I have an old SimpliSafe alarm system (V2 I believe?) that has only cellular communication.
My goal is to be able to use NFC tags from the garage door to arm and disarm the alarm via the HA alarm panel and have some indication that the alarm is armed. I have put together an adonno NFC tag reader ( adonno/tagreader: Simple to build/use NFC tag reader, specially created for Home Assistant (github.com)
I do have the automations working well, with a NeoPixel providing the status, but I’m finding that the old SimpliSafe system I have often takes anywhere from 20-30 seconds to register with the alarm. In other words, when disarming, it can take 30 seconds from tag read to the alarm itself is disarmed.
Since it is rather old and no new parts are easily available, I’m considering changing to Abode. I am interested in the monitoring service, as we do travel. It sounds like the integration is deep (can see sensors). It also seems to support Homekit for more local control, although I know very little about Homekit as I’m not an Apple user at all.
My question for those who have Abode, and especially those who moved from SimpliSafe: when arming/disarming the alarm through Home Assistant, is the response time for the alarm itself very fast (e.g. a few seconds)? Should I consider using Homekit, and does that improve the response time? Ideally, I’d like the alarm armed or disarmed with a second or two of the tag being read.
Thanks!