AlarmDecoder Entities Renamed On Upgrade To 2024.7.4

1

Yesterday I upgraded from 2024.5.x to 2024.7.4. Home Assistant Core running on Ubuntu Server 22, venv, running in a VM on top of vmWare ESXi.

Then noticed a bunch of stuff wasn’t working.

Turns out all my AlarmDecoder entities were renamed with the prefix “/dev/ttyUSB0”. For example, “Alarm Panel” became “/dev/ttyUSB0 Alarm Panel”. As shown in the image below:

prefix
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Consequently the entity ID changed as well.

I have had to go back and manually rename the effected entities via the Integration settings.

Checked the breaking changes and found nothing mentioned regarding AlarmDecoder.

Anyone else?

2

I just installed the AlarmDecoder integration and all of my entities are named with the same prefix as you have mentioned.

Does the status of the panel and zones seem to be updating for you? My panel is stuck in “Unknown” status and none of the entities/zone change status when I open/close a door. I am still able to set/disarm the alarm so I know that my connection is valid. With that said, the disarm command doesn’t always work on the first try. For example, I have had to run the command up to 3 times in order for it to work. I am not sure if that is due to the “Unknown” panel status or not. I have seen some other posts related to a similar “Unknown” status but there doesn’t seem to be a solution just yet.

For the record, I am migrating from a Vera Plus to HA and have had the AD2USB working for years. Thus, I don’t believe that there is an issue with my panel, wiring, etc. I was hoping to retire my Vera but this may be a showstopper for me. Worst case I will keep the Vera attached to the AD2USB but hopefully someone will provide a solution soon!

Screenshot 2024-08-30 184316
Screenshot 2024-08-30 184316823×775 12.9 KB

3

Once I renamed the entities, my AlarmDecoder began working again.

Yes, my alarm panel updates and functions correctly.

How is your AD2USB connected to your Home Assistant host?

The AlarmDecoder integration has always been sensitive to loosing characters from the serial stream as it must share time in what is fundamentally a single threaded application.

4

I finally got it to work. Someone suggested that I update the firmware on my AD2USB device. It took a while to get the new firmware uploaded but I was eventually able to update it after downloading the Alarm Decoder Keypad App. Once this was complete, I started over and re-installed the AlarmDecoder integration. Everything looks good now!

1 Like
5

I’m in the same boat that you were in - how did you get the Keypad App and firmware? The AlarmDecoder website seems to be dead. Thanks for your help

6

The domain alarmdecoder.com has expired. Wow, that sucks.

Wonder if they are out of business or whether it is just a mistake.

Checked on archive.org and while the site and all documentation is available, the binary files are not.

I checked briefly on their Github ( Nu Tech Software Solutions, Inc. · GitHub ) but can’t find the firmware.

Author’s email is there though so maybe be can provide if asked?

7

Oh man… same situation here, same symptoms. My AD2USB is on v2.2a.4. I am moving from Homeseer to Home Assistant, and really need this working. @sidmsmith if you are able to share the firmware and Keypad app downloads, I’d be most grateful!!