only…
Another, wow moment, this is not new ideas, its been a few years and yet still no products or good solution to help users of existing equipment get going.
Someone could make a ton of money creating devices that take users exiting systems and make them Smart! Give me a Wired Smoke detector that simply replaces One of mine in the house. It works exactly as all the other smoke detectors, AC Powered / battery failed over, if it triggers, it triggers them all, and vice versa… but hey it also has zwave and can communicate its status to a hub. Thats all we need, existing devices with a zwave radio. Give us a zwave takeover module. They would sale tons…
In any case, looking to see what others might of came up with… 2015… Hub V2…
I used a bunch of Schlage contact sensors. If you open up the hood, they have two auxiliary screw posts allowing you to run lengths of wire out as remote contacts. If you search around here you’ll find a lot of info on them. I tapped those wires into the screw posts for the original contact sensors on the main board for my alarm panel. Just lined them all up next to each other on the wall in the closet where he main brain for the alarm system is, all in a neat row, then ran the wires into the box. You can’t control the alarm, but it’s an easy way to keep track of what all your alarm system contact sensors are seeing,
I would love to have a proper control of my alarm system, but I’m not convinced ST is quite stable enough to be running a system that calls the cops if I don’t have a way to shut them down before they get there on a false alarm!
Those contact sensors are battery powered correct? Is there a way to have those contact sensors powered by the alarm ac/battery power instead? Just hate to have that many battery sensors to worry about when power for the alarm is right there.
There are many forum posts on this topic, and at least three different popular discussion areas .
Adding an inline relay to report
If you want to run it off the existing wire, you can just put a Z wave relay in line with it. That’s a lot of people do smoke alarms. It’s just expensive, because it’s essentially just a duplicate device.
Although the following topic is old, and some of the software methods would be different, the hardware concept is the same and I’m sure the people on that topic would be glad to brainstorm with you .
Use a Thingshield and Arduino
There’s another way to do it which is with the thingshield and Arduino. That way you only need one network device to handle several of your other sensors. I think it’s probably the most common way people integrate with DSC alarms. That’s a whole separate discussion group. Lots of people using that method, you’ll find them in the following thread:
a proposed commercial solution
There’s also a company which is working on making a device to do this, just as you suggested. I don’t know anything about them except that they post to the forms occasionally. I think the devices in very early prototype testing. This is their topic:
battery vs hardwired
As far as battery versus hardwire, the shift in the security industry in the last few years has been towards battery operated, with an idea that they are more secure since you can’t cut a wire. Mostly, it’s just that they’re easier to install. since Smartthings is aimed at the low-end budget section of the DIY home automation market, most of the devices that are compatible with it are also very inexpensive, which means battery-operated sensors.
You’ll see that most of the DSC integrations are based on battery-operated sensors, but the relay solutions are not, The Arduino solutions can go either way, and I honestly don’t know what the new company’s prototype is using.
But at least that gives you some things to look at, and plenty of people to talk to who have done it.
I’m interested in doing what you but have a couple of questions. I’m not real familiar with my wired main alarm panel, am am curious if you had any difficulty identifying which wires were for which sensors? A quick look at mine and nothing is labeled in the box, so I’m thinking I’m going to have a bit of work figuring out which wires are which. For a few things like doors and windows that won’t be too bad because I figure I can run a meter across the wires and just open the door to see which ones are activated, but I also have some of those glass break sensors which I’m guessing I’m going to have to take the cover off and put a continuity test too. Curious if you had any tips on this.
The battery thing has me thinking too. I have been looking for some kind of battery replacement system that can hold a charge for a short period after it’s disconnected but also run off of my AC power. There isn’t much out of the box that’s going to work and I figure whatever I come up with is going to be a bit of a project on my end. I’d love to have the battery for the open/close sensors for this, and I’ve also been looking at it for outdoor IP cameras that I don’t really want to have to run power to. A lot of the Foscam and Arlo are only 5v 2a and could run off batteries easily it seems. I’ve thought about getting some small 12v dc solar panels to run in parallel with some rechargeable batteries, but there would be no controller to prevent overcharging from what I’m reading.
