Hi, I went with the Veritas 8. I’ve installed a esp8266 with a buck converter dropping the power from 12v to 5v. I’ve wired the esp to the board, so I can monitor the state via homeassistant. This is working well, sends me an alert by pushbullet if the alarm is triggered.
Stage 2 is to control a relay board to be able to set/ unset via ha. I’ve made a poc and the relays can short the right pins from the keypad to set or unset the alarm.
It’s a bit of a bodge but leaves the alarm system fully functional using the dedicated and reliable hardware, bit layers on top the ability to monitor and control using ha.
I have a different Texecom system (Premier Elite 64-W), but I’m guessing that the principles are the same. Do you mind sharing more detail on how you’ve wired to the board to monitor the alarm’s state?
Sure. I’m on hols for 2 more weeks, but I’ll send a pic when I get home.
Great being able to monitor the status of the house alarm when I’m away. I feel hardwired dedicated hardware always does a more reliable job than anything wireless or home brew.
I have an existing DSC alarm with mostly hard wired sensors, but some wireless. My interest initially is to bring the sensor values into HA for monitoring/automation purposes, but am interested in self monitoring it in the near future. My question is how to handle the wireless sensors? I believe those are currently managed by the keypad, correct? I would like to replace my existing keypad with a wall mounted tablet(s) if possible, but I’m unsure where to start.
Hi @truxntrax I’m really interested in your approach to interfacing with the veritas r8. Can you share any details? On mine I don’t have any spare zones so was thinking about the keypad, which technically has the info one would need - zone status, arm status etc and obviously can also arm the system.
I’d also love to see a guide for UK panels as DSC and EVL-4 aren’t easily available or supported by professional installers.
Texecom appear to be a good bet, and I’ve seen that people have been able to integrate it with their Vera setups. I’m keen to replace the existing basic wired system with a Premier Elite hybrid setup so I can add contact sensors to doors and windows without having to run wires.
My house renovation hasn’t started yet so I’m a way off but will follow the thread to see how you get on!
I am stuck with an old Veritas 8 system, and I gather you have managed to connect an ESP8266/nodeMCU to the control panel and/or keypad - any advice on connections and or setup would be greatly appreciated as to how and where to connect.
Thanks in advance!
Really sorry for tardy replies. I have now finished my alarm integration.
What works:
Keypad emulations (numbers, reset, full set, pt set)
Monitoring set status
Monitoring bell and strobe
What doesn’t work:
Can’t differentiate between pt set and full set.
How I set things up:
Keypad control: esp8266 + 6 way relay board - allows control of keypad by “shorting” right combination of pins. Diagram to follow to show which pins relate to which keypad buttons. I made a button card to simulate the keypad in lovelace. The button presses call scripts which “press” the buttons for 700ms.
esp8266 monitors the veritas board for 2 inputs. The sw+ and the strobe output. Both of these output 12v. Therefore I used resistors to the board ground to bring the v down to ~3v.
ESP8266 is powered from 12v on the alarm panel, converted to 3v using a buck converter. Up to now, the set up has been rock solid and has made the old school veritas into a smart alarm.