[HH] interfacing home automation with security systems

[Tom Metro]

Federico Lucifredi wrote:
> I recently ran into this 
> http://www.nutech.com/online-store/35.html
> 
> it seems like an interesting concept:  owners of those alarm systems
> can tap into the movement sensor data, and use that from the home
> automation framework to trigger actions based on room occupancy.

Yes, highly appealing to be able to tap into that sensor data and have
that sensor investment do double duty.


> ...I haven't heard of anyone who used this yet...

The author of the AZIZ home automation project I mentioned here a few
weeks back is using this or something equivalent to interface to an
Ademco alarm panel.


> I do wonder if this interferes with the system's nominal security
> use, but I guess not.

My interpretation of the description is that the device permits
communication with the panel, which remains at the center of things with
respect to alarm operation. Although this device is made by a third
party, it is presumably using an API/interface provided by Ademco, and
presumably they wouldn't provide that if it jeopardized their UL rating
(a.k.a. reliability as an alarm device).

I really hate the way the residential alarm industry works. It is
generally very focused on serving dealers and not consumers. For
example, the GE alarm panels I have include Z-Wave home automation
control capability, but in order to use it you have to pay a monthly
subscription fee to alarm.com (exclusive monopoly), which provides the
web UI for configuring it. Dealers like it, because it is less work for
them, and they get to make a monthly commission on the alarm.com
subscription.

There's really no good excuse for why all alarm panels don't come with
an Ethernet jack, have a built-in web-based UI, plus support some open
standard protocol for integration with home automation.

It's great to see at least a few of the vendors in this space, like
Ademco, providing APIs. With GE, if you don't want to pay the monthly
fee to alarm.com (which still won't get you home integration with your
own home automation system) you can "downgrade" to a 20-year old alarm
panel design that is more commonly used in commercial installations and
does provide an RS232 interface, or you can go with a high-end ($500+)
home automation/security system (elkproducts.com) that basically
replaces your GE panel but reuses your GE sensors.

GE does make some wireless receiver boards intended to add wireless
sensor capability to their hard-wired alarm panels. I've been tempted to
buy a surplus one off eBay and try and reverse engineer the proprietary
(of course) serial protocol it uses to communicate with the panel. But
even if it worked, this is far less than ideal, as you'd then be
substituting the home automation system for your alarm panel.

Ideally what I want is more like how the Ademco interface is described,
where the alarm panel operates independently of the home automation
system, yet the home automation system has visibility into what's happen
with the sensors, and the alarm panel itself. (So not only does it
receive events when sensors are tripped, and can arms/disarm the panel,
it can also query the current state of all sensors, and retrieve
metadata about sensors, like if one is in a battery low state or has a
communication failure.)

If I was starting from scratch I'd definitely take these issues into
consideration when choosing an alarm product line. (4 years ago when I
was researching this, there was essentially no home automation
integration options except with very high-end system or using antiquated
hard-wired panels. So I chose a product line that was well reviewed and
had a wide range of inexpensive sensors.)

 -Tom